Der Mann mit dem Handschuh

Around 1520 Venice was the richest city in Europe, and a young man of means could spend a small fortune signalling exactly how modern he was. This one has done just that. We do not know his name for certain, but everything about him is calibrated: the loosened collar, the ring, the careful hair, and above all the gloves, one worn and one held. Fine leather gloves were a Venetian obsession then, a soft luxury you wore to show you never had to work with your hands. Titian gives him a plain dark ground and a little turn of the shoulders, so nothing competes with the face and those pale hands catching the light. He looks about eighteen or twenty, caught mid thought rather than posing.