Stefan Albl
The Renaissance of Sensuality. Titian around 1520
Video
In his lecture, Dr. Stefan Albl highlights the sensual shift in art around 1520, particularly through the work of Titian. Drawing inspiration from Italian Renaissance painting, contemporary artist Louise Giovanelli explores central themes of this era, such as the depiction of ecstasy and physicality. Titian is a turning point in the Renaissance art, because he combines technical mastery with deep emotional expression. Like Giovanelli, Titian uses color to convey inner emotion. His works address light, flesh, and materiality visually and philosophically. In particular, the work Venus of Urbino depicts women’s bodies as self-confident, lively apparitions — not idealized, but human and dignified. Titian focuses on feeling and desire, bringing body and soul into harmony. This new form of sensuality represents a shift from abstract ideals to individual experience. Thus, Titian exemplifies a new phase of the Renaissance in which the sensual is understood as equal to the spiritual.
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Stefan Albl
studied art history at the University of Vienna and at the Università Roma Tre and completed his doctorate at the University of Vienna, where he also completed his post-doc. After working as a research assistant at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin, at the Bibliotheca Hertziana in Rome, at the Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, he was Visiting Professor of Art History at Placky University in Olomouc. Since 2023 he has been Curator of the Early Modern Collection at the Alte Galerie & Schloss Eggenberg in Graz.
Publications: Pietro Testa als Maler, Vienna 2021, Mattia Preti’s Befreiung des Heiligen Petrus aus dem Kerker, Rome 2020, La fortuna dei Baccanali di Tiziano nell’arte e nella letteratura del Seicento, ed. by Stefan Albl and Sybille Ebert-Schifferer, Rome 2019, Göttliche Betrüger. Bartholomäus Spranger’s Venus, Mars and Cupid in the Alte Galerie in Graz, in Studia Rudolphina 23/2024, pp. 51 – 73.
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Video
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Tobias Boos Exhibition Tour
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Video
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Slide show
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Slide Show Annemarie Arzberger