Northern & Italian Renaissance Analysis

 

          Portrait of Girolamo Fracastoro, By Titian, on Oil & Canvas in ~1528, at unknown location (Creative Commons usage)

Before you is the Portrait of Girolamo Fracastoro, a portrait of the praised medical doctor and poet, known for his poem that gave a name to syphilis. Titian was a portraitist popular in the royal families of northern Europe and Spain. Portrait painting was typically reserved for the elite of Europe during the renaissance, which limited the craft to royalty, some lower nobility, and merchant lords. However, he was notably exempt from the Medici patronage that drove the portrait market.

I chose to cover a portrait painting because I typically hate the whole style. With only a few exceptions, portrait painting is an attempt at a photograph likeness before the technology existed. Particularly, in a lot of other pieces, there seems to be a buggy chihuahua-like quality to the eyes that is incredibly off-putting for me. In this photo, as well as other Titian works, the facial features are softer without taking on the forced smooth texture. With this particular piece, it is theorized that the face has fewer lines and details because the subject might not have had much time for a sitting to model.

The usual focus of the portrait, being the face, is supplanted a little bit in this painting by the lynx mantle. I find it refreshing to find some actual shading on the face, while portraiture often focused on a front view with little to no shading. Titian was known and actually preferred in the north because of this more living feeling to his portraits than those of the famed Medicis. His gift to Cosimo l de' Medici went unanswered, as the northerner's colorful strokes of the brush didn't agree with the Florentine palate.

This exemption from the Medici market in a field popularized by the merchant lords themselves is a bit of a novelty for the renaissance period. Although there were several portraitists who worked for non-Medici customers, most of those instead did portraits of the common folk. Medicis were simply the royals with more cash to burn than anyone else.

Final verdict: I appreciate this piece in a category that I normally try to speed my way past to the best of my ability. 6/10

References

Smith, Dr. Lorenza. "Titian, two portraits of Pietro Aretino." Smarthistory, https://smarthistory.org/titian-pietro-aretino/, 22 August 2018, accessed 19 February 2024

"Titian | Portrait of Girolamo Fracastoro." The National Gallery, https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/titian-portrait-of-girolamo-fracastoro, accessed 19 February 2024