Resumen de Titian Draws Himself
The purpose of this note is to introduce a drawing of great interest and resonance, a profile portrait of Titian, and to suggest that it is indeed the work of the master himself. The drawing is clearly related to the profile self-portrait in the Prado, although in reverse, facing to the right. It had been tentatively ascribed to Giuseppe Porta, but that attribution has not proved convincing. Not surprisingly, the small corpus of accepted drawings by Titian offers no ready comparison, and the attribution of the portrait must be argued on the basis of its quality and the intimate mechanics of its creation. It is hoped that relocating this self-portrait into the small corpus of Titian drawings will serve not only to invite further critical attention to an important work but also, potentially, to expand the boundaries of the corpus itself.
