Prince

In the Middle Ages, Titian painted colors that glow even today as the most perfectly bright pigments. Once, Alphonso d' Este, the Duke of Ferrara, third husband of Lucrezia Borgia, bargaining after the mysterious, Machiavellian manner of those times, for possession of two great cities with many thousand souls in fealty bound, ordered a painting of himself to be made and sent to His Holy and Imperial Majesty Charles V, as a token of goodwill that might facilitate the transfer of property. Titian made the picture about 1525, since when it has remained forever fair, though the cities and the man for whose sake it was created have long ago filtered into the earth. For centuries, it was believed lost. An art dealer, A. S. Drey, discovered it, sold it to the Metropolitan Museum for a sum not definitely known but rumored to range anywhere from $150,000 to $1,000,000. Funds were forthcoming from the endowment granted by the late Frank A. Munsey.

Now it can be seen hanging in the position of honor at the museum in Manhattan--a gorgeous portrait of a medieval prince, at once beautiful and cruel. The head is perfection. A furry outer jacket partially conceals the crimson tunic with gold sleeves. Jewels gleam against the darker shades, simplicity sits elegantly upon the brighter colors. The complete history of the canvas is not known. What happened to it during the centuries of its "loss"? Until that is explained, scientists cannot be certain that this is a genuine Titian. What difference does it make? asked artists. It is itself rapturously beautiful. Romancers, too, resented this inquiry into its secrets.

Said Bryson Burroughs, curator of paintings at the Metropolitan:

"That it is the work of Titian all the critics who have seen it, with remarkable and unusual accord, agree. The noble design is his invention, and no one but he could have carried out in this rich and lustrous color such subtleties of detail, combined with breadth and solidity of form. Examine it closely and note these subtleties-- the unevenness of the skin; the differences in the texture of the flesh, how here it sags and there it is drawn taut over the bones; the folds about the eyes; the slightly swollen lids, somewhat bloodshot; the inhaling nostrils; the puffy lower lip; even separate hairs of the beard are drawn out, and the hair, loosely combed off the forehead, would wave gently if blown on. Then move away and see how these fine distinctions disappear in the solidity and rotundity of the head marked boldly by only the most conspicuous and characteristic forms of the features. Notice too the great mass of the body to which the delicate sheen of the velvet folds and the pattern of the brocaded sleeves are entirely subservient. Observe also the splendid prehensibility of the hands, one resting elegantly on the smooth bronze of the cannon, the other, its strength in repose for the moment, holding the sword-scabbard lightly at his thigh. Only Titian could have painted the deep crimson velvet of the doublet, the soft fur of the collar, the liquid blue of the sapphire, the glint of the pendant pearl on his chest. Surely our picture is one of the great achievements!"