Year c. 1515-20 Period High Renaissance | Medium Oil on canvas Created 1520 Genre Portrait | |
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Dimensions 77 cm × 66.5 cm (30 in × 26.2 in) Similar High Renaissance artwork, Portraits | ||
The Bravo is an oil painting attributed to Titian, dated to around 1515 and now held at the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna.
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Description
Against a dark background two male characters are shown, one in front of the other, with the rear one looking over his shoulder at a foreground figure who is tapping his shoulder, making him turn sharply. This foreground figure is dressed in armour and his other hand hides a dagger or a sword of which we see only the hilt, suggesting an attack. The rear figure is a young man with flowing blonde hair, wearing a garland of vine leaves on his head. The foreground figure has his head turned away from the viewer.
The scene may show the arrest of Bacchus by Pentheus, king of Thebes. An x-ray of the paintinng showed that the head of the man on the right (the foreground figure) once wore a crown.
History
The work was part of the Venetian collection of Zuan Antonio Venier in 1526, and Bartolomeo della Nave in 1636, when it was sold to the Duke of Hamilton, who brought it to London. In 1659, it was acquired by Archduke Leopold Wilhelm of Austria, whose collection later became part of the current museum.
An etching by David Teniers the Younger shows the painting attributed to Giorgione. The painting must have been a popular painting when it was in the Archduke's cabinet, as it was portrayed in his gallery paintings.
The work was attributed to Titian by Italian art historian Roberto Longhi.