The painting is the copy of a detail from "Ranuccio Farnese" (1542) by the
Italian Renaissance master Titian from Venice. The original hangs in
the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC. It has always been one of my favorite Old Masters' paintings, so when Danni Dawson gave us a grisaille/glazing assignment, I decided to make a copy of a detail from it.
This portrait of
twelve-year-old Ranuccio was painted in Venice just after he had been
made prior of San Giovanni dei Forlani, an important property belonging
to the Knights of Malta. The grandson of Pope Paul III, Ranuccio was
the youngest member of one of the wealthiest and most powerful families
in Italy.
Ranuccio became cardinal of Santa Lucia in Sicily at the age of
fifteen, and he was granted several bishoprics before his untimely death
at the age of thirty-five. In this perceptive portrait, Titian
brilliantly captures the image of a sensitive pubescent boy about to embark
upon a very public life.
