Danaë

In the autumn of 1545 Titian made his only real visit to Rome, and while he was there Michelangelo and the writer Giorgio Vasari came to see what he was working on. It was this: Danae, the princess of Greek myth whom Jupiter visits as a shower of gold, painted for Cardinal Alessandro Farnese, grandson of the reigning pope. Michelangelo admired the colour, then on the way out told Vasari it was a pity the Venetians never learned to draw properly. This is the first of several versions Titian would make of the subject, and the only one with a small winged Cupid beside Danae, where the later ones put an old servant grabbing at the falling coins. The face is said to be based on a woman the cardinal knew in Rome.