Search results

Start typing

Portrait of the Artist
This exhibition is in the past. View our current exhibitions.
AFTER TITIAN (C. 1488-VENICE 1576)

Titian and his Friends

1550-60

RCIN 402841

When this painting was in the collection of Charles I it showed only two figures, Titian (on the left) and Andrea de Franceschi, Grand Chancellor of Venice, wearing the scarlet velvet robes of his position. In 1957 an X-ray indicated the presence of the third man on the right, along with two other figures who remain concealed. Alan Bennett's fictional one-act play, A Question of Attribution, was inspired by this painting. It features Anthony Blunt, the former Surveyor of The Queen's Pictures, who in 1979 was publicly exposed as a member of the Cambridge Spy Ring. Bennett uses the discovery of the hidden third, fourth and fifth heads to parallel the exposure of the Cambridge Five.

Cat. 123

    The income from your ticket contributes directly to The Royal Collection Trust, a registered charity. The aims of The Royal Collection Trust are the care and conservation of the Royal Collection, and the promotion of access and enjoyment through exhibitions, publications, loans and educational activities.