This book offers nine new approaches toward a single work of art, Titian’s Allegory of Marriage or Allegory of Alfonso d’Avalos, dated to 1530/5. In earlier references, the painting was named simply Allegory, alluding to its enigmatic nature. The work follows in a tradition of such ambiguous Venetian paintings as Giovanni Bellini’s Sacred Allegory and Giorgione’s Tempest. Throughout the years, Titian’s Allegory has engendered a range of diverse interpretations. Art historians such as Hans Tietze, Erwin Panofsky, Walter Friedlaender, and Louis Hourticq, to mention only a few, promoted various explanations. This book offers novel approaches and suggests new meanings toward a further understanding of this somewhat abstruse painting.

Daniel M. Unger teaches the History of Early Modern Art at Ben-Gurion University, Israel. His research focuses on seventeenth-century Bolognese and Roman painting. His recent book Redefining Eclecticism in Early Modern Bolognese Painting: Ideology, Practice, and Criticism was published by Amsterdam University Press in 2019.

' … every chapter presents fascinating and plausible interpretations of the work. ,,, excellently demonstrates how varying arguments can coexist in a single text without denigrating the other, which is admirable. Overall, Titian’s Allegory of Marriage: New Approaches delivers a number of pioneering analyses on one of Titian’s most elusive works'
-Caroline Koncz, Sixteenth Century Journal LIV/3–4 , 2023

List of Plates and Figures
1. Introduction: Poetic License (Daniel M. Unger)
2. Love, Beauty, and the Human Body as a Reflection of the Divine (Valery Rees)
3. Amorosa visione: Titian’s Allegory of Marriage and the Poetry of the Half-length Format (Mary Pardo)
4. The Arms and Armour of Titian’s Allegory of Marriage (Karen Watts)
5. Un disio sol d’eterna gloria e fama: A Literary Approach to Titian’s Allegory (Esthy Kravitz-Lurie)
6. Psyche, Venus, Ceres and Their Friends: Titian’s Remixes (Paul Joannides)
7. Art and the Double Meaning of Reflection in Titian’s Allegory of Marriage (Daniel M. Unger)
8. Titian’s Allegory of Marriage as an ‘Allegory of Peace’ (Sara Benninga)
9. Vision and Touch in the Allegory of Marriage (Geoff Lehman)
10. Of Crystal Orbs and Divinatory Mirrors: The Vicissitudes of Pregnancy and Artistic Agency in Titian’s Allegory of Marriage (Sergius Kodera)
Notes on Contributors
Index