The Bravo (Titian)

The Bravo is an oil painting usually attributed to Titian, dated to around 1516-17 and now in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna.

Most of these are "Giorgionesque" genre or tronie subjects where the subjects are anonymous, though the group includes Titian's The Tribute Money, with Christ as the main figure, which in terms of style is similar to this painting,[2] and his Lucretia and her Husband, also in Vienna, where at least the woman's identity is clear, if not that of the man.

This foreground figure is dressed in armour and his other hand hides a dagger or a sword of which we see only the hilt, suggesting an attack is imminent.

The rear figure is a young man with flowing blonde hair, wearing a garland of vine leaves on his head, who has also reached for his weapon, the hilt dimly visible at bottom centre.

One suggestion is the arrest of Bacchus's follower Acoetes by Pentheus, king of Thebes, which would explain the wreath of vine-leaves in his hair.