Portrait of Lavinia

In the Venice of the 1560s, a fan of ostrich feathers was reserved for married women, so the fan in this sitter's hand announces her status before anything else does. The inscription in the upper right names her as Lavinia, Titian's daughter, painted by her father. She had married Cornelio Sarcinelli, a nobleman from Serravalle, in 1555, and the gallery in Dresden dates the portrait to around 1565, when she would have been about 30. Her clothes follow the Spanish fashion then reaching Venice, with slashed and puffed sleeves, lace cuffs and a sheer blouse above green velvet trimmed with gold. A long string of pearls is caught up on her bodice with a ruby brooch. Some scholars now doubt both the inscription and Titian's hand, while Dresden keeps the picture under his name. It reached Dresden in 1746, among the paintings Duke Francesco III of Modena sold to Augustus III, Elector of Saxony.