Bravo
around 1515/20 | Tiziano Vecellio, gen. Tizian
Titian raises the close-up, half-length picture full of action as painted by his teacher Giorgione to a level of tense drama. The three-quarter length portrait of the protagonist wreathed with laurels contrasts with the shadowy profile of the daggerdrawing “bravo” (Italian: “henchman contracted by a lord”). The scene has not yet been satisfactorily interpreted: perhaps it shows the attack on Trebonius by Gaius Lusius in which Trebonius pulls his sword to kill the assailant – or alternately the capture of Bacchus by Pentheus’s followers.
Titian raises the close-up, half-length picture full of action as painted by his teacher Giorgione to a level of tense drama. The three-quarter length portrait of the protagonist wreathed with laurels contrasts with the shadowy profile of the daggerdrawing “bravo” (Italian: “henchman contracted by a lord”). The scene has not yet been satisfactorily interpreted: perhaps it shows the attack on Trebonius by Gaius Lusius in which Trebonius pulls his sword to kill the assailant – or alternately the capture of Bacchus by Pentheus’s followers.
Artist:
Tiziano Vecellio, gen. Tizian (um 1488 Pieve di Cadore - 1576 Venedig) DNB
Time:
around 1515/20
Object Name
Painting
Culture
Italian, Venetian
Material/technology:
Canvas
Dimensions:
Overall: 77 cm × 66,5 cm
Framed: 94 cm × 82,5 cm × 4,5 cm
Copyright
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Gemäldegalerie
Invs.
Gemäldegalerie, 64
Provenance
1528 Zuanantonio Venier, Venice; 1636 Bartolomeo della Nave, Venice; 1638-1649 Hamilton; 1659 Leopold Wilhelm, Brussels