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(Tiziano - Pieve di Cadore, 1490? - Venice 1576)
Oil on canvas, 140 x 110 cm- Palatina Gallery, Pitti Palace, Florence.
Ippolito de' Medici (Florence 1511-1535) was made a cardinal in 1529, but was not fond of his cardinals robes. In 1532 he joined a military expedition against the Turks in Hungary in the retinue of Emperor Charles Vs troops. On his return, while in Bologna in 1533, he commissioned Tiziano to paint his portrait in Hungarian costume. The Badge on his hat bears a pledge of love to Giulia Gonzaga. Tiziano first trained as an artist in Venice in the workshop of Giorgione (d. 1510) to whom some of his earlier works were attributed. After 1511 he began to be recognized in Venice and Padua as the greatest painter of his time and he enjoyed success throughout his long life. He worked for all the most important art patrons of the day, including the Este in Ferrara, the Della Rovere in Urbino, the Gonzaga in Mantua, as well as for the Pope, the Emperor Charles V and his son, Philip II.The radiant beauty and the poetic and dramatic intensity of his painting, whether portraits or religious or secular works, strongly influenced 16th and 17th century art throughout Europe.
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