Portrait of Pietro Aretino

Portrait of Pietro Aretino
Artist: Titian; Oil painting on canvas; Size: 96.7x77.6cm; Galleria Palatina, Florence.

The painter Titian was a close friend of Pietro Aretino, who in the Cortigiana (1534) wrote in Venice there is the glorious, wonderful and great Titian, whose coloring breathes no differently from the flesh tones, which have pulse and vigor," and in 1537 had called the Death of Saint Peter Martyr for the church of Santi Giovanni e Paolo in Venice "the most beautiful thing in Italy." So it is only natural that Pietro Aretino should have turned to Titian for his own portrait, which was delivered in 1545. The painting did not fully meet the writer's expectations, but in a letter sent to Cosimo I, then duke of Tuscany, he was unable to refrain from describing it as follows: "it breathes, the pulse beats in the way I do in life." Pietro gave the picture to Cosimo with the aim of getting into his good graces, but the duke, who kept up a frequent correspondence with him, does not mention the work in his letters. In reality his silence was due to the fact that the canvas had been intercepted by his majordomo, Pierfrancesco Riccio, and hidden from Cosimo for at least three years. Probably the majordomo had guessed that Aretino wanted to win himself a position at the Medici court with this gift and thought this would come at the expense of his own power. In addition, at the very time the picture was sent, Bronzino, who can be considered Riccio's protégé, was painting the first official portrait painting of the duke, and Titian's work might have upstaged it, jeopardizing his possibility of becoming the official court portraitist. Later, in 1551, the misunderstanding with Cosimo was cleared up and the portrait was hung in the first room of his private wardrobe along with the Medici's most important pictures. It was seen there by Giorgio Vasari, who mentions it in his Lives.