Titian's Base Reference

Christie's
Jan 28, 2013 4:53PM
The Submersion of Pharaoh's Army in the Red Sea is Titian’s complete woodcut printed from 12 blocks, circa 1514-1515, on 12 sheets of laid paper. In the work, Moses’ extended arm serves to protect the Egyptians. But it is the dog in the far left that corrupts the reference. When Titan was designing the woodcut, Venice was barely surviving the war with the League of Cambrai. As imperial troops retreated, to show their scorn for the foreign invaders, they were said to have bared their buttocks to the fleeing German soldiers. The dog may be a cultural reference to that bawdy behavior.
Christie's