An older man with a tanned skin and a white beard is shown from the waist up against a dark brown background in this vertical portrait painting. His body is angled to our right but he turns his head to look to our left. His eyes are shadowed under heavy brows. He has a long, hooked nose, high cheekbones, and the corners of his mouth turn slightly down. His brick-red cap, which is edged with gold, is an unusual shape. It sits low over his forehead and then rises at the back almost like a gourd. The cap sits over a white cloth that comes to points over his ears, and a cord hangs from each point to his shoulders. He wears a voluminous, deep rose-pink garment beneath a billowing, heavy gold robe. The rose-colored garment is streaked with cream-white to suggest a sheen, and it is belted around his waist. The gold, brocade-patterned robe is buttoned near the high collar but then flares open over his chest. The turned-back edge along our left is painted white, perhaps to suggest fur lining. Large, round, gold buttons the size of ping pong balls line the left edge of the robe opening. He wears a gold ring on his right hand, on our left, and he clutches the fabric of the robe near his waist with that hand.

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   This painting is regarded as one of the finest of all Titian’s portraits. Doge Andrea Gritti’s ferocious expression and imposing figure convey an awe-inspiring authority. Titian’s handling of paint is boldly sketchy and energetic throughout. The architecture of Gritti’s face is emphasized with rich impasto (thick buildup of paint), and the extravagance of his robes is communicated through sheen and highlights.

   Andrea Gritti (1455–1538) first came to public attention among Venetians in 1502, when following several years of residence in Constantinople, where he had been active both as a grain merchant and as a spy, he was instrumental in negotiating a peace treaty with the Turks. He was appointed commissioner of the Venetian army and eventually elected doge in 1523. Gritti had a highly ambitious, even autocratic personality. Despite his impatience with the complexities of the Venetian constitution, he nevertheless succeeded in becoming one of the most effective and influential of all post-medieval doges and played a major role as a patron of art and architecture.

   The forceful hand gesture in Gritti’s portrait may be a quotation of Michelangelo’s famous sculpture of Moses (c. 1513–1515), perhaps implying a comparison between Gritti and Pope Julius II, for whose tomb the Moses was made. Both rulers were renowned for their terribilità, or their domineering personalities as leaders in war and politics. Julius also provided a striking precedent for Gritti in his vigorous promotion of art and culture as an expression of political renewal.

   The composition and character of the portrait suggest that it was conceived not as an official image for a public building, but rather as a private commission, and subsequently remained in the possession of the Gritti family. The work gives powerful expression both to the majesty of the office of doge and to the physical and intellectual vitality of Gritti the man.

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