Portrait of Francesco Maria della Rovere

When Titian took this commission, the sitter barely sat for him. Francesco Maria della Rovere, Duke of Urbino and a hardened mercenary commander for Venice, Florence and the papacy, had little patience for posing. Titian sketched the face from life, then had the duke's actual polished armour crated up and shipped to his Venice studio to paint it there, gleaming against deep red velvet. On the shelf behind stand three commander's batons, one for each state he served, beside a helmet crowned with a dragon. The oak branch is a family pun, since della Rovere means of the oak. It hangs beside a matching portrait of his wife, Eleonora Gonzaga, the two meant to be seen together.