The Uffizi brings home the portrait of the Duke of Urbino. The work in the Marche after 400 years

Homecoming, albeit temporary, for the Portrait of Francesco I della Rovere, Duke of Urbino, made between 1536 and 1538 by Tiziano Vecellio (Pieve di Cadore, c. 1490 - Venice, 1576). Born in 1490 in Senigallia, Francesco della Rovere was a nephew of Guidobaldo da Montefeltro and was indicated by the latter, who had no direct heirs, as his successor: having become duke of Urbino in 1508, Francesco I remained in office until the year of his death, 1538. Dating from 1536 is a document in which the duke asked for the return of a suit of armor so that Titian could depict it in the portrait he was executing: the note is useful for being able to date the creation of the work by the artist from Cadore. The portrait later moved to Florence, along with many other works that once made up the Urbino collections, following the marriage of Vittoria della Rovere, a descendant of Francesco I, to Grand Duke Ferdinando II de’ Medici, celebrated in 1634.

The work, which is now in the Uffizi, has been loaned for an exhibition running from April 14 to July 14, 2019 at the Ducal Palace in Urbania, in what were once the lands ruled by the Montefeltro and della Rovere families. Entitled Titian’s Francesco Maria I della Rovere, the exhibition aims to reconstruct the vicissitudes of the Della Rovere collections. The exhibition is organized by the Municipality of Urbania - Library and Museums of the Ducal Palace, in collaboration with the Uffizi Gallery, the Polo Museale delle Marche, the Marche Region, the Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Pesaro and the Unione Montana Alta Valle del Metauro.

“The Uffizi,” says the director of the Florentine museum, Eike D. Schmidt, “devote in this month of April a special commitment to the valorization and in the art on the territories, one of the main cultural strategies of the Galleries, and this exhibition, with the loan to Urbania of the famous Francis I by Titian is exemplary testimony of this.”

Pictured: Titian, Portrait of Francesco I della Rovere (1536-1538; oil on canvas, 114 x 103 cm; Florence, Uffizi Gallery)

The Uffizi brings home the portrait of the Duke of Urbino. The work in the Marche after 400 years

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