Portrait de l'ambassadeur Gabriel de Luetz d'Aramont

The man in the gold chain was a French diplomat named Gabriel de Luetz d'Aramont, and in the 1540s he had one of the strangest jobs in Europe: representing Catholic France at the court of the Ottoman sultan. Francis I of France had allied with Suleiman the Magnificent against their shared rival, the Emperor Charles V, and d'Aramont was the king's man at the Sublime Porte in Constantinople. He sat to Titian in Venice around 1541, probably on his way east. The heavy gold chain around his neck was a sign of royal favour, worn to be read. X-rays have shown that Titian reworked the pose more than once before settling it, hunting for the right balance of the figure against the dark ground.