Nicolo Zen (oil on canvas)

Nicolo Zen (1515-65); Described by Vasari, Titian’s biographer, in 1567 as among his later portraits, the sitter of this painting lost his identity for a while until his likeness was recently matched with an inscribed sculptured bust, now in the Museum of Bassano del Grappa. Nicolò Zen was a Savio di terraferma and a Knight (either of which would account for the colour of his robe), a member of the Council of Ten and had served as ambassador to Charles V in 1545. He was also an author, and a friend of the publisher Francesco Marcolini, and of such patrons of Titian as Pietro Aretino and Daniele Barbaro. The portrait was bought by William Bankes (1786–1855) in 1820 from the Marescalchi collection in Bologna as an unknown senator of the Savorgnan family.