Portrait of Titian; detail from Anthony van Dyck’s ‘Titian and his Mistress’ etching (1630-40) (see British Museum, R,1b.35), which was subsequently reprinted by Lucas Vorsterman (BM, R,1b.37) with an accompanying popular Venetian verse commenting on the woman’s beauty and a declaration that she is expecting a child, while praising Titian’s artistic skill and calling him ‘great’.
Van Dyck’s etching reproduces a lost, supposed self-portrait by Titian with a luxuriously-dressed younger woman whose arm rests on a box containing a skull, a reminder of human mortality and the artist’s old age. However, the source of the composition remains unresolved. A sketch after the painting is in van Dyck’s Italian Sketchbook in the British Museum (1957,1214.207.109).
Pen and ink drawing, tightly hatched.