Shown from the hips up, a young boy with pale, peachy skin wears a voluminous, black cloak that nearly falls off his shoulders over a rose-pink tunic, with a sword hanging from one hip in this vertical portrait painting. His body is angled slightly to our right, and he looks off to our left with dark brown eyes under gently arched brows. He has a wide nose, and his pink lips are closed with the corners pulled slightly back. His skin is smooth and his cheeks slightly flushed. His dark brown hair is cut close and comes to a point in front of his ears. His tunic is painted with dusky pink highlights against wine-red to suggest a sheen across a vertically striped, leafy pattern. The garment has a high neck lined with a white ruffle and has a row of buttons down the front. His black coat has wide lapels that reach beyond his shoulders, and the puffy sleeves gather on his arms. The coat has a silvery-white cross over the chest to our right. The left and right arms of the cross are lost in the folds but the arms at the top and bottom are forked at the ends. The boy’s pine-green belt is edged with gold, and the hilt of the sword is angled toward us on his left hip, to our right. He holds one fawn-brown glove in his right hand, to our left, and his other arm disappears behind the folds of his coat. The background is deep olive green, almost brown. The artist signed the painting with dark paint near the right edge of the canvas near the boy’s shoulder, “TITANVS F.”

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   Ranuccio Farnese was 11 years old when Titian began to paint his portrait. Adult responsibility came to Ranuccio when he was still a child, as Titian brilliantly conveyed through the cloak of office, too large and heavy, sliding off the boy’s small shoulders.

   When this painting was commissioned, Ranuccio had been sent to Venice by his grandfather, Pope Paul III, to become prior of an important property belonging to the Knights of Malta. A member of the powerful and aristocratic Farnese family, Ranuccio went on to an illustrious ecclesiastical career. He was made archbishop of Naples at the age of 14; by the time he was 19, he was patriarch of Constantinople and archbishop of Ravenna. He became archbishop of Milan in 1564, shortly before dying when he was only 35 years old.

   Portraits by Titian were in great demand, distinguished as they were for their remarkable insight into character and their brilliant technique. Here, he limited his palette to black, white, and rose and enlivened the surface with light: the dull gleam rippling over the sleeves of the velvet cloak, the pattern flickering across the slashed doublet, and the changing reflections on the satin Maltese Cross.

   Titian may have been motivated to approach this painting with particular care in the hope of securing papal patronage and work with the wealthy and influential Farneses. With the success of Ranuccio’s depiction, Titian was soon invited to paint a portrait of Paul III. His initial contacts with the papal family were followed by numerous additional Farnese commissions.

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