To Loosen the Tongue of Mute Poetry: Giorgione's Self-Portrait 'as David' as a Paragone Demonstration

Again, on Titian's female portrait with a profile bust on the parapet in the National Gallery, London, known as 'La Scbiavona' (Pl. 10), the letters 'T.V.' surely refer back to earlier portraits bearing the inscription 'V.' or 'V.V.'[61] and constitute a pun, meaning both 'Titianus Vecellius' and 'Titianus Vincit'. Not simply the painter, but Titian the painter vanquishes sculptors, since his portrait is so much more life‑like than the relief bust, and by extension antiquity; he also vanquishes fellow artists.[62] Titian's Man with a blue sleeve in the National Gallery (Pl. 11) has the same two initials, which are still more likely to bear this latter meaning if the picture may be supposed, as has frequently been claimed,[63] a self‑portrait. If it is a self‑portralt, then surely Titian painted it with conscious reference to Glorgione's self‑portrait, reducing Glorgione's presentation of his art's 'superiority' to a simpler rivalry ‑ with Titian claiming greater impact, greater colorito.[64] That there was sharp rivalry between artists in Venice around this time is suggested by the inscription complaining of envy by Jacopo de' Barbarl on his Madonna in the Louvre[65] and by Dolce's report, taken up in Vasari's second edition, that Glorgione was extremely miffed to have been praised for Titian's work on the Fontego de' Todeschi.[66] (rhe knife in the wound was that Titian's work was on the less prominent and prestigious side, the landward entrance to the Fontego, arousing the implicit query, why should you have painted the minor fagade better than the main one?) There seems, too, to have been another portrait by Titian, according to Vasari representing a member of the Barbarigo family, which from his description was evidently similar both to The man with a blue sleeve and to Giorgione's Berlin portrait,[67] and which we may deduce probably again bore his T.V.: Vasarl's comment, that 'se Tiziano non vi avesse scritto in ombra il suo nome, sarebbe stato tenuto opera di Giorgione' ('if Titian had not written his name in shadow, it would have been taken as a work by Glorgione') has generally been taken simply to mean that Titian imitated Glorgione's style very closely, something that he does not in fact appear to have done. Another explanation is that Vasari, no more comprehending the enjeu here than when reporting Glorgione's self‑portrait, adapted an original piece of information explaining Titian's 'T.V.' as a swipe at Glorgione to his own notion of the similarity of the two artists' styles (into which he had been led by the misinformation of his 1550 edition).[68]

FOOTNOTES

61 Possibly Titian's Schiavona shows reference to a painting known in three versions, in Modena, Budapest and formerly a private collection in Boston: Lucco 1980 (as in n. 57 above), cat. 193; R. Pallucchini and F. Rossi, Giovanni Cariani, Bergamo 1983, cat. A27, A42, A54; P. Rylands, Palma Vecchio, Cambridge 1992, cat. A12; Tiziano: Amor Sacro e Profano 1995 (as in n. 59 above), cat. 26. The version in Budapest suggests the authorship of Sebastiano, though not his autography, in the brilliance of the white, the crinkling of the drapery, and the character and foreshortening of the face, recalling other females by the young Sebastiano. The discreet but unrnistakeable flower in her hair marks the woman as an invention rather than a portrait.

62 See L. Freedman, "'The Schiavona". Titian's Response to the Paragone between Painting and Sculpture', Arte Veneta, 41, 1987, pp. 31‑40.

63 See C. Gould, The Sixteenth‑ Century Italian Scbools, The National Gallery, London, repr. London 1975, p. 28 1; H. E. Wethey, The Paintings of Titian, II, The Portraits, London 1971, cat. 40; C. Hope, Titian, London 1980, p. 30.

64 Titian's portrait is not usually dated before 1510, but seems to be proved to be before 1512 by the date of the portrait deriving from it known in three versions: K. Garas, 'Giorgione et Giorgionisme au XVHE siecle, In', Bulletin du Musee Hongrois des Beaux‑Arts, 28, 1966, pp. 69‑93 (esp. p. 70); Pignatti 1971 (as in n. 8 above), cat. V15. The version in Munich (R. Kultzen and P. Eikemcier, Bayerische Staatsgemaldesammlungen. Alte Pinakothek Munchen: Venezianiscbe Gemilde des 15. und 16. jahrhunderts, Munich 1971, p. 208, no. 2276) bears the date MDXU, making it likely that the MDXI on the St Petersburg version is defective.

65 See J. A. Levenson, Jacopo de' Barbari and Northern Art of the Early Sixteenth Century, PhD diss., New York University 1978, cat. 2; the inscription reads: pascitur in vivis Livor, postfata quiescit I Tum suus ex merito quemque tuetur bonos; Ovid, Amores, 1, xv, 39‑40.

66 Barocchi (Ed.) 1960‑2 (as in n. 5 above) vol. 1, pp. 201‑2; Vasarl, Barocchi (Ed.) 1966‑ (as in n. 7 above), vol. 6, p. 157.

67 Ibid., vol. 6, p. 156.

68 See Holberton 1999 (as in n. 19 above) for further discussion of Vasari on Giorgione.