How a battle to save a painting became a symbol of national prideBy Arts Correspondent Edd McCracken
In art, everything is symbolic. Take Titian's Diana and Actaeon, displayed in the National Gallery of Scotland since 1945 and now the centre of the biggest fund- raising drive the Scottish arts world has ever seen.
In the painting, the hunter Actaeon disturbs the goddess Diana as she bathes with her nymphs. With a glance he is turned into a stag and is then torn apart by his own hounds as punishment. It was painted for King Philip II of Spain, a devout defender of the Catholic faith and no stranger to the concept that the pleasures of the flesh lead to destruction.
But since the announcement in August that the Duke of Sutherland, the painting's owner, wanted £50 million for it by the year's end otherwise he would sell it, something strange has happened.
In the course of the campaign to save the work - which has a market value of around £150m - and with it the entire Bridgewater collection of 27 works including paintings by Rembrandt and Raphael, which forms the heart of the National Gallery of Scotland's collection, the painting has undergone a metamorphosis of its own. Campaigners claim that whether the nation buys the painting or not has become a symbol of how highly we value art in the UK.
"This is a culture that has become associated with binge drinking, obesity, gang culture, knife crime, I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here," said Colin Wiggins, head of education at the National Gallery in London, the institution the NGS is jointly campaigning with to save the works. "This is a chance for the nation to demonstrate it recognises the significance of having great, great art that is of a world stature.
"If we said, We don't care about this' and let it leave the country, that really will show the depths to which we have sunk."
For the first time since 1945 Diana and Actaeon has left Edinburgh. It currently hangs in Room One in the National Gallery, visiting the capital as part of the fund-raising campaign. If the bid is successful, the two galleries will share ownership.
A sense of urgency is felt in the furious scribbling of the artists who cram onto the bench in the room, sketching as if frantically trying to record the last moments of this epic composition. The room is packed with silent visitors all day long, as if visiting a major figure lying in state.
A large, perspex piggy bank sits outside for donations. According to the National Gallery, the London visit has also been integral to gaining hefty donations - last week, the National Heritage Memorial Fund announced a donation of £10m, following the Art Fund's gift of £1m.
PRIVATELY, it is estimated nearly half the £50m is already accounted for. The Scottish government has also promised a "significant amount" which has yet to be disclosed. Raising the money is all the more impressive considering the campaign has run parallel to the economic nose-dive.
In the process, Diana and Actaeon has become a symbol for the possibility of Britain's cultural redemption - and also for Scotland's precarious standing in the art world.
"For London this is all about an opportunity, an addition, an enrichment," said John Leighton, director of the National Galleries of Scotland. "In Edinburgh it is an opportunity to transfer a great picture into public ownership, but it also comes closely allied to the risk of misfortune. So we look at it in a different way from our colleagues and public in London."
At a recent meeting in Paris with 70 heads of galleries, the fate of Diana and Actaeon dominated the conversation over dinner. This was potentially dangerous territory -many covetous glances have been directed at the NGS since August.
But when the director of Madrid's Prado museum - which has two of the other six works Titian painted in the same series as Diana and Actaeon - approached Leighton it was only to tell him he had donated to the appeal online.
"Everyone was very supportive, but you can't avoid thinking there are four or five museums sitting around the table working out the sums," Leighton said.
Ironically for a painting charged with tension, conflict and impending doom, Diana and Actaeon has also marked a new level of co-operation between Scottish and English institutions. The NGS already shares Canova's sculpture The Three Graces with London's Victoria and Albert Museum, but, if successful, Diana and Actaeon would mark a new depth of relationship.
"It is a great thing to see Scotland and England pulling together on something," said broadcaster Jon Snow, a recent trustee of the National Gallery. "It's also wonderful that they will be protected for Scotland, which would be incredibly difficult to do in isolation. I don't see it as being a conflict with anyone who wants a more independent Scotland, but at the same time I think it is a great statement."
NICK Penny, director of the National Gallery, called the campaign "grown up". He said: "Whatever your attitude towards independence in Scotland, I don't think its necessary to think of a cultural division between the countries. There is an emotional separation and difference that people want to exaggerate that upsets people a lot. But I don't think we should."
But ultimately, argues Leighton, securing Diana and Actaeon for Scotland and the UK would deliver a morale boost to all sectors of the arts, showing that both the public and the government are genuinely interested in creativity.
"It is not just an endorsement of this picture, or backing for the importance of that collection, but it is saying something about the importance of art and culture in contemporary life," he said. "It is not a vindication of a specific work of art, but art playing an important role in the world. Even in these profoundly gloomy and difficult times, we are saying, This is important'.
"We are taking a long view. We are saying something that was made 450 years ago, we want our successors, our grandchildren to also be able to see it in hundreds of years time."
In a different room in the National Gallery is another Titian, An Allegory of Prudence. While spending £50m on anything during the credit crunch might not seem the most prudent of actions, the Latin inscription is something the Titian campaign, with one eye on the future of art in the country, would agree with: "Learning from yesterday, today acts prudently, lest by his action he spoil tomorrow."
