Titian, 'The Vendramin Family', about 1540-45

The Vendramin Family

Titian

Not on display

About the work

Overview

This is Titian’s largest group portrait. The man in a red robe is probably Gabriel Vendramin (1484–1552). The man holding the altar may be Gabriel’s brother, Andrea Vendramin (1481–1547), and the boys are his seven sons. On the altar is a reliquary of the True Cross that their great-great-grandfather, an earlier Andrea Vendramin, had received on behalf of the Scuola Grande di S. Giovanni Evangelista in 1369. The relic was the confraternity’s greatest treasure and of great importance to the Vendramin.

The portrait was made for a specific place in the family’s Venetian palace, most likely the central hall. During painting, it was cut down on the left, probably because the patron changed the intended location. The three boys on the far left and two boys on the far right were late additions, possibly painted by an assistant.

In-depth

This is Titian’s largest group portrait. It was recorded in March 1569 in Palazzo Vendramin, Venice, as ‘a large painting in which is depicted the miraculous cross with [...] Andrea Vendramin with his seven sons and messer Gabriel Vendramin together with its gold frame made by the hand of Titian.’ It was probably made for the central hall or portego of the family’s palace – a room that exhibited the status of its owner.

Andrea Vendramin (1481–1547) was the oldest son of the Venetian patrician Vendramin family, and his brother Gabriel (1484–1552) was three years younger than him. Their family business was the manufacture, sale and export of soap, and their uncle, Doge Andrea Vendramin, was one of the richest men in Venice. The children depicted in Titian’s portrait are the sons of Andrea and his wife Lucrezia Pasqualigo.

The Vendramin family are kneeling before a Gothic reliquary of silver gilt and rock crystal, the greatest treasure of the Scuola Grande di S. Giovanni Evangelista in Venice. Splinters of wood said to be from Christ’s cross are preserved in its upmost part. Membership of the confraternity was confined to men, which may be why Andrea Vendramin’s six daughters are not included in the portrait. The relic was very important to the Vendramin because the Guardian of the Scuola who had accepted the relic from the Grand Chancellor of Cyprus on the confraternity’s behalf in 1369 was Andrea Vendramin, the great-great-grandfather of Andrea and Gabriel.

The youngest child holding the spaniel, Federigo Vendramin (1535–1583), seems to have been painted from life; he cannot be older than about five, which would suggest a date of about 1541 for that part of the painting. The rest of the painting, however, may well have been finished somewhat later. Lunardo – the youngest adult, in profile – would have been 17 at that time. He died on 5 October 1547 and his father Andrea died in the January of that year, so the portrait was probably painted before then, unless it was posthumous.

The identity of the two older men is a bit of a puzzle. Infrared reflectography reveals that Titian originally planned for the brother with the longer beard to lead the family to the altar in the central position, but switched them around. This would indicate that the man now holding the altar is Andrea, the senior brother and father to the seven sons portrayed, while the man in the red robe is his younger, childless brother Gabriel. The man beside the altar appears much older than the other man, though only three years separated Andrea from Gabriel. However, people age differently and it is not inconceivable that the brothers are rendered accurately. It has been suggested that older man may be the original Andrea Vendramin who was so closely identified with the relic, but that seems too fanciful an idea and unlikely for a portrait this lively.

The best parts of the painting are consistent with Titian’s work of the early 1540s, although the three boys to the left and the last two boys were perhaps painted by an assistant. There seems to have been a change of mind concerning the picture’s width while it was being painted and the canvas was cropped at left. This meant moving Lunardo, whose original position is clear from X-radiographs and infrared reflectography. He was first placed lower down and further left; the original position of his head can now be seen appearing through the paint, which has become translucent with age. The three sons in the lower left corner were added subsequently and are an uncomfortable fit.

The picture was once owned by the great seventeenth-century painter Anthony van Dyck who viewed himself as Titian’s artistic heir.

Want to find out more?

Delve deeper and explore the catalogue entry for this painting.

Key facts

Details

Full title: The Vendramin Family, venerating a Relic of the True Cross
Artist: Titian
Artist dates: active about 1506; died 1576
Date made: about 1540-45
Medium and support: oil on canvas
Dimensions: 206.1 × 288.5 cm
Acquisition credit: Bought with a special grant and contributions from Samuel Courtauld, Sir Joseph Duveen, the Art Fund and the Phillips Fund, 1929.
Inventory number: NG4452
Location: Not on display
Collection: Main Collection
Previous owners: Hugh Percy, 3rd Duke of Northumberland
Frame: 16th-century Venetian Frame

Provenance

Recorded in March 1569 in one of the Vendramin properties at S. Fosca. Probably available for sale by 1636, and by 1641 certainly in the collection of Anthony van Dyck in London. Acquired about 1644 by Sir John Wittewronge as part repayment of a debt owed by Sir Richard Price, who had married Van Dyck’s widow. Sold by Wittewronge on 4 October 1645 to Algernon, 10th Earl of Northumberland. By succession to the 11th Earl’s son-in-law, the 6th Duke of Somerset, and then to his daughter Elizabeth, wife of Sir Hugh Smithson, later created Duke of Northumberland. By succession to the 7th Duke, by whom sold in July 1929 to the National Gallery.

Additional information

Text extracted from the ‘Provenance’ section of the catalogue entry in Nicholas Penny, ‘National Gallery Catalogues: The Sixteenth Century Italian Paintings’, vol. 2, ‘Venice 1540–1600’, London 2008; for further information, see the full catalogue entry.

Exhibition history

2016

Painters' Paintings: From Freud to Van Dyck

The National Gallery (London)

23 June 2016 - 4 September 2016

Bibliography

1581

F. Sansovino, Venetia citta nobilissima et singolare, descritta in 14. Libri da M. Francesco Sansouino. Nella quale si contengono tutte le guerre passate, con l'attioni illustri di molti senatori. Le vite dei principi, & gli scrittori veneti del tempo loro. Le chiese, fabriche, edifici, & palazzi publichi, & priuati. Le leggi, gli ordini, & gli vsi antichi & moderni, con altre cose appresso notabili, & degne di memoria, Venice 1581
1725

J. Richardson, An Essay on the Theory of Painting, London 1725
1769

R. Strange, A Descriptive Catalogue of a Collection of Pictures Selected from the Roman, Florentine, Lombard, Venetian, Neapolitan, Flemish, French, and Spanish Schools; to which are Added Remarks on the Principal Painters, etc., London 1769
1838

G.F. Waagen, Works of Art and Artists in England, trans. H. Lloyd, vol. 2, London 1838
1854

G.F. Waagen, Treasures of Art in Great Britain: Being and Account of the Chief Collections of Paintings, Drawings, Sculptures, Illuminated Mss. […], vol. 2, trans. E. Eastlake, London 1854
1877

J.A. Crowe and G.B. Cavalcaselle, Titian: His Life and Times, London 1877
1898

C. Phillips, Titian: A Study of His Life and Work, London 1898
1906

H.F. Cook, 'Notes on the Study of Titian', The Burlington Magazine, X/44, 1906, pp. 102-8
1920

A. Ravà, 'Il "Camerino delle anticaglie" di Gabriele Vendramin', Nuovo archivio veneto, XXII/39, 1920, pp. 155-81
1925

G. Gronau, 'Concerning Titian's Painting at Alnwick Castle', Apollo, II/9, 1925, pp. 126-7
1929

F.W. Hilles, Letters of Sir Joshua Reynolds, Cambridge 1929
1929

L. Venturi, 'Letter: The "Cornaro" Titian: An Italian Critic's Opinion', The Times, 1929
1930

C. Holmes, 'The Italian Exhibition', The Burlington Magazine, LVI/323, 1930, pp. 55-72
1930

R. Witt and A. Venturi, Exhibition of Italian Art 1200-1900, (exh. cat. Royal Academy of Arts, 1 January - 8 March 1930), London 1930
1930

R.C. Witt et al., Italian Art: An illustrated Souvenir of the Exhibition of Italian art at Burlington House, London (exh. cat. Royal Academy of Arts, 1 January - 8 March 1930), London 1930
1935

W. Suida, 'Tizian-Ausstellung in Venedig', Pantheon, XVI, 1935, pp. 219-26
1936

H. Tietze, Titian: Leben und Werk, 2 vols, Vienna 1936
1939

P. Pouncey, 'The Miraculous Cross in Titian's "Vendramin Family"', Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, II/3, 1939, pp. 191-3
1955

O. Millar, 'Notes on British Painting from Archives, III', The Burlington Magazine, XCVII/629, 1955, pp. 255-6
1957

B. Berenson, Italian Pictures of the Renaissance: A List of the Principal Artists and Their Works, with an Index of Places: Venetian School, 2 vols, London 1957
1957

S. Stone, A Note of the Pictures at Northumberland House Taken and Appraised by Mr Symon Stone the 30th of June 1671, n.p. 1957
1959

Gould, Cecil, National Gallery Catalogues: The Sixteenth Century Venetian School, London 1959
1960

F. Valcanover, Tutta la pittura di Tiziano, Milan 1960
1962

J.R. Judson, 'Dirck Barentsen, "Die… des grooten Titiaens boesem heeft ghenoten"', Bulletin des Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, XI/1-4, 1962, pp. 77-122
1966

J. Pope-Hennessy, The Portrait in the Renaissance, New York 1966
1969

R. Pallucchini, Tiziano, Florence 1969
1969

H.E. Wethey, The Paintings of Titian: The Religious Paintings, 3 vols, London 1969
1975

C. Gould, Delaroche and Gautier: Gautier's Views on the 'Execution of Lady Jane Grey' and on other Compositions by Delaroche, London 1975
1977

M.R. Fisher, Titian's Assistants During the Later Years, New York 1977
1977

J. Mills and R. White, 'Analyses of Paint Media', National Gallery Technical Bulletin, I, 1977, pp. 57-9
1978

A. Macintyre and K. Garlick (eds), The Diary of Joseph Farington, vol. 5, New Haven 1978-1984
1979

J. Anderson, 'A Further Inventory of Gabriel Vendramin's Collection', The Burlington Magazine, CXXI/919, 1979, pp. 639-48
1980

C. Hope, Titian, London 1980
1981

B.W. Meijer, 'Titian's Sketches on Canvas and Panel', Master Drawings, XIX/3, 1981, pp. 276-89
1982

J. Ingamells, '"Perseus and Andromeda": The Provenance', The Burlington Magazine, CXXIV/952, 1982, pp. 396-400
1987

Gould, Cecil, National Gallery Catalogues: The Sixteenth Century Italian Schools, London 1987
1988

B. Anatra, Venezia e la Spagna, Milan 1988
1990

S. Settis and E. Bianchini, Giogione's Tempest: Interpreting the Hidden Subject, Chicago 1990
1990

C. Brown and N. Ramsay, 'Van Dyck's Collection: Some New Documents', The Burlington Magazine, CXXXII/1051, 1990, pp. 704-9
1990

J. Wood, 'Van Dyck's "Cabinet de Titien": The Contents and Dispersal of His Collection', The Burlington Magazine, CXXXII/1051, 1990, pp. 680-95
1994

J. Wood, 'Van Dyck and the Earl of Northumberland: Taste and Collecting in Stuart England', Studies in the History of Art, XLVI, 1994, pp. 280-324
1994

D. Battilotti, 'Gabriele Vendramin', in R. Maschio (ed.), I tempi di Giorgione, Rome 1994, pp. 226-9
1995

C. de Benedictis, Per la storia del collezionismo italiano, fonti e documenti, Florence 1995
1996

R. Godfrey, 'Hollar's Prints for the Earl of Arundel: Copies of Lost Works from the Arundel Collection', Apollo, CXLIV/414, 1996, pp. 36-8
1999

F. Haskell, 'Venetian Art and English Collectors of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries', Verona illustrata, 12, 1999, pp. 7-18
1999

F. Haskell, 'Botticelli, Fascism and Burlington House. The "Italian Exhibition" of 1930', The Burlington Magazine, CXLI/1157, 1999, pp. 462-72
2000

F. Haskell, The Ephemeral Museum: Old Master Paintings and the Rise of the Art Exhibition, New Haven 2000
2001

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2001

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2002

E. Longo, 'Commitenza, iconografia e stile nelle croci processionali del Quattrocento Veneziano', Arte Cristiana, XC/811, 2002, pp. 295-302
2002

R. Lauber, 'Per un ritratto di Gabriele Vendramin: Nuovi contributi', in L. Borean and S. Masons (eds), Figure di collezionisti a Venezia tra Cinque e Seicento, Udine 2002, pp. 25-75
2003

D. Jaffé (ed.), Titian, London 2003
2003

J. Dunkerton and M. Spring, 'The Technique and Materials of Titian's Early Paintings in the National Gallery, London', Restoration, III/1, 2003, pp. 9-22
2003

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2003

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2004

P. Fortini Brown, Private Lives in Renaissance Venice: Art, Architecture, and the Family, New Haven 2004
2007

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2007

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2008

Penny, Nicholas, National Gallery Catalogues: The Sixteenth Century Italian Paintings, 2, Venice, 1540-1600, London 2008

Frame

This remarkable sixteenth-century Italian frame is made from poplar wood, carved and water-gilt. The back edge is embellished with a raked carved leaf motif. Over a dark blue hollow, spiral-shaped leaves alternate with a pearled ribbon, all diverging from the centres and resting on a row of laurel leaves. The inner edge is richly decorated with a running fruit-and-leaf motif. The sight edge features an acanthus-leaf-and-tongue pattern.

This frame was discovered in Sicily in the 1920s, and was modified to fit this painting.

About this record

If you know more about this painting or have spotted an error, please contact us. Please note that exhibition histories are listed from 2009 onwards. Bibliographies may not be complete; more comprehensive information is available in the National Gallery Library.

Images

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You've viewed 6 of 19 works

Titian, 'The Vendramin Family', about 1540-45

About the work

Overview

In-depth

Key facts

Details

Provenance

Additional information

Source

Exhibition history

Bibliography

Frame

About this record

Images

More works by Titian