Titian diana and actaeon

This is Titian’s largest group portrait. It was recorded in March in Palazzo Vendramin, Venice, as ‘a large painting in which is depicted the miraculous cross with [] Andrea Vendramin with his seven sons and messer Gabriel Vendramin together with its gold frame made by the hand of Titian.’ It was probably made for the central hall or portego of the family’s palace – a room that exhibited the status of its owner.

Andrea Vendramin (–) was the oldest son of the Venetian patrician Vendramin family, and his brother Gabriel (–) was three years younger than him.

Their family business was the manufacture, sale and export of soap, and their uncle, Doge Andrea Vendramin, was one of the richest men in Venice. The children depicted in Titian’s portrait are the sons of Andrea and his wife Lucrezia Pasqualigo.

The Vendramin family are kneeling before a Gothic reliquary of silver gilt and rock crystal, the gr