Room 15

Compare the poised figures in Titian’s Portrait of Gerolamo (?) Barbarigo and Rembrandt’s Self Portrait at the Age of 34. A pose, an arm resting near the picture’s edge and the treatment of clothing can travel between artists and generations. Painters learned by studying and copying earlier work. Some saw original pictures, while others relied on prints. They could borrow a successful pose and adapt it to a new sitter, including themselves. This room brings those exchanges into view. The National Gallery was founded partly as a place where artists could learn from the collection, and that use continues alongside the pleasure of looking.