Ranuccio
Farnese
circa 1542
Not even a teenager, Ranuccio poses like
an adult. His stare is important: his eyes, the slight flare of his nostrils
and his pursed mouth give the impression that he is overwhelmed with the
prospect of what he is posing for, and that it has stupefied him into a slight
trance.
Titian placed the strongest light directly
on the boy’s upper half. It accentuates the gleam of his costly, possibly silk,
red chemise as well as his fresh complexion. His blushed cheeks and large ears
place him in the context of childhood - a stage that, judging by his strict
posture and conventional clothing, he has been forced out of too early. The sharp
contrast between the high finish of his clothing and the blackness of the
background and of his large overcoat could be interpreted as a kind of
vacuum: one that is sucking away the innocence and childish spirit from a
twelve-year-old who had no choice but to submit to the contorted rules
of the ecclesiastical world.
It is sad to see someone young aged in
such a rapid way. For the sake of religion Ranuccio must have been harvested
like a seed from birth to assume the title of Cardinal, which happened not long
after this portrait was commissioned. One wonders whether he experienced childhood
at all.
