Pope Paul III and His Grandsons

Titian came to Rome in the winter of 1545 to paint the most powerful man in Italy, and left the picture unfinished. Pope Paul III was by then in his late seventies, and the painting is really about what was going on around that old age. On the right stands his grandson Alessandro, a cardinal. On the left his grandson Ottavio bends low in a courtly bow that reads as pure calculation. The pope has turned to look at him, wary. X-rays show Titian shifted Alessandro's position so his hand rests near the papal throne, a quiet claim on what would come next. Nobody in the family wanted this hung. Titian put down his brushes as the Farnese fortunes wobbled, and for the next hundred years the canvas stayed rolled up in a cellar, its loose, half-finished surface only sharpening the sense of intrigue in the room.