The painting explores the effects of ageing and the manoeuvring behind succession; Paul was at the time in his late seventies and ruling in an uncertain political climate as Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor came into ascendancy.

He appointed Alessandro as cardinal against accusations of nepotism, fathered a number of illegitimate children, and spent large sums of church money collecting art and antiquities.

Aware of the changing tides of influence, Titian abandoned the commission before completion,[3] and for the next 100 years the painting languished unframed in a Farnese cellar.

A talented and cunning political operator, Paul was precisely the sort of man the Florentines needed to assist them in their defence against French and Spanish threats.

Thus Alessandro became a cardinal deacon; this appointment did not necessitate taking major orders, but it compelled him to celibacy and to forgo the rights of primogeniture, which instead went to Ottavio.

In 1547 his father was assassinated and Ottavio claimed the dukedom of Parma and Piacenza against the express wishes of both Charles, his father-in-law, and Paul.

In doing so, Ottavio acted in opposition to the pope's desire to maintain the duchies as papal fiefs, and to Charles, whom he believed responsible for the plot to assassinate Pier Luigi.

[5] At the time of the portrait Paul had convinced Alessandro to retain the post, hinting that he would later succeed him as pope – an aspiration that was ultimately frustrated.

Around this time, Titian's son Pomponio decided to enter the clergy, and the painter sought to use his contacts with the papacy to gain a church and lands for him.

Working through his contacts with Cardinal Alessandro,[12] he asked that in return for the Farnese portraits Pomponio be granted the abbey of San Pietro in Colle Umberto, in grounds bordering Titian's own in Ceneda.

This was at first rejected, but on 20 September 1544 Titian seemed assured enough to send a message to Cardinal Alessandro that he would visit to "paint Your Honor's illustrious household down to the last cat".

The deep red background and heavy brushstrokes establish an anxious and tense atmosphere,[4] and the uneasy relationship between the Pope and his suitors.

The painting is set at a curious angle, so that although Paul is positioned low in the pictorial space, the viewer still looks upwards towards him as if in respect.

He is dressed in full pomp, wearing wide fur-lined sleeves (a typical Venetian device to convey status), and his cape is laid across his upper body to suggest physical presence.

[4] This dramatic colour and luminosity can be in part attributed to this design, and to the manner in which Titian reverses the usual painterly technique in building tone: he began with a dark background, then layered the lighter hues before the darker passages.

While the pope's robes are painted with very broad strokes, his cape (mozzetta), ageing face and visible hand were captured in minute detail with thin brushes, with his hairs rendered at the level of individual strands.

"[23] The grandsons are depicted in very different styles: Alessandro acts in a formal manner and wears clothes of similar colour and tones to Paul.

Many of Titian's characteristic finishing touches are missing; Paul's fur-lined sleeves do not contain the polishing white strokes of the 1543 portrait, or his usual final overglaze or glossing.

[25] Although the work is often thought of as an unflattering and cold look at an ageing pope besieged by cunning and opportunistic relatives, the reality is more complex and the artist's intention more subtle.

[4] However, it was one Titian seems to have resolved; while the complexity of the relationships is all on the canvas, it may have been intended as an indicator to Charles that Paul retained his position as the dominant patriarch – old and frail but still a man of vitality, and in control of his squabbling descendants.

Alessandro's large collection of art and antiques, which included the Titian portraits commissioned by Paul, was eventually inherited by Elisabetta Farnese (1692–1766).