Focus on Self-Portrait (Titian, Berlin) and explore the Origin and purpose.
Parts of the canvas are unfinished, especially the hands, the dark area around his face, and the drapery. It remained in Titian's studio in the Biri Grande, Venice, until his death, which some art historian see as evidence that it was intended as a study, although it may just have been simply because it was unfinished.The Italian painter, architect, and writer Giorgio Vasari wrote in 1568 that Titian had made a number of self-portraits for his family to remember him by, and it is likely that this was one, given that it was not sold in his lifetime. However Vasari dates the portrait to c. 1562–64, this work more closely corresponds to a records of a version of a portrait given to Paolo Giovio in 1549.
Giorgio Vasari Titian Venice Paolo Giovio