Portrait of Jacopo Sannazaro

Titian's Portrait of Jacopo Sannazaro, painted around 1516 and now in the Royal Collection, depicts the celebrated Neapolitan poet who wrote the influential pastoral romance Arcadia (1504). The portrait demonstrates Titian's early mastery of literary portraiture, capturing the poet with the intellectual dignity appropriate to one of the most admired writers of the Italian Renaissance. Sannazaro's Arcadia virtually created the genre of pastoral literature that influenced European culture for centuries.

Titian renders the poet with warm Venetian color and the developing confidence of his early maturity, using subtle gesture and expression to convey the intellectual character of the celebrated literary figure.

This portrait from 1516 has been conserved over five centuries. The face and costume retain their careful modeling. The canvas or panel has been stabilized. The dark background has darkened further with age, though the face remains clearly defined.