Vincenzo Cappello

Vincenzo Cappello had been one of Venice's most celebrated naval commanders, and when he died in 1541 at a great age the demand for his likeness only grew. This portrait shows him in full armour, one hand closed around the baton of command, the face of a man who had spent a lifetime in the Republic's service. Titian's composition proved so popular that it survives in at least five versions and copies made around the same time. The National Gallery of Art now catalogues its picture as Titian and Workshop, and among all the surviving versions this one is generally taken to be the earliest and the finest. That is the ordinary life of a successful Venetian portrait, repeated by the studio for a family and a city that wanted to keep the old admiral in view.