The Cabinet of the Italian Schools

In the second row on the right, by the door, is Titian’s Venus with a Mirror, which was sold in 1931 to Andrew Mellon, the financier and U.S. Treasury Secretary, and later became part of the collection of the National Gallery of Art that he founded in Washington. In the 191th century, the painting was such an undisputed masterpiece that a copy could be placed in the same room, on the other side of the door.