Painting in Vernacular. Languages at the Crossroads in Sixteenth-Century Venice

Identifying the questione della lingua as a moment of rupture for the cultural scenario of sixteenth-century Italy, the paper addresses Aretino’s reaction to the anachronistic ideas of Pietro Bembo, which urge the author to promote a language derived from the experience of nature, in contrast with tradition. In such context, the Tuscan writer finds in Titian’s style his pictorial counterpart. An analysis of the principles that characterize the naturalistic poetics adopted by both painter and poet leads to a mutual comparison of Aretino’s Humanità di Christo and Titian’s depiction of Magdalen, where words and brushstrokes tend towards each other.