Counter-Reformation Iconography in Titian's Gloria

Abstract

The painting by Titian traditionally called the Gloria and today in the Prado (Fig. 1) was commissioned by the Emperor Charles V in 1550/51.¹ Many scholars have rightly supposed that this large work must contain some reference to the religious reformation against which Charles had struggled throughout his life. It is my purpose here to go beyond the general idea that the painting is simply a “manifesto of the Counter Reformation”² and to try to establish more specifically which religious ideas the painting supports and which it condemns. There are two details in this painting which have never been properly explained and which, by their relationship to each other, give the key to an interpretation of the work.