In this artwork, how is the Dating discussed?
Traditionally dated to 1506–1511, there have been suggestions that instead it belongs to 1503–1506, which would make it the earliest surviving work by the artist, then less than twenty years old on the usual dating for his undocumented birth, which is 1588–90. But older estimates for his birthdate were usually earlier, and a date of 1503, meaning an artist of 13 or 14, seems barely credible.  An early date was backed by Giovanni Battista Cavalcaselle (d. 1897), Adolfo Venturi (d. 1941) and Gronau and opposed by Pallucchini, Roberto Longhi and Morassi, among others. Hourticq dates it to 1515 (assuming an official intervention by Giovanni Bellini) and Suida to between 1512 and 1520. X-rays, however, have revealed a uniform colour texture, contradicting hypotheses that it was a draft expanded over time by several hands.
Restoration shortly before 2003 has confirmed that it relates more closely to "the monumental style Titian developed around 1510-11".It has been claimed that it must have been commissioned in the immediate aftermath of the battle and before 1503, since the militaristic pope Alexander VI died that year and from then on he was banned from official representations, in a kind of damnatio memoriae. However Pesaro did not return to Venice until 1506, and if the prohibition on images ever affected Venice, it is unlikely to have done in 1508–1510, when Venice and the Papacy were on opposite sides in the War of the League of Cambrai.  While Alexander was generally "despised" after his death, Pesaro remained loyal to the memory of his patron, and his will of 1542 left money for masses to be said for Alexander's soul.
Giovanni Bellini War of the League of Cambrai damnatio memoriae Roberto Longhi Titian Giovanni Battista Cavalcaselle Adolfo Venturi pope Alexander VI