''The Bravo'' is an oil painting usually attributed to

Titian Tiziano Vecelli or Vecellio (; 27 August 1576), known in English as Titian ( ), was an Italians, Italian (Republic of Venice, Venetian) painter of the Renaissance, considered the most important member of the 16th-century Venetian school (art), ...

, dated to around 1516-17 and now in the

Kunsthistorisches Museum The Kunsthistorisches Museum ( "Museum of Art History", often referred to as the "Museum of Fine Arts") is an art museum in Vienna, Austria. Housed in its festive palatial building on the Vienna Ring Road, it is crowned with an octagonal d ...

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

. The painting can be seen as one of a number of Venetian paintings of the 1510s showing two or three half-length figures with heads close together, often with their expressions and interactions enigmatic. Most of these are "

Giorgione Giorgione (, , ; born Giorgio Barbarelli da Castelfranco; 1477–78 or 1473–74 – 17 September 1510) was an Italian painter of the Venetian school during the High Renaissance, who died in his thirties. He is known for the elusive poetic quali ...

sque" genre or tronie subjects where the subjects are anonymous, though the group includes Titian's '' The Tribute Money'', with Christ as the main figure, which in terms of style is similar to this painting, and his '' Lucretia and her Husband'', also in Vienna, where at least the woman's identity is clear, if not that of the man. Alternative attributions are to Giorgione (in the past) and Palma Vecchio.

Description

Against a dark background two male figures 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 is imminent. The rear figure is a young man with flowing blonde hair, wearing a garland of vine leaves on his head, who has also reached for his weapon, the hilt dimly visible at bottom centre. The foreground figure has his head turned away from the viewer. Various attempts have been made to assign the scene to a specific incident in myth or history. One suggestion is the arrest of

Bacchus In ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, myth, Dionysus (; grc, wikt:Διόνυσος, Διόνυσος ) is the god of the grape-harvest, winemaking, orchards and fruit, vegetation, fertility, insanity, ritual madness, religious ecstas ...

's follower

Acoetes Acoetes ( grc, Ἀκοίτης, Akoítēs, via la, Ăcoetēs) was the name of four men in Greek and Roman mythology. * Acoetes, a fisherman who helped the god Bacchus. * Acoetes, father to the Trojan priest Laocoön, who warned about the Trojan H ...

Pentheus In Greek mythology, Pentheus (; grc, Πενθεύς, Pentheús) was a king of Thebes. His father was Echion, the wisest of the Spartoi. His mother was Agave, the daughter of Cadmus, the founder of Thebes, and the goddess Harmonia. His sister w ...

, king of Thebes, which would explain the wreath of vine-leaves in his hair. An x-ray of the painting showed that the head of the man on the right (the foreground figure) once wore a crown.

History and attribution

The painting was probably in the Venetian collection of Zuanantonio Venier in 1526, who had one then described as "two half-figures attacking each other by Titian". In 1636 it was sold to the

Duke of Hamilton Duke of Hamilton is a title in the Peerage of Scotland, created in April 1643. It is the senior dukedom in that peerage (except for the Dukedom of Rothesay held by the Sovereign's eldest son), and as such its holder is the premier peer of Sco ...

, who brought it to London. Most of his purchases were from the collection of Bartolomeo della Nave, who perhaps had it by then. After Hamilton's execution, it was acquired by

Archduke Leopold Wilhelm of Austria Archduke Leopold Wilhelm of Austria (5 January 1614 – 20 November 1662), younger brother of Emperor Ferdinand III, was an Austrian soldier, administrator and patron of the arts. He held a number of military commands, with limited success, an ...

, whose collection later became part of the Habsburg imperial collection in Vienna, then passed to the Kunsthistorisches Museum. An etching after a reduced copy by

David Teniers the Younger David Teniers the Younger or David Teniers II (bapt. 15 December 1610 – 25 April 1690) was a Flemish Baroque painter, printmaker, draughtsman, miniaturist painter, staffage painter, copyist and art curator. He was an extremely versatile ar ...

shows the painting attributed to

. The painting must have been a popular painting when it was in the Archduke's cabinet, as it was portrayed in some of his gallery paintings by Teniers. The work was attributed to Titian by the Italian art historian

Roberto Longhi Roberto Longhi (28 December 1890 – 3 June 1970) was an Italian academic, art historian, and curator. The main subjects of his studies were the painters Caravaggio and Piero della Francesca. Early life and career Longhi was born in December 18 ...

, which remains usual. But for John Steer the painting was "surely by" Palma Vecchio.Steer, 115-116 File:Arolsen Klebeband 13 095.jpg, Etching from the Arolsen klebeband, a version of the catalog by Teniers, which shows attribution to

File:David Teniers the Younger - modello for Theatrum Pictorium 1673.jpg, This painting, along with its pendant Violante in the frontispiece for Teniers the Younger's catalog of 1659-1673 File:Gallery of Archduke Leopold Wilhelm in Brussels - Petworth House.jpg, Archduke's gallery (collection Petworth House) File:David Teniers d. J. 008.jpg, Archduke's gallery (collection Kunsthistorisches Museum)

Notes

References

* Jaffé, David (ed), ''Titian'', The National Gallery Company/Yale, London 2003, , #12 in catalogue * Steer, John, ''Venetian painting: A concise history'', 1970, London: Thames and Hudson (World of Art), *
A period copy
in the V&A {{DEFAULTSORT:Bravo 1516 paintings Genre paintings by Titian Paintings in the collection of the Kunsthistorisches Museum Paintings in the collection of the Archduke Leopold Wilhelm of Austria