Metamorphosis Poems Inspired by Titian Nicholas Penny, Patience Agbabi, Simon Armitage, Wendy Cope, Carol Ann Duffy, Lavinia Greenlaw, Tony Harrison, Seamus Heaney, Frances Leviston, Sinead Morrissey

As part of a unique collaboration between the National Gallery and the Royal Opera House, fourteen leading poets were invited to respond to three great masterpieces by the Renaissance painter, Titian: Diana and Callisto, Diana and Actaeon and The Death of Actaeon. Titian's paintings were inspired by Ovid's Metamorphoses - stories of transformation - and depict the fatal consequences of a mortal tragically caught up in the affairs of the gods. Titian would have known Ovid's poem from a contemporary translation in Italian.

This book's introduction by Nicholas Penny, (Ovid, Titian, and English Poetry), shows how Titian incorporated specific elements from Ovid's verses in his paintings, and compares some of the most famous translations in English, from the first version by Arthur Golding (1565) to those by Joseph Addison (1717) and Ted Hughes (1997). The late Lucian Freud described Diana and Callisto and Diana and Actaeon as 'simply the most beautiful pictures in the world'. These new poems, each illustrated with full-colour details from Titian's paintings, demonstrate the quality and range of writing in Britain today, and show how Old Master paintings continue to inspire living artists.

Poets

Patience Agbabi, Simon Armitage, Wendy Cope, Carol Ann Duffy, Lavinia Greenlaw, Tony Harrison, Seamus Heaney, Frances Leviston, Sinéad Morrissey, Don Paterson, Christopher Reid, Jo Shapcott, George Szirtes, Hugo Williams.

More about this title

Published to accompany the exhibition Metamorphosis: Titian 2012 at the National Gallery, London, 11 July–23 September 2012.

Learn more about the Metamorphosis e-book from the National Gallery.

Diana and Callisto has now been jointly acquired by the National Gallery and the National Galleries of Scotland (as was Diana and Actaeon in 2009) ensuring that both these superlative works by Titian will remain together on public display.

"A rather lovely illustrated anthology."—The Bookseller (August New Titles: Non Fiction)

"The pleasure of Metamorphosis is that it repeatedly achieves sparkling independence without detachment from the source, even in the face of painting that is, by Titian’s lights, already poetry." Martin Herbert, Daily Telegraph

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