Titian

Vecellio, Tiziano

Venetian, 1488/1490 - 1576

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Titian, An Eagle, 1560/1565, pen and brown ink on laid paper on decorated mount, Gift of J. Carter Brown, in Honor of the 50th Anniversary of the National Gallery of Art, 1991.62.1

An Eagle

Titian · 1560/1565 · pen and brown ink on laid paper on decorated mount ·  Accession ID  1991.62.1

Shown from the knees up, a pale-skinned woman wearing rust-red gown under a sumptuous coat stands near a window, through which a sinking ship is shown in this vertical portrait painting. The woman’s body and head are angled to our right as she looks out at us with dark gray eyes. She has a nose with a rounded tip, a thin upper and full lower lip, and a slight double chin. Her red hair is pulled back and a braid wrapped around the back of her head. She wears a pearl and gemstone earring in the ear we see and a short, white pearl necklace. The bodice of her dress has a square neckline with black lines creating a vegetal pattern on the white fabric. That fabric continues up the sides of her chest and around her neck so a ruffle along the top flares out from her chin line. Letters along the inner edge of the fabric read “AV” to the left and “DIM+T” to the right. A gold jeweled belt encircles her waist, and one end hangs down the front of her long skirt, which is painted with a sheen suggesting velvet. The woman’s jacket is sand-brown, and it falls straight and heavy from her shoulders. The sides of the front opening, sleeves, and shoulders are decorated with knotted designs in brick red. Lace peeks out of each cuff, and the woman holds the coat belt loosely in her right hand, to our left. The wall behind her is dark stone, and her other hand rests on a stone ledge in front of the window. Through the opening is a stormy sky, choppy sea, and a masted ship listing hard to our left.
Titian, Gian Paolo Pace, Emilia di Spilimbergo, c. 1560, oil on canvas, Widener Collection, 1942.9.82

Emilia di Spilimbergo

Titian, Gian Paolo Pace · c. 1560 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1942.9.82

Shown from the knees up, a pale-skinned woman wearing a muted red gown and shimmering coat stands against a stone column in front of a landscape in this vertical portrait painting. Her body angles to our left, and she looks off in that direction with gray eyes under curved brows. She has a round face with a slightly snub nose, flushed cheeks, double chin, and her thin lips are closed. Her strawberry blond hair is pulled back under a band wrapped with pearls. Her copper-red dress has a square neckline lined with lace, and a gold and pearl belt is looped around her waist as a long strand lies down the front of her skirt and off the bottom edge of the canvas. The voluminous coat she wears has a high, flaring collar lined with lace or patterned with black lines against white. The pale, almost iridescent golden-red fabric of the coat has a sheen, suggesting satin or silk, and it is decorated down the front, over the shoulders, and down the sleeves with a geometric design in copper red. The cuffs of the coat are lined with lace, and the woman wears a gold and silver earring in the ear we see and a strand of white pearls around her neck. The woman drapes her left arm, to our right, over the chest-high base of the column, and holds a ring of leaves in that hand. The other hand is by her side as she holds the coat belt to curve like a swag across her body. A pair of palm fronds feather out against the column that fills the right half of the background. A deep landscape on the left half has rolling hills, trees, and mountains reaching back to the horizon under a sky with puffy white clouds. A white unicorn lies on one hill and a dog chases an animal farther back. Beyond that, a person walking along a path back may carry a sack. The tonalities of the whole painting are shaded yellow, and some areas of the woman’s face and neck are in-painted in slightly different shades of pale peach. An inscription carved into the base of the column reads, “SI FATA TVLISSENT.”
Titian, Gian Paolo Pace, Irene di Spilimbergo, c. 1560, oil on canvas, Widener Collection, 1942.9.83

Irene di Spilimbergo

Titian, Gian Paolo Pace · c. 1560 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1942.9.83

A partially nude woman with pale, peachy skin sits to our left looking into a mirror held up by a nearly nude, winged child to our right in this vertical painting. The woman’s body is angled to our left but she looks across her body to our right. She holds her left hand to her chest, and her right hand grips the fur-lined edge of the scarlet-red, velvet fabric that drapes over that upper arm and around her hips. Her blond hair is coiled up in rows of pearls, and she has dark eyes, a straight nose, and her pale pink lips turn up in a subtle smile. A teardrop pearl earring hangs from the ear we can see, and she wears rings and gold bracelets. The child-like figure to the right stands on a gold-striped cushion facing away from us as he holds up the rectangular, black-framed mirror. He has small silver wings and a sash of golden yellow hangs from one shoulder around the opposite hip. A second child reaches from behind the mirror to hold up a ring of laurel leaves. A forest-green curtain is gathered in the upper left corner and the beige wall beyond falls into shadow to our right.
Titian, Venus with a Mirror, c. 1555, oil on canvas, Andrew W. Mellon Collection, 1937.1.34

Venus with a Mirror

Titian · c. 1555 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1937.1.34

Shown from the thighs up, an older, balding man with a long white beard stands wearing a full suit of armor draped in a burgundy-red cloak in this vertical portrait painting. The man’s body is angled to our right, but he looks at us from the corners of his dark eyes. He has bushy gray brows, a bumped nose, high cheekbones, and his lips are closed. He has short white hair around a receding hairline, and his beard falls to his chest. His pewter-gray armor gleams darkly with cream-white accents. With one hand, he braces a baton against his right hip, to our left, and with the other gathers the folds of his cloak down by that side. The cloak is tied over one shoulder and falls heavily around his body. His helmet rests on a shoulder-high gray stone structure, perhaps a mantle or a ledge, behind the man to our right. The rest of the background is charcoal gray.
Titian, Italian 16th Century, Vincenzo Cappello, c. 1550/1560, oil on canvas, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1957.14.3

Vincenzo Cappello

Titian, Italian 16th Century · c. 1550/1560 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1957.14.3

Titian, Giovanni Britto, Nicolò Boldrini, Saint Francis Receiving the Stigmata, c. 1530, woodcut on laid paper, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund, 2005.14.1

Saint Francis Receiving the Stigmata

Titian, Giovanni Britto, Nicolò Boldrini · c. 1530 · woodcut on laid paper ·  Accession ID  2005.14.1

Shown from about the hips up against a sable-brown background, a pale-skinned woman stands cradling an apple with both hands at her waist in this vertical portrait painting. Her body and face are angled to our left but she looks out at us from the corners of her eyes. She has dark brown eyes under curving brows, a straight nose, smooth cheeks, and her coral-red, heart-shaped lips are closed. A crown of parchment-white and rust-orange flowers with sage-green and brown leaves sits akimbo, close to the ear we can see, over her honey-brown hair, which falls over her shoulders and down her back to her waist. Teardrop-shaped pearls hang from her ears. She wears a sea-green gown with elbow-length sleeves over an eggshell-white garment, which has voluminous sleeves edged with gold. The green garment is lined with pearls, jewels, and gold embroidery around the hem of the sleeves and down the front. The muted red apple rests in one hand, which is cupped in her other hand at her waist. The woman is lit from our left in a warm glow against the brown background.
Titian, Woman Holding an Apple, c. 1550, oil on canvas, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1939.1.292

Woman Holding an Apple

Titian · c. 1550 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1939.1.292

From far below, we look up at an older man with standing on a cliff edge or rocky ledge with his arms raised as he turns his head to gaze up to a second man and winged, child-like angels surrounded by clouds in the sky above in this square painting. All the people have pale, peachy skin. The man on the ledge, Saint John, half crouches with knees bent so his body is angled to our right, and he turns his head back to our left to look up to the clouds. Both hands are raised with palms facing up. Saint John has a short, curly white beard and hair, and we see the bottom of his chin, nose, and eyes under heavy brows. He wears a light, rose-pink tunic with crimson drapery across his shoulders billowing around his body. Next to him on the rocky ledge is a book with a scarlet-red cover to our left and a brown eagle to our right. The eagle slightly lifts its wings and looks to our left in profile, mouth open and tongue visible. Tufts of grass and plants grow near Saint John’s feet. The aqua-colored sky fills most of the composition behind Saint John, and a bank of silvery gray clouds lit with pale yellow swirls across the top half of the painting. At the center of the clouds, the second man has a long, white beard and white hair, and wears a muted plum-purple robe. He raises his right hand, to our left, palm down with the first two fingers and thumb extended. Six winged, nude young children nestle near this second man or flutter among the clouds.
Titian, Italian 16th Century, Saint John the Evangelist on Patmos, c. 1553/1555, oil on canvas, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1957.14.6

Saint John the Evangelist on Patmos

Titian, Italian 16th Century · c. 1553/1555 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1957.14.6

An older man with a tanned skin and a white beard is shown from the waist up against a dark brown background in this vertical portrait painting. His body is angled to our right but he turns his head to look to our left. His eyes are shadowed under heavy brows. He has a long, hooked nose, high cheekbones, and the corners of his mouth turn slightly down. His brick-red cap, which is edged with gold, is an unusual shape. It sits low over his forehead and then rises at the back almost like a gourd. The cap sits over a white cloth that comes to points over his ears, and a cord hangs from each point to his shoulders. He wears a voluminous, deep rose-pink garment beneath a billowing, heavy gold robe. The rose-colored garment is streaked with cream-white to suggest a sheen, and it is belted around his waist. The gold, brocade-patterned robe is buttoned near the high collar but then flares open over his chest. The turned-back edge along our left is painted white, perhaps to suggest fur lining. Large, round, gold buttons the size of ping pong balls line the left edge of the robe opening. He wears a gold ring on his right hand, on our left, and he clutches the fabric of the robe near his waist with that hand.
Titian, Doge Andrea Gritti, c. 1546/1550, oil on canvas, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1961.9.45

Doge Andrea Gritti

Titian · c. 1546/1550 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1961.9.45

Shown from the hips up, a young boy with pale, peachy skin wears a voluminous, black cloak that nearly falls off his shoulders over a rose-pink tunic, with a sword hanging from one hip in this vertical portrait painting. His body is angled slightly to our right, and he looks off to our left with dark brown eyes under gently arched brows. He has a wide nose, and his pink lips are closed with the corners pulled slightly back. His skin is smooth and his cheeks slightly flushed. His dark brown hair is cut close and comes to a point in front of his ears. His tunic is painted with dusky pink highlights against wine-red to suggest a sheen across a vertically striped, leafy pattern. The garment has a high neck lined with a white ruffle and has a row of buttons down the front. His black coat has wide lapels that reach beyond his shoulders, and the puffy sleeves gather on his arms. The coat has a silvery-white cross over the chest to our right. The left and right arms of the cross are lost in the folds but the arms at the top and bottom are forked at the ends. The boy’s pine-green belt is edged with gold, and the hilt of the sword is angled toward us on his left hip, to our right. He holds one fawn-brown glove in his right hand, to our left, and his other arm disappears behind the folds of his coat. The background is deep olive green, almost brown. The artist signed the painting with dark paint near the right edge of the canvas near the boy’s shoulder, “TITANVS F.”
Titian, Ranuccio Farnese, 1541-1542, oil on canvas, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1952.2.11

Ranuccio Farnese

Titian · 1541-1542 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1952.2.11

Bibliography

1969

  • Wethey, Harold. The Paintings of Titian. 3 vols. London, 1969-1975.

1980

  • Hope, Charles. Titian. London, 1980.

1990

  • Titian, Prince of Painters. Exh. cat. Palazzo Ducale, Venice; National Gallery of Art, Washington. Venice, 1990.

2003

  • Falomir, Miguel, ed. Tiziano. Exh. cat. Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid, 2003.

  • Jaffé, David, ed. Titian. Exh. cat. The National Gallery, London, 2003.

2007

  • Ferino-Pagden, Sylvia, ed. Der späte Tizian und die Sinnlichkeit der Malerei. Exh. cat. Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna; Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice. Vienna, 2007.

  • Humfrey, Peter. Titian. London, 2007.

2013

  • Villa, Giovanni C.F., ed. Tiziano. Exh. cat., Scuderie del Quirinale, Rome. Milan, 2013.