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

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Aretino, in his letters and sonnets addressed to Veronica Gambara on Titian's portraits of the Duke and Duchess of Urbino (now in the Uffizi), claimed that Titian had conveyed the 'virilit'a de I'animo' of the former and Ivirtuti interne' of the latter. He did not, by contrast, believe that Apelles had been capable of depicting more than the outer form of Alexander:[69]

non finse gil [Apellel del peregrino subietto
l'alto vigor, che I'anima comparte,
Ma Tizian, che dal cielo ha maggior parte,
fuor mostra ogni invisibile concetto...

[Apelles] did not convey of his extraordinary sitter
the high vigour, in which the soul has a part,
but Titian, who has a greater share from Heaven,
shows outwardly every invisible idea ...

The masculine, martial qualities of the Duke, corresponding to the standard, 'Petrarchan' virtues of the Duchess, are exactly those we might once have been able to detect in Glorgione's lost selfâ€‘portrait:

Egli ha il terror fra l'uno e I'altro ciglio,
I'animo in gli occhi e I'alterezza in fronte.

He has havoc between his brows,
spirit in his eyes and pride in his frown.

FOOTNOTES

69 Pietro Aretino, Lettere, F. Nicolini (Ed.), Bari 1913, Book I, no. CCXXIV, 7 December 1537, to Veronica Gambara.