Portrait of Cardinal Cristoforo Madruzzo

Titian signed and dated this in 1552, and it is one of the very few full-length portraits he painted with his own hand. The sitter is Cristoforo Madruzzo, prince-bishop of Trent, the Alpine city where the Catholic Church had gathered its great council to answer the Protestant reformers. Madruzzo helped choose Trent as the seat of those meetings and argued through their long sessions. Titian dresses him in black silk and catches him mid-stride, lifting a red curtain aside. On the table sits a clock, a favourite reminder in portraits of powerful men that time runs out on everyone, their power included. The picture now hangs far from Trent, in the Sao Paulo Museum of Art in Brazil.