“Love is the force that leaves you colorless,” writes the Roman poet Ovid in his magnum opus, Metamorphoses. For a commission of 1551, Titian, inspired by stories from Ovid, began what he would refer to as his “poesie” paintings: six large-scale works exploring classical myths of love, temptation, and punishment, five of which are collected at the National Gallery for the first time in over three centuries. —J.V.