The Venetian masters
Frederick Ilchman, a curator at Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts, believes it was the Venetian artist Titian and a couple of rival painters, Tintoretto and Veronese, who—about 450 years ago—really invented modern painting. That is, Ilchman says, if your definition is his: “oil on canvas, not done for any specific site, and with the artist, not the patron, choosing the subject matter”. Ilchman offers proof in the 56 paintings that make up one of the most breathtaking old-master exhibitions you’ll ever see, “Titian, Tintoretto, Veronese: Rivals in Renaissance Venice,” which is up in Boston through August 16 before it travels to the Louvre.

A melodramatic Veronese “Temptation of St. Anthony” (1553) is adjacent to one by Tintoretto (1577), and there is a row of “The Supper at Emmaus” paintings by all three artists. That famous Titian in the Prado in Madrid where the organist turns around to ogle a reclining nude Venus? It’s here too.
NYT, LATWP, Newsweek