ABSTRACT
Titian's enormous Assumption of the Virgin, the world's largest painting on panel (690 x 360 cm), was a prize commission. By 1516, many of the most important artists of the early sixteenth century had passed from the Venetian scene. Giorgione had been dead for six years, Sebastiano was residing in Rome, and in that very year Giovanni Bellini, the eminent pioneer of Venetian painting, died. A similar experience must have awaited those who first saw Titian's Resurrection of Christ with Saints Nazaro and Celso in Brescia. The side panels of the Brescia Resurrection depict the kneeling Altobello Averoldo on the left, and Saint Sebastian on the right. Before the Pesaro painting, figures and objects in altarpieces were disposed along a plane perpendicular to the spectator. This new configuration is quite dynamic, but the diagonal movement is just one of several devices that create a sense of expansion and excitement.
