Titian (Tiziano Vecellio) (Italian, Pieve di Cadore ca. 1485/90?–1576 Venice), Portrait of a Lady and Her Daughter, ca. 1550. Oil on canvas, 34 3/4 × 31 3/4 in. (88.3 × 80.6 cm) Frame: 52 × 48 × 3 in. (132.1 × 121.9 × 7.6 cm). Cobbe Collection, Hatchlands Park © Alec Cobbe

The complicated history of this painting illustrates a possible outcome when a work is left unfinished in a great artist’s studio. The identity of the woman and her daughter, a rare pairing in Venetian painting of the time, is unknown, although it may be that the two were part of Titian’s own family. Following Titian’s death, the painting was altered by someone in the studio to depict Tobias and the archangel Raphael, a transformation that diminished the quality of the work (see image); only in in the second half of the twentieth century was the underlying tender but incomplete image of the mother and child revealed. 

This work is exhibited in the “Unfinished: Thoughts Left Invisible” exhibition, on view through September 4th, 2016. #MetBreuer