Titian and His Mistress c. 1620

Anthony van Dyck created this engraving, "Titian and His Mistress," as part of a series of portraits of famous people. Here we see an aged Titian, gazing adoringly at a younger woman, presumed to be his mistress. The image is fraught with the visual codes common in seventeenth-century Europe: the contrast between youth and age, beauty and decay. Below the figures we see a skull, a ‘memento mori’ which serves as a reminder of the transience of life. Van Dyck was Flemish, but he made this print while working in Italy. He was emulating Titian, who, in his own time, had challenged social norms through his art. What’s more, Titian himself was very interested in the institutions of art. He was ennobled by the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. To fully appreciate this image, we need to consider the relationship between the artist, his subject, and the art market in which they both operated. Art historians draw on many resources to shed light on these contexts, including letters, inventories, and other archival documents.