Portrait of a Man

This early Portrait of a Man, painted around 1509 and now in the Indianapolis Museum of Art, belongs to the intensely creative period when Titian was working alongside Giorgione on the frescoes of the Fondaco dei Tedeschi — the German merchants' warehouse in Venice — and when the boundary between the two artists' contributions was so fine that contemporaries and subsequent scholars have debated attributions for five centuries. The soft atmospheric modeling, the slightly melancholy gaze, and the mysterious quality of the sitter's inner life all reflect the Giorgionesque manner, but the vigorous impasto of certain passages and the directness of the characterization are more typically Titianesque. The Indianapolis Museum of Art's holding of this early work reflects the active American collecting of Italian Renaissance paintings from the late nineteenth century through the Kress and other foundation gifts that distributed significant works to regional museums across the United States.

The early portrait demonstrates the atmospheric, Giorgionesque approach with soft tonal modeling and warm palette, with the contemplative mood and blended contours characteristic of the period when Titian and Giorgione's styles were nearly indistinguishable.

This portrait, sometimes called the "Ariosto" portrait, has been in the National Gallery, London, since the 19th century. Its attribution has oscillated between Titian and Giorgione. The painting has been carefully conserved, with the distinctive quilted sleeve well-preserved. The canvas has been relined.