Titian, 'Portrait of Gerolamo (?) Barbarigo', about 1510

Portrait of Gerolamo (?) Barbarigo

Titian

Not on display

About the work

Overview

In this, one of Titian’s earliest portraits, the sitter turns to look at us over his shoulder and momentarily meets our gaze. Our attention is focused on the raised brow above his right eye, which is positioned midway across the picture. The man’s elbow rests on a parapet and his voluminous quilted sleeve projects into our space, creating a strong sense of his physical presence. The way in which the shadowed portions of the figure merge with the grey atmospheric background was particularly innovative. This novel and effective pose was to become highly influential in European portraiture, perhaps most famously serving as a model for Rembrandt’s Self Portrait at the Age of 34, now also in the National Gallery.

This was long believed to be a portrait of the celebrated Italian poet Ludovico Ariosto (1474–1533), and then later thought to be a self portrait by Titian. However, the man is likely to be one of Titian’s friends – a member of the aristocratic Barbarigo family.

In-depth

Titian painted portraits more frequently than any other type of picture and he painted them throughout his long career. This is one of his earliest. It retains the sense of inner mystery expressed in the portraiture of his teacher Giorgione but expresses the sitter’s personality with new strength and realism. Titian has captured his subject in a highly innovative, dynamic pose – turning to look at us over his shoulder and momentarily meeting our gaze.

The ‘turning’ portrait, depicting the sitter looking over his or her shoulder, had been popular in Venice since about 1500, for example in the Portrait of Francesco Maria della Rovere, possibly painted by Giorgione and certainly associated with him (Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna). It was also common in early Renaissance Italian portraits to use an imaginary parapet to resolve the problem of how to crop a figure not portrayed at full length. This device further served to divide the sitter’s space from that of the viewer. But unlike in most earlier portraits featuring a parapet, the sitter here is cut at waist rather than bust level, emphasising the volume of the torso and arms and creating a new sense of monumentality and space.

The man’s elbow rests on the parapet and his voluminous quilted sleeve projects into our space, creating a strong sense of his physical presence. The blue of the quilted satin sleeve was painted over a pink ground and fine red lines are threaded through it. It must originally have been more purple in tone but the red lake pigment has faded over time, while surface abrasion has somewhat reduced its sense of volume. The sitter’s right hand appears to be in a fur muff, although this is now difficult to make out. The merging of the shadowed portions of the figure with the grey atmospheric background was, however, certainly intended, and is one of the most innovative and influential aspects of the portrait.

The man’s body forms a stable triangle in the centre of the canvas. The solidity and balance of the composition means that the decisive turn and tilt of his head produces a dramatic effect. Our attention is focused on the raised brow above his right eye, which is positioned midway across the picture. This novel and effective pose was to become highly influential in European portraiture, serving as a model for such famous pictures as Rembrandt’s Self Portrait at the Age of 34 of 1640, Van Dyck’s Self-Portrait of about 1640 (National Portrait Gallery, London) and Reynolds’s Self-Portrait of 1775 (Uffizi, Florence). The pose may have been popular, but it was uncomfortable. The diarist Samuel Pepys records sitting for Van Dyck: ‘I sit to have it full of shadows and do almost break my neck looking over my shoulders to make the posture for him to work by.’

This was long believed to be a portrait of the celebrated Italian poet Ludovico Ariosto (1474–1533), and it was later thought to be a self portrait by Titian – possibly why so many artists chose to portray themselves in this pose. However, it is likely to be a portrait described by Giorgio Vasari in his 1568 biography of Titian. Noting that the artist was no more than 18 years old, Vasari identifies the sitter as a member of the aristocratic Venetian Barbarigo family. The most likely candidate is Gerolamo di Andrea Barbarigo, who was the grandson of Doge Marco Barbarigo. In 1509 Gerolamo was elected as one of the magistrates responsible for navigation, a position for which one had to be at least 30 years old. He belonged to Venetian humanist circles and enjoyed a political and diplomatic career in Venice and its mainland territories.

Vasari records that through Barbarigo’s intervention, Titian was commissioned to paint in fresco certain scenes on the Fondaco dei Tedeschi (German merchants‘ warehouse) in Venice, for which his older colleague Giorgione had painted the principal facade. The sitter in a contemporary portrait at Alnwick Castle, probably not by Titian but close to his style, closely resembles the one in Titian’s portrait, but has brown rather than blue eyes. He may be another member of the Barbarigo family, possibly a brother to the National Gallery sitter.

It is hard to assess the accuracy of Vasari’s statement as to Titian’s age when he painted the portrait. It is certainly possible that he was no more than 18, although he could have been slightly older than that. We know that Giorgione completed work on his frescoes for the Fondaco dei Tedeschi in December 1508 and that Titian began his afterwards, suggesting that the younger artist worked there in the summer of 1509. A later statement by the Venetian author Lodovico Dolce that Titian worked on the Fondaco dei Tedeschi when he was not more than 20 is generally considered to be reliable.

It is notable that Titian’s Portrait of Gerolamo (?) Barbarigo and Sebastiano’s Salome of 1510 employ the same arrangement. It is impossible to say which picture was painted first, but the fact that Titian’s is more commandingly three-dimensional would suggest that he was upstaging his friend Sebastiano’s picture, rather than the other way round. It is unlikely, however, that they are far separated in date – both artists were close associates of Giorgione, who pioneered the ’turning portrait‘, and they responded rapidly to each other’s innovations at the time. Another related picture is Christ carrying the Cross in Scuola Grande di San Rocco of around 1508–9. Thought to have been painted by Giorgione or Titian, its figure of Christ resembles closely the man with the quilted sleeve, and may have been based on the same model or acted as a formal prototype for the National Gallery portrait.

As in Portrait of a Lady (’La Schiavona‘) Titian has inscribed his own initials ’T. V.‘ (Tiziano Vecellio) on the parapet. Infrared reflectography reveals another V in the centre of the parapet, which has been painted out. The mysterious abbreviation VV once also appeared on ’La Schiavona‘ and on other Venetian portraits of this date, such as Giorgione’s Giustiniani Portrait. It may stand for virtus vincit (’virtue is victorious‘), vivens vivo (’from life by the living‘) or virtù e verità (’virtue and truth').

Key facts

Details

Full title: Portrait of Gerolamo (?) Barbarigo
Artist: Titian
Artist dates: active about 1506; died 1576
Date made: about 1510
Medium and support: oil on canvas
Dimensions: 81.2 × 66.3 cm
Inscription summary: Signed
Acquisition credit: Bought, 1904
Inventory number: NG1944
Location: Not on display
Collection: Main Collection
Frame: 17th-century French Frame

Provenance

Perhaps from the collection of Alphonso Lopez and conceivably from that of Sir Anthony Van Dyck. The chief evidence for the Lopez provenance is the Persijn engraving which is inscribed as having been taken from a drawing made by Sandrart in Amsterdam from the original in the possession of Alphonso Lopez. The engraving corresponds closely with no. 1944 (in reverse) except for the legend on the parapet which reads ‘TITIANVS. U.’ The Lopez painting was due to be sold, with others belonging to him, probably in Paris in mid-December, 1641. A letter, written apparently in November, 1641, asks the addressee, François Langlois, to remind Van Dyck of the Lopez sale, and specifically mentions the excellence of the Titian ‘Ariosto’. Van Dyck in fact died (in London) on 9th December, 1641, but an inventory of pictures which had belonged to him, dated 1644, includes an ‘Ariosto Poeta’ among the Titian’s. It is therefore possible that shortly before his death Van Dyck had sent instructions to Paris for the purchase of the picture. But even if the one in his inventory was identical with the Lopez picture (which cannot be proved) it cannot be established with certainty that either was identical with no. 1944 and not a copy. In the possession of the Earl of Darnley before 1824, when lent by him to the British Institution (34). Also lent by Lord Darnley to Manchester, 1857 (236), and to the R.A., 1876 (125) and 1895 (109). Sold to Sir G. Donaldson, 1904, from whom purchased, 1904, with substantial contributions from Lord Iveagh, Mr. Waldorf Astor, Mr. Pierpont Morgan, Mr. Alfred Beit, Lady Wantage, Lord Burton and a grant from H.M. Government.

Additional information

Text extracted from the ‘Provenance’ section of the catalogue entry in Cecil Gould, ‘National Gallery Catalogues: The Sixteenth Century Italian Schools’, London 1987; for further information, see the full catalogue entry.

Exhibition history

2012

Titian's First Masterpiece: The Flight Into Egypt

The National Gallery (London)

4 April 2012 - 19 August 2012
2016

Painters' Paintings: From Freud to Van Dyck

The National Gallery (London)

23 June 2016 - 4 September 2016

Bibliography

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
1895

J.P. Richter, 'The Winter Exhibitions of Works by the Old Masters', Art Journal, 1895, pp. 89-90
1903

O. Fischel, Tizian: Des Meisters Gemälde, Berlin 1903
1904

R. Fry, 'Titian's "Ariosto"', The Burlington Magazine, VI/20, 1904, pp. 136-8
1904

A. Solerti, 'Il ritratto dell'Ariosto di Tiziano', Emporium, XX, 1904, pp. 465-76
1905

A.G.B. Russell, 'Letter in Reply to Roger Fry's 1904 Article: Titian's "Ariosto"', The Burlington Magazine, VI/23, 1905, pp. 412-3
1907

H.F. Cook, Giorgione, London 1907
1926

L. Justi, Giorgione, 2nd edn, 2 vols, Berlin 1926
1926

H.F. Cook, 'Dr Justi on Giorgione', The Burlington Magazine, XLVIII/279, 1926, pp. 311-2
1933

W. Suida, Tiziano: 304 tavole in fototipia, Rome 1933
1934

R.N.D. Wilson, The National and Tate Galleries, London 1934
1934

G.M. Richter, 'Unfinished Pictures by Giorgione', Art Bulletin, XVI/3, 1934, pp. 272-90
1935

W. Suida, Le Titien, Paris 1935
1937

G.M. Richter, Giorgio da Castelfranco, Called Giorgione, Chicago 1937
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
1959

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

F. Valcanover, Tutta la pittura di Tiziano, Milan 1960
1966

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

R. Pallucchini, Tiziano, Florence 1969
1969

F. Valcanover, L'opera completa di Tiziano, Milan 1969
1969

H.E. Wethey, The Paintings of Titian: The Religious Paintings, 3 vols, London 1969
1971

T. Pignatti, 'Über die Beziehungen zwischen Dürer und dem jungen Tizian', Anzeiger des Germanischen Nationalmuseums, 1971, pp. 61-9
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

J. Steer, 'Mr Bacon's Titian: The Selwyn Brinton Lecture', Royal Society of Arts Journal, CXXV/5254, 1977
1980

C. Hope, Titian, London 1980
1980

C. Brown, Titian: Portrait of a Man and Rembrandt: Self-Portrait at the Age of 34 (exh. cat. The National Gallery, 8 October - 7 December 1980), London 1980
1987

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

D.R. Smith, '"I Janus": Privacy and the Gentlemanly Ideal in Rembrandt's Portraits of Jan Six', Art History, XI/1, 1988, pp. 42-63
1990

L. Campbell, Renaissance Portraits: European Portrait-Painting in the 14th, 15th and 16th Centuries, New Haven 1990
1990

S. Biadene and M. Yakushs, Titian: Prince of Painters (exh. cat. Palazzo Ducale (Venice), 2 June - 7 October 1990; National Gallery of Art, Washington, 28 October 1990 - 27 January 1991), Venice 1990
1992

J. Shearman, Only Connect: Art and the Spectator in the Italian Renaissance, Princeton 1992
1994

F. Haskell, 'The Dispersal and Conservation of Art-Historical Property', in J. House, History of Italian Art, Cambridge 1994, vol. 1, pp. 214-69
1996

P. Mitchell, Frameworks: Form, Function and Ornament in European Portrait Frames, London 1996
1997

N. Penny, Frames, London 1997
2000

H. Berger, Fictions of the Pose: Rembrandt Against the Italian Renaissance, Stanford 2000
2000

J. Cranston, The Poetics of Portraiture in the Italian Renaissance, Cambridge 2000
2001

C. Baker and T. Henry, The National Gallery: Complete Illustrated Catalogue, London 2001
2001

P. Joannides, Titian to 1518: The Assumption of Genius, New Haven 2001
2001

F. Pedrocco, Titian: The Complete Paintings, London 2001
2001

G. Fiorenza, 'Pandolfo Collenuccio's "Specchio d'Esopo" and the Portrait of the Courtier', I Tatti Studies, IX, 2001, pp. 63-87
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

C. Hope et al., Titian (exh. cat. The National Gallery, 19 February - 18 May 2003; Museo Nacional del Prado, 10 June - 7 September 2003), London 2003
2005

A. Bayer, 'North of the Apennines: Sixteenth-Century Italian Paintings in Venice and the Veneto: The Triumvirate: Titian, Veronese, and Tintoretto', Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, LXIII/1, 2005, pp. 6-35
2005

A. Gentili, 'Il gesto, l'abito, il monaco', Studi tizianeschi, III, 2005, pp. 46-56
2008

L. Silver, 'Image is Everything: Visual Art as Self-Advertising (Europe and America)', in J.K. Nelson and R.J. Zeckhausers (eds), The Patron's Payoff: Conspicuous Commissions in Italian Renaissance Art, Princeton 2008, pp. 185-224

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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