Titian's Early Portraits | Titian's First Masterpiece: The Flight into Egypt
11 Video Views·May 16, 2025
Curator Antonio Mazzotta explains how a young Titian formulated a completely new approach to portraiture.
'Portrait of Gerolamo (?) Barbarigo', about 1509, encapsulates movement for the first time, allowing the viewer's eyes to cross with the turning sitter; an approach that is still used in fashion photography today.
'Portrait of a Lady ('La Schiavona')', about 1510-12, introduces another innovation; Titian reveals more of the sitter's figure, bringing the full majesty of this imposing lady onto the canvas.
Titian depicted this striking portrait when he was about 20
and the young Titian was able to formulate a completely new idea of portraiture.
The pose is not static, is highly dynamic, so the the sitter is turning. As soon as you turn
your gaze is more immediate. He wanted to give a sense that the eyes just cross yours
and that position is going to change very soon. So it's a moment in time which gives
this sense of immediacy and which is still employed today by fashion photographers.
It was really something so new and so revolutionary in this portrait. We should think that
this particular pose which is called the spalla, so looking over the shoulder, became a standard
the type of portrait for centuries. We should think about Van Dyck's portraits and we should
think that Van Dyck owned this portrait. We should think about Rembrandt's portraits like
the National Gallery's self-portrait executed in 1640 to be represented without any doubt,
without any fear, was probably what was liked about Titian's portraits as well as the sense of
physical presence of reality. This portrait was probably executed in around 1511 when he was
about 22 years old. What is really new about this portrait is that the parapet is starting to drop
so we see more of the figure and this was incredibly new. She's really dominating,
she's this incredible iconic female figure that can be compared to the great
mothers of the history of art like from Mesopotamia to the Roman matrons. Really she's an allegory of
woman. There are several elements that make this picture uniquely Titian, starting from how it is
painted. So the handling of paint, the rendering of transparencies like this wonderful veil and the
setting of the light is also so clever. So the light is coming from up left and so it washes this
very pale skin with the reddish cheeks. Also this gives a presence of a pulsating animal.
This is in a way a final point of his use but also a starting point for his mature style.