PORTRAIT OF A MAN,
THE SO-CALLED "YOUNG ENGLISHMAN"
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c. 1540~05, 111*93cm, Oil on canvas
Titian's greatest fame with his contemporaries rested on portraits. We need only look at a head like this work, usually called
a 'Young Englishman', to understand this fascination. We might try in vain to analyse wherein it consists. Compared with earlier portraits it all looks so simple and effortless. There is nothing of the minute modelling of Leonardo's 'Mona Lisa' in it
and yet this unknown young man seems as mysteriously alive
as she does. He seems to gaze at us with such an intense and soulful look that it is almost impossible to believe that these dreamy eyes are only a bit of coloured earth spread on a rough piece of canvas.
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