Titian’s «Three Ages of Man»: A New Interpretation

This article proposes an interpretation of Titian's The Three Ages of Man, based on a medal by Giovanni Boldù.Since the painting was commissioned by the goldsmith Emiliano Targone, I claim that it was conceived as a gift for the wedding of his daughter Polissena to Giovanni Bernardi, who belonged in the same trade and therefore he must have been able to interpret the picture.Titian would have worked on the canvas between 1516 and 1524, and he produced an exceptionally beautiful epithalamic painting that, besides conforming to genre conventions, conveys a profound moral message that can be deduced from the medal.