Portrait of Cardinal Alessandro Farnese

In June 1546 Titian left Rome for Venice and left behind an unfinished canvas, his group portrait of Pope Paul III with two of his grandsons, now in Naples. One of those grandsons was Cardinal Alessandro Farnese, then 25. This small panel repeats his face from Titian's picture and sets him on his own, so it was painted after Titian had gone.

Who painted it has been argued over for three centuries. In 1707 Father Sebastiano Resta, a priest and collector of drawings, took it for a Raphael of around 1518 showing the grandfather, who had also been Cardinal Alessandro Farnese before he became pope. In 1711 Cardinal Lorenzo Corsini, the future Clement XII, paid 200 scudi for a portrait of Cardinal Farnese believed to be by Raphael, and through the 18th century the family's inventories called it a Titian. The 20th century took it away from Titian. Later names included Perino del Vaga, which the art historian Federico Zeri noted, with a question mark, on the back of a photograph, and Taddeo Zuccaro. The gallery now catalogues it as attributed to Jacopino del Conte, a Florentine portrait painter who worked for the Farnese for many years, pointing to the firm contours, the strongly drawn arch of the brows and the folds of the cloth.

The panel is well preserved, except for the red cardinal's cap, which has been heavily repainted.