O doge Andrea Gritti

Andrea Gritti had been dead for nearly ten years when Titian painted this. Gritti had ruled Venice as doge from 1523 until his death in 1538, a soldier and statesman who pushed the city to rebuild and rearm after hard wars. Titian never had him sitting in the room. He worked from memory and from an earlier portrait he had made in the 1530s, which later burned in a palace fire. Perhaps that freedom is why the paint is so bold. Gritti turns and grips his heavy robe, the fabric built up in thick loaded strokes, his face set in a glare. The portrait stayed in the hands of the Gritti family for generations after it was made.