Portrait of a Sick Man is an oil on canvas painting by Titian, from 1515. It is now in the Uffizi, in Florence.
The work is inscribed "MDXIIIII AN. ETATIS XXII". Its title derives solely from the unknown subject's pallid face and melancholy expression. One hypothesis holds him to be Claudio Tolomei, but this is not widely accepted. [1]
The work is recorded in Leopoldo de' Medici's collections, which on his death entered the grand-ducal collections, which later passed to the Uffizi and other museums in Florence. In the earliest inventories, until 1769, it was attributed to Leonardo da Vinci, then to Sebastiano del Piombo (1797) and from 1880 to 1890 to the circle of Lorenzo Lotto. The art historians Adolfo Venturi and Bernard Berenson argued against the attribution to Piombo and others started to point to Titian as a possible attribution, though it took until a 1975 restoration for this to be confirmed.
The portrait's subject inspired the protagonist in "La última visita del gentilhombre enfermo", one of thirty Giovanni Papini stories in his 1906 collection "La tragedia cotidiana". Jorge Luis Borges then in turn included the story in the volume "Libro de sueños" in his "The Library of Babel" series. [2]
The Uffizi Gallery is a prominent art museum located adjacent to the Piazza della Signoria in the Historic Centre of Florence in the region of Tuscany, Italy. One of the most important Italian museums and the most visited, it is also one of the largest and best-known in the world and holds a collection of priceless works, particularly from the period of the Italian Renaissance.
Giorgio Barbarelli da Castelfranco, known as Giorgione, was an Italian painter of the Venetian school during the High Renaissance, who died in his thirties. He is known for the elusive poetic quality of his work, though only about six surviving paintings are firmly attributed to him. The uncertainty surrounding the identity and meaning of his work has made Giorgione one of the most mysterious figures in European art.
Filippo Baldinucci was an Italian art historian and biographer.
Tiziano Vecellio, Latinized as Titianus, hence known in English as Titian, was an Italian Renaissance painter, the most important artist of Renaissance Venetian painting. He was born in Pieve di Cadore, near Belluno. During his lifetime he was often called da Cadore, 'from Cadore', taken from his native region.
Piero del Pollaiuolo, whose birth name was Piero Benci, was an Italian Renaissance painter from Florence. His older brother, by about ten years, was the artist Antonio del Pollaiuolo and the two frequently worked together. Their work shows both classical influences and an interest in human anatomy; according to Vasari, the brothers carried out dissections to improve their knowledge of the subject.
Pietro Aretino was an Italian author, playwright, poet, satirist and blackmailer, who wielded influence on contemporary art and politics. He was one of the most influential writers of his time and an outspoken critic of the powerful. Owing to his communications and sympathies with religious reformers, he is considered to have been a Nicodemite Protestant. He was a good friend and publicist of the Venetian artist Titian, who painted his portrait three times.
The Palazzo Pitti, in English sometimes called the Pitti Palace, is a vast, mainly Renaissance, palace in Florence, Italy. It is situated on the south side of the River Arno, a short distance from the Ponte Vecchio. The core of the present palazzo dates from 1458 and was originally the town residence of Luca Pitti, an ambitious Florentine banker.
Sebastiano del Piombo was an Italian painter of the High Renaissance and early Mannerist periods famous as the only major artist of the period to combine the colouring of the Venetian school in which he was trained with the monumental forms of the Roman school. He belongs both to the painting school of his native city, Venice, where he made significant contributions before he left for Rome in 1511, and that of Rome, where he stayed for the rest of his life, and whose style he thoroughly adopted.
Agnolo di Cosimo, usually known as Bronzino or Agnolo Bronzino, was an Italian Mannerist painter from Florence. His sobriquet, Bronzino, may refer to his relatively dark skin or reddish hair.
The Venus of Urbino is an oil painting by Italian painter Titian, depicting a nude young woman, traditionally identified with the goddess Venus, reclining on a couch or bed in the sumptuous surroundings of a Renaissance palace. Work on the painting seems to have begun anywhere from 1532 or 1534, and was perhaps completed in 1534, but not sold until 1538. It is currently held in the Galleria degli Uffizi in Florence.
The Madonna della Seggiola or The Madonna della Sedia is an oil on panel Madonna painting by the High Italian Renaissance artist Raphael, executed c. 1513–1514, and housed at the Palazzo Pitti Collection in Florence, Italy. Although there is documentation on its arrival to its current location, Palazzo Pitti, it is still unknown who commissioned the painting; however, it has been in the Medici family since the 16th century.
Palma Vecchio, born Jacopo Palma, also known as Jacopo Negretti, was a Venetian painter of the Italian High Renaissance. He is called Palma Vecchio in English and Palma il Vecchio in Italian to distinguish him from Palma il Giovane, his great-nephew, who was also a painter.
Salome, or possibly Judith with the Head of Holofernes, is an oil painting which is an early work by the Venetian painter of the late Renaissance, Titian. It is usually thought to represent Salome with the head of John the Baptist. It is usually dated to around 1515 and is now in the Doria Pamphilj Gallery in Rome. Like other paintings of this subject, it has sometimes been considered to represent Judith with the head of Holofernes, the other biblical incident found in art showing a female and a severed male head. Historically, the main figure has also been called Herodias, the mother of Salome.
La Bella is a portrait of a woman by Titian in the Palazzo Pitti in Florence. The painting shows the subject with the ideal proportions for Renaissance women. In parallel the stringent composition corresponds to Titian's real portraits. The work can be dated by a letter about "that portrait of that woman in a blue dress" in May 1536.
Venus with a Mirror is a painting by Titian, now in the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, and it is considered to be one of the collection's highlights.
Portrait of Philip II is an oil on canvas portrait by Titian of Philip II of Spain wearing the chain of the Order of the Golden Fleece. It is in the collection of the Museo di Capodimonte, in Naples.
Portrait of a Knight of Malta is an oil on canvas painting by Titian, from c. 1515. It depicts a knight belonging to the Order of Malta. It is now in the Uffizi, in Florence.
The Death of Adonis is a 1512 oil on canvas painting by Sebastiano del Piombo, now in the Uffizi in Florence.
Portrait of a Woman is a 1512 oil on panel painting by Sebastiano del Piombo, dated by the artist and now in the Uffizi in Florence.
The Concert or The Interrupted Concert is a c. 1510–1511 oil on canvas painting by Titian, now in the Galleria Palatina, in Florence. A copy in the Galleria Borghese includes an additional fourth figure.