TITIAN – Portrait of a young man with a glove Louvre (Paris)

Description of Vechellio Titian’s painting The Young Man with the Glove

Titian’s first artistic experiences involved the creation of religious compositions. Works such as The Dinarium of Caesar and The Deposition in the Tomb (both completed by the 1520s) are striking examples of this.

At the same time in the 1510s Titian turned to the genre of portraiture, and then, over the next four decades, to create the paintings, thanks to which he recognized the greatest portraitist not only Italian but also the European Renaissance. This was understood by many of the nobles of the time, who literally stood in line to pose for the great master and thereby be captured on his canvases.

Already in his early works (including The Young Man with the Glove, written in the first half of the 1920s) Titian with undeniable skill could capture on his canvases the ideal of Renaissance man - beautiful and spiritually, and physically - captured in the fullness of his being.

It is impossible not to note that the artist has well-drawn details of his masterpiece. At the same time, they are not the only ones that make visitors to the Louvre stop in front of the canvas and stare at it for a long time. The overall concept of the painting, revealing through the individual image of the Renaissance man - that’s why we love this picture.

The viewer’s gaze wanders across the canvas, pausing now on the strong broad shoulders of the young man, then on his swarthy face, whose lively sheen proves that its possessor knows no sorrows and doubts typical of the characters of later ages.

The strength and freedom of the young man lies in his graceful posture, his carelessly unbuttoned shirt and the particularly perky expression of his eyes. All this creates a look that captivates viewers with its endless charm and freshness, thus rightly cementing Titian’s fame as a great artist.