Titian, 'The Tribute Money', about 1560-8 (perhaps begun in the 1540s)
About the work
Overview
The Pharisees (chief priests) ask Christ whether it is right to pay tax to the Romans, who rule Palestine. Christ, sensing a trap, asks whose likeness and name are on the coinage: ‘They say unto him, Caesar’s. Then he saith unto them, render therefore unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s; and unto God the things that are God’s’ (Matthew 22; Mark 12; Luke 20).
It is almost certain that this is the painting that Titian described in October 1568 as one he had recently completed and sent to King Philip II of Spain. For 200 years it hung in the Sacristy of Philip’s royal residence and monastery of El Escorial. The subject is rare in art. Titian may have been the first artist to represent it in his painting of about 1516 for Duke Alfonso d'Este in Ferrara (now in the Gemäldegalerie, Dresden). That painting served as a cupboard door for the Duke’s collection of ancient coins and medals.
Key facts
Details
- Full title
- The Tribute Money
- Artist
- Titian
- Artist dates
- active about 1506; died 1576
- Date made
- about 1560-8 (perhaps begun in the 1540s)
- Medium and support
- oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- 112.2 × 103.2 cm
- Inscription summary
- Signed
- Acquisition credit
- Bought, 1852
- Inventory number
- NG224
- Location
- Not on display
- Collection
- Main Collection
- Previous owners
- Frame
- 17th-century Italian Frame
Provenance
Sent to Spain by Titian shortly before 26 October 1568. Presented to the Escorial by Philip II, 1574. Presented to Marshal Soult by Joseph Bonaparte in December 1809 and sent to Paris in 1810. Sold, Paris, 22 May 1852 (lot 132), where bought for 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
-
2013From Bosch to Titian. Art and Wonder at the EscorialPalacio Real (Madrid)16 September 2013 - 12 January 2014
Bibliography
-
1657F. de los Santos, Descripcion breue del Monasterio de S. Lorenzo el Real del Escorial, vnica marauilla del mundo, fabrica del rey Filipo segundo nueuamente coronada por el… rey Philippo quarto el Grande con la magestuosa obra de la Capilla… del Pantheon y traslacion à ella de los cuerpos reales, Madrid 1657
-
1715A. Palomino, El museo pictorico, y escala óptica, 3 vols, Madrid 1715
-
1760F. de los Santos, A Description of the Royal Palace and Monastery of St. Laurence, Called the Escurial, and of the Chapel Royal of the Pantheon, Translated from the Spanish of F. de Los Santos, trans. G. Thompson, London 1760
-
1772A. Ponz, Viage de España: O cartas, en que se da noticia de las cosas mas apreciables, y dignas de saberse que hay en ella, Madrid 1772
-
1800J.A. Ceán Bermúdez, Diccionario histórico de los mas ilustres profesores de las bellas artes en España, Madrid 1800
-
1852MMes Bonnefons de Lavialle et Beaurain, Catalogue raisonné des tableaux de la galerie de feu M. le Maréchal-Général Soult, Paris, 19 May 1852 - 22 May 1852
-
1857G.F. Waagen, Treasures of Art in Great Britain: Being and Account of the Chief Collections of Paintings, Drawings, Sculptures, Illuminated Mss. […], translated from German by Elizabeth Eastlake, 3 vols, London 1857, vol. 3
-
1877J.A. Crowe and G.B. Cavalcaselle, Titian: His Life and Times, London 1877
-
1888National Gallery, Descriptive and Historical Catalogue of the Pictures in the National Gallery with Biographical Notices of the Painters: Foreign Schools, London 1888
-
1910C. de. S. Ricketts, Titian, London 1910
-
1929C.H.C. Baker, National Gallery: Descriptive and Historical Catalogue of Foreign Pictures in Trafalgar Square, London 1929
-
1930J.Z. Cuevas, Inventario de las alhajas, pinturas y objetos de valor y curiosidad donados por Felipe II al Monasterio de El Escorial (1571-1598), Madrid 1930
-
1935W. Suida, 'Tizian-Ausstellung in Venedig', Pantheon, XVI, 1935, pp. 219-26
-
1936H. Tietze, Titian: Leben und Werk, 2 vols, Vienna 1936
-
1947P. Hendy, An Exhibition of Cleaned Pictures of 1947: (1936-1947), London 1947
-
1957B. 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
-
1959Gould, Cecil, National Gallery Catalogues: The Sixteenth Century Venetian School, London 1959
-
1960F. Valcanover, Tutta la pittura di Tiziano, Milan 1960
-
1966M. Boschini, La carta del navegar pitoresco, 1660, ed. A. Pallucchini, Venice 1966
-
1967A. Cloulas, 'Documents concernant Titien, conservés aux archives de Simancas', Mélanges de la Casa de Velázquez, III, 1967, pp. 197-288
-
1969H.E. Wethey, The Paintings of Titian: The Religious Paintings, 3 vols, London 1969
-
1975C. Gould, Delaroche and Gautier: Gautier's Views on the 'Execution of Lady Jane Grey' and on other Compositions by Delaroche, London 1975
-
1980C. Hope, Titian, London 1980
-
1981D. Angulo Iñiguez, Murillo, Madrid 1981
-
1982M.A. Chiari, Incisioni da Tiziano: Catalogo del fondo grafico a stampa del Museo Correr, Venice 1982
-
1987Gould, Cecil, National Gallery Catalogues: The Sixteenth Century Italian Schools, London 1987
-
1987A. Palomino, Lives of the Eminent Spanish Painters and Sculptors, trans. N.A. Mallory, Cambridge 1987
-
1988J. de Sigüenza, La fundación del monasterio del Escorial, 1605, Madrid 1988
-
1992F. Checa, Felipe II: Mecenas de las artes, Madrid 1992
-
1992A. Gentili, 'Tiziano e il non finito', Venezia cinquecento, II/4, 1992, pp. 93-127
-
1994F. Checa, Tiziano y la monarquía hispánica: Usos y funciones de la pintura veneciana en España (siglos XVI y XVII), Madrid 1994
-
1998M. Mancini, Tiziano e le corti d'Asburgo nei documenti degli archivi spagnoli, Venice 1998
-
1998M. Di Monte, 'Immagini, pubblico e devozione. Sul problema dell'interpretazione della pittura religiosa del Cinquecento', Venezia cinquecento, VIII/16, 1998, pp. 5-51
-
1998F. Checa Cremades, Felipe II, un monarca y su época: Un príncipe del Renacimiento (exh. cat. Prado, 13 October 1998 - 10 January 1999), Madrid 1998
-
1999Museo Nacional del Prado, Tiziano: Técnicas y restauraciones: Actas del Simposium Internacional celebrado en el Museo Nacional del Prado los días 3, 4 y 5 junio de 1999, Madrid 1999
-
2001
C. Baker and T. Henry, The National Gallery: Complete Illustrated Catalogue, London 2001
-
2001F. Pedrocco, Titian: The Complete Paintings, London 2001
-
2003D. Jaffé (ed.), Titian, London 2003
-
2003C. 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
-
2003I. Cano Rivero, 'Seville's Artistic Heritage during the French Occupation', in G. Tinterow and G. Lacambre (eds), Manet/Velázquez: The French Taste for Spanish Painting, New Haven 2003, pp. 93-113
-
2007M. Falomir, 'Christ Mocked, a Late "Invenzione" by Titian', Artibus et historiae, XXVIII/55, 2007, pp. 53-61
-
2007S. Ferino Pagden, Der späte Tizian und die Sinnlichkeit der Malerei (exh. cat. Kunsthistorisches Museum, 18 October 2007 - 6 January 2008; Gallerie dell'Accademia, 1 Februrary - 21 April 2008), Vienna 2007
-
2008Penny, Nicholas, National Gallery Catalogues: The Sixteenth Century Italian Paintings, 2, Venice, 1540-1600, London 2008
Frame
This is a seventeenth-century Italian carved and gilt cassetta frame. It is probably crafted from poplar. The back edge of the frame features a lamb’s-tongue-and-dart motif, outward-curving flutes and a centred band of leaves. The frieze is adorned with centred overlapping disks each with a rosette radiating from the centre, and leaves in the corners. The sight edge is decorated with a pearl motif. There are several layers of water gilding.
Titian’s The Tribute Money was reframed using this frame in 1937; alterations and regilding were carried out in the same year. Former Director of the National Gallery Nicholas Penny referred to the decoration on the frieze as a money – or coin – pattern, chosen as a witty comment on the painting’s subject.
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
More works by Titian
(Showing 6 of 19 works)
Three male heads at different stages of life are paired with the heads of three animals: a wolf, a lion and a dog. The Latin inscription divided to correspond to the three heads translates as: ‘Learning from Yesterday, Today acts prudently lest by his action he spoil Tomorrow.’ The meaning and pu...
Not on display
One of the most famous paintings in the National Gallery, Titian’s Bacchus and Ariadne illustrates a story told by the classical authors Ovid and Catullus. The Cretan princess Ariadne has been abandoned on the Greek island of Naxos by Theseus, whose ship sails away in the distance. Bacchus, god o...
Not on display
While hunting, Actaeon accidentally stumbles upon the secret bathing place of Diana, chaste goddess of the hunt, and sees her naked. His fate is foretold by the stag’s skull on the plinth and the skins of Diana’s former prey hanging above her head. The conclusion of the story is shown in another...
Not on display
The nymph Callisto was the favourite of Diana, virgin goddess of the hunt. Jupiter, king of the gods, noticed her beauty and disguised himself to seduce her. Titian has painted the moment Diana forces Callisto to strip and bathe after hunting and discovers her pregnancy. The drama is heightened b...
Not on display
Risen from the dead, Christ appears to his grieving follower, Mary Magdalene, in the Garden of Gethsemane. At first she mistakes him for a gardener but then reaches out her hand in wonder. Christ says, ‘Do not touch me’ (in Latin, noli me tangere); it is time for his followers to let go of his ea...
Not on display
Titian painted this picture when he was in his early twenties, at a time when private portraits of individual women were still rare. We don‘t know the identity of the sitter, if indeed this is a portrait in the traditional sense, rather than a general picture of a woman designed to encourage such...
Not on display
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 quilt...
Not on display
Girolamo Fracastoro (1476/8–1553), a celebrated medical doctor, as well as an astronomer, mathematician and poet, proposed the theory of contagion and in 1530 wrote an epic poem that gave the name ’syphilis' to the virulent, sexually transmitted disease that was ravaging Italy in that period.Alth...
Not on display
The Virgin and Child are accompanied by the young Saint John the Baptist and a kneeling woman, who cannot be clearly identified. She holds the infant Christ in her arms and gazes at him in adoration.It is not clear which, if any, New Testament episode is shown here. The shepherd and herdsman in t...
Not on display
The story of Actaeon is told in the Metamorphoses by the Roman poet Ovid. In Titian’s earlier Diana and Actaeon, painted for King Philip II of Spain in 1556–9 and now jointly owned by the National Gallery and the National Galleries of Scotland, Actaeon disturbs the goddess Diana and her nymphs at...
Not on display
This is one of Titian’s earliest surviving works. It shows the Adoration of the Shepherds – the flying angel in the distance announces Christ’s birth to them. Saint Joseph presents the infant Christ to a young shepherd, who kneels in reverence.It is unusual to find only one shepherd in attendance...
Not on display
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-grandfa...
Not on display
The Virgin Mary gazes at the infant Christ who feeds from her breast. The naked child is encircled in his mother’s arms and twists away from us. Our eye is drawn from the Virgin’s delicate fingers, up the line of Christ’s back and to the expression of devotion on her face.Titian appears to be cit...
Not on display
The infant cradling a dove to his cheek closely resembles Cupid in two versions of Titian’s Venus and Adonis, dating to around 1560, in Washington and New York. Yet the way in which the picture is painted and the range of colours used are characteristic of Titian’s work of the 1520s.This apparent...
Not on display
Possibly by Titian
A boy sings from a partbook while his music master beats time with his finger and perhaps sings along. A woman leans her arm against the teacher’s shoulder, her head tilted with a faraway look as if she is listening to the music. A youth accompanies the boy on a viol da gamba, while a young man b...
Not on display
Follower of Titian
Reminiscent of Titian’s style, this painting is typical of the kind of mythological scene made for learned, private patrons in Venice that he helped pioneer. Cupid, god of love, raises his arrow to pierce a woman embracing a youth who holds a golden apple.The central couple may be Hippomenes and...
Not on display
Workshop of Titian
Naked Venus, the goddess of love, throws her arms around handsome young Adonis to stop him from going out to hunt. The story is told in Book 10 of Ovid’s Metamorphoses. Venus falls in love with the youth Adonis when Cupid accidentally wounds her with one of his arrows. She goes hunting with Adoni...
Not on display
After Titian
This is a copy of Titian’s large canvas known as ‘La Gloria’ (The Glory) or The Trinity. Titian’s painting was commissioned by Emperor Charles V of Spain in 1551, and is now in the Prado, Madrid.The Emperor and Empress with their son Prince Philip and his sisters kneel in their burial shrouds bef...
Not on display
You've viewed 6 of 19 works