Portrait of Charles V

Around 1548 Charles V, ruler of Spain, much of Italy, the Low Countries and vast lands in the Americas, made Titian his favourite portraitist, and this sober half-length in black dates from about a year later. The emperor wears the gold collar of the Order of the Golden Fleece, the badge of Habsburg dynasty and Catholic loyalty. What is strange is how completely the sitter was later forgotten. Passing from one princely collection to another, the portrait lost its name, and for generations it hung under titles like Portrait of a Philosopher or simply A Man in Black. Only later did scholars recognise the tired, heavy-jawed face as the most powerful man in Europe, painted a few years before he gave it all up and retired to a monastery.