Ritratto di una dama

For a long time this woman had a name. She was known as Giulia Gonzaga, a celebrated Italian noblewoman, and the picture was valued as her likeness. Scholars have since given that up. The sitter is no longer thought to be Gonzaga, and even Titian's own authorship is debated, so the painting now carries the plainest of titles, Portrait of a Lady. What is not in doubt is the type it belongs to, the idealised fair-haired beauty that Titian made popular in 16th-century Venice, close kin to his celebrated La Bella and Girl in a Fur. She turns gently toward us, her hair drawn back, a jewel at her breast and soft fur slipping from one shoulder.