c. 1542, 90*74cm
This portrait from Titian's middle years shows an artist
of far greater depth of spiritual insight. Now he is not revelling in the sheer technique that turns thought into image; now he is painting from his own depths, and we feel
the image arises almost spontaneously. Ranuccio Farnese
portrays a very young man, splendid in his courtly attire.
A silver cross gleams on one breast and light sparkles on
the poignard below it. But the heraldic and warlike aspects are in shadows: what is real to the boy is the glove in
his other hand, a hand visibly bare, prepared to take on
the burden of living, both unafraid and unprotected. He
has not yet grown into his years, and the look of expect
ancy on the young face is full of an unformed innocence.
We admire the dignity that Titian has seen as appropriate, but we are also touched by the all-enveloping blackness in which Ranuccio is like a small, lighted candle. Titian's insight is almost frightening in its realism. What he
does do, with superb technical skill, is show us the truth
of an individual with all the attendant weakness, and yet
produce a picture that is supremely beautiful.
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