works, such as La Schiavona. The dates assigned have all been in the period of about 1509–1512; a painting in the Hermitage Museum that is "obviously inspired by it" is dated 1512. According to Nicholas Penny, the Man with a Quilted Sleeve may be Titian's earliest portrait, apart from a Knight of Malta in the Uffizi. The widely spaced letters "T V" appear as though carved into the stone parapet either side of the sleeve, with triangular dots around them. They are usually taken as Titian's initials (his name was "Tiziano Vecellio"), though there is a second V visible in infra-red reflectography, so the painting once might have carried "the mysterious abbreviation "VV"". This appears on various Venetian portraits of around this date, including several works attributed to Giorgione, such as the Giustiniani Portrait or the Gentleman with a book, as well as Titian's La Schiavona. Various moral mottos, such as "virtus vincit (omnia)" ("virtue conquers all") have been proposed as the meaning. "VV" is not usually regarded as a signature, but "TV" might be Titian's. Before cleaning and restoration the signature had been added to by a later hand, so that it read TITIANUS and a monogram with the overlapping letters "TV". Like many others, the painting was at times attributed to Giorgione, well into the 20th century. The painting was cleaned in 1949, when the later parts of the signature were painted over. The blue sleeve is well preserved, parts of the face and the area around the hand are rubbed, and the sill is "extensively restored". Fine red lines representing threads in the fabric of the sleeve have now faded, and the effect of the "hollows and dimples" on its surface is somewhat reduced by "blanching" that reduces their contrast to the rest of the sleeve. Scientific imaging reveals only a little very confident underdrawing. Identity of sitter From at least the 1630s until the late 19th century it was thought to be a portrait of the poet Ludovico Ariosto, but this is dismissed by all modern critics. Even when it entered the National Gallery in 1904 it was only "tentatively" so identified, as it does not resemble other portraits of Ariosto, such as (probably) one by Palma Vecchio also in the Gallery. It was first suggested in 1895 (by Jean Paul Richter) that it portrays a man from the Barbarigo family, as a Titian portrait of