Carrying of the Cross

Titian was an old man when he painted this, probably around 1565, in his Venice studio with a reputation that reached every court in Europe. The subject is unusual. Instead of the full procession to Calvary, he crops in tight on just two figures, Christ under the weight of the cross and Simon of Cyrene, the passer-by the Romans forced to help carry it. That close pairing seems to have been Titian's own invention. A 17th-century writer claimed Simon's face is a portrait of Francesco Zuccato, a Venetian mosaic-maker Titian had known since his youth. By this age Titian painted loosely, laying colour on in rough, broken touches, and up close the surface nearly breaks apart into paint before it settles into two straining men.