Killer snakes, boozy beards and Da Vinci's…

At rest ... Reclining Nude, Head Resting on Right Arm, 1919, by Modigliani. Photograph: Tate

Exhibition of the week

Modigliani
This short-lived painter, who combined Cubism with the Renaissance nude, put sensuality into modernism.
• Tate Modern, London, 23 November to 2 April.

Also showing

Gilbert & George: The Beard Pictures and Their Fuckosophy
Surreal facial hair made of everything from leaves to beer in self-portraits that celebrate 50 years of Gilbert & George – plus, their latest thoughts on life.
• White Cube Bermondsey, London, 22 November to 28 January.

Venom: Killer and Cure
Shocking specimens and scary stories make this a darkly fascinating insight into the lives of snakes, wasps and other venomous animals.
• Natural History Museum, London, until 13 May.

Tony Swain: Works or Everyone
Newspapers become dreamy landscapes and abstract musings in Swain’s engagingly layered painting-collages.
• The Modern Institute, Glasgow, until 20 January.

James White: Bodies
Everyday objects are eerily studied in White’s black-and-white paintings that mimic photographs.
• Blain Southern, London, 22 November to 13 January.

Masterpiece of the week

An Allegory of Prudence, 1550-65, by Titian
Age and Youth are at the sides on Titian’s mysterious three-headed image. In the centre is a bearded man of affairs who looks like he knows what he’s doing. It is probably Titian’s son Orazio, whom he clearly had high hopes for. Orazio is aligned with the lion in the allegorical trinity of animals below the human heads: he is equated with this regal animal of courage and strength that was also the symbol of Venice. The old man with a wolf as his symbol is the elderly Titian himself: the young man with a dog presumably another member of the family, perhaps a cousin. In Renaissance heraldry these three animals together represent prudence. This is a painting that expresses Titian’s hopes for his family, which were to be shattered when he and Orazio died in a plague in 1576.
• National Gallery, London.

Image of the week

Leonardo da Vinci’s Salvator Mundi circa 1500

Salvator Mundi, c.1500, by Leonardo da Vinci
The Italian master’s painting of Jesus Christ sold for $450.3m at auction in New York, setting a new record for the most expensive work of art. We decided to rate Leonardo’s other paintings.