Titian and His Mistress
c. 1620
Medium
Etching and engraving in black on ivory laid paper
Dimensions
Image/plate: 30.4 × 30.3 cm (12 × 11 15/16 in.); Sheet: 34.5 × 27.5 cm (13 5/8 × 10 7/8 in.)
Classification
etching
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
55983
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
Anthony van Dyck’s print of a lost self-portrait by the Venetian master Titian shows the artist with a luxuriously dressed woman who is significantly younger than he is. Included within the work is a popular Venetian verse that comments on the woman’s beauty and declares that she is expecting a child, while calling Titian “great” and praising his artistic skill. The woman’s arm rests on a box containing a skull, and her eyes look away from the aged Titian, indicating the artist’s mortality and m...
About the Artist
Anthony van Dyck · 1599–1641
Sir Anthony van Dyck (1599-1641) was a Flemish Baroque artist who revolutionized portrait painting and became the most influential court painter in 17th-century England. Born in Antwerp as the seventh of twelve children to a prosperous silk merchant, van Dyck displayed extraordinary artistic talent from childhood. He trained under Hendrick van Balen before joining Peter Paul Rubens's workshop as a...