Portrait of Pietro Aretino

Pietro Aretino was one of the most feared writers in Italy, a satirist whose pen could flatter a prince or wreck him, and he was also Titian's close friend. In early 1545 he had Titian paint this portrait, then that October sent it as a gift to Cosimo the First, the Medici duke of Florence. Titian was moving into the loose, sketch-like manner of his later years, and you can see it in the great orange-brown robe, built from broad shining strokes rather than careful finish. Aretino admired Titian enormously, yet even he grumbled that the cloak looked unfinished, as though his friend had hurried it. He turns his head to one side, heavy and watchful, the very presence he cultivated in life.