Titian
or Tiziano Vecellio was born in a small alpine village of Pieve di Cadore,
now not far from the Austrian border, where his family lived for many years.
His parents, Lucia and Gregorio di Conte dei Vecelli, were respectable
people of modest means. In about 1498, at the age of nine or ten, Titian
and his elder brother Francesco were sent to Venice to start their training
as painters in the workshop of the mosaicist Sebastiano Zuccato. Though
soon Titian left his workshop and began studying painting in the
workshops of Gentile Bellini
and Giovanni Bellini. It is
believed, that his earliest surviving work Pope
Alexander VI Presenting Jacopo Pesaro to Saint Peter (1502-1512)
was influenced by Giovanni Bellini. In 1507, Titian joined the workshop
of
Giorgione as his assistant
and three years (until Giorgione's death in 1510), which he spent with
this outstanding master, were a lasting influence on the young Titian to
such a degree, that some works which are now thought to have been painted
by Titian used to be attributed to Giorgione, and vice versa. One of them
is Concert Champetre (c.1510-1511),
which is still in some sources considered to be painted by Giorgione. Other
works by Titian, which bear the Giorgione's influence are The
Birth of Adonis (1505-1510),
The
Legend of Polydorus (1505-1510),
St.
Mark Enthroned with Saints (c.1510), The
Concert (c.1510),
Noli me tangere
(1511-1512),
Gypsy Madonna (c.1512)
and even his masterpiece Sacred and Profane
Love (1514).
In 1510 Titian received his first important commission to produce some
frescoes in the Scuola del Santo in Padua dedicated the life
of St. Anthony of Padua. Since that time Titian began to win independent
commissions and to establish himself as a painter in Venice. In 1513 he
opened his own workshop, in which he employed two assistants, one of whom
had worked for Giovanni Bellini. In 1516 Titian was commissioned to paint
a new work for the high altar in the Franciscan church of Santa Maria Gloriosa
dei Frari in Venice, the Assumption of the
Virgin (Assunta) (1516-1518), which was destined to become
the milestone in the history of Venetian High Renaissance. This altarpiece
made Titian the most celebrated painter in Venice. At the same time, it
drew him to the attention of Bellini's old patrons in the northern Italian
ruling houses. He was commissioned by the Duke of Ferrara Alfonso d'Este
to produce three large mythological paintings The
Worship of Venus (1518), Bacchus
and Ariadne (1520-1522) and Bacchanal
of the Andrians (1523-1525).
In the following years Titian painted another monumental altarpieces Pesaro
Altarpiece (1519-1526) and Madonna
in Glory with the Christ Child and Saints Francis and Alvise with the Donor
Alvise Gozzi (1520), which set a standard for the future. His
another masterpiece of the time the Martyrdom of St. Peter Martyr
has been lost. In 1523 Titian first met Federico II Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua,
who became one of his clients. On Duke's commissions he painted Portrait
of Federico II Gonzaga (1523-1529) and also some religious
paintings, such as Madonna and Child with
St. Catherine and a Rabbit (1530). Federico II Gonzaga also
introduced Titian to the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V.
The 1520s - 1540s were the years when Titian created his best portraits.
The best, which survived, are A Knight of
Malta (c.1510-1515), Young Man
with Cap and Gloves (c.1512-1515), Man
with a Glove (c.1520-1522), Portrait
of Tomaso or Vincenzo Mosti (c.1526), Portrait
of Ippolito de' Medici (1533), La
Bella (1536), Portrait of Francesco
Maria della Rovere, Duke of Urbino (c.1536-1538), The
Young Englishman (c.1540-1545), Portrait
of Cardinal Pietro Bembo (c.1540), Portrait
of a Musician (c.1515 or c.1544-1546), Portrait
of a Girl (Lavinia) (c.1545).
In 1533 Titian was called to the court of Charles V, where he was appointed
a court painter and made a Count Palatine and Knight of the Golden Spur.
Titian painted several portraits of Charles V, such as Portrait
of Charles V (1533), Portrait
of Emperor Charles V at Muhlberg (1548), Portrait
of Emperor Charles V Seated (1548) and members of his family:
Portrait
of Isabella of Portugal (1548), Charles V's late wife, and
his son Philip, the future Emperor, Portrait
of Philip II in Armor (c.1550-1551), Portrait
of Philip II (c.1554).
In 1538 Titian created another masterpiece Venus
of Urbino (1538), one of the numerous paintings of a female
nude depicting Titian's ideal of female beauty. Other famous Titian's women
are
Flora (c.1515-1520), Salome
(c.1515),
Venus Anadyomene (c.1520),
Venus
and Cupid with an Organist (c.1548), Danae
with Nursemaid (1553-1554), Venus
and Adonis (1553-1554), Pardo
Venus (Jupiter and Antiope) (1535-1540) and even St.
Mary Magdalene (c.1530-1535).
Titian created several commissions for the Pope Paul III from the Farnese
family, among which Pope Paul III and His
Grandsons Ottavio and Cardinal Alessandro Farnese (1545-1546),
the picture was considered too revealing and was not finished.
By the end of the 1550s, Titian had come to value the exploration of the
color above all other aspects of art. His style and technique were evolving
from the more precise contours, modeling and finish of the early portraits
to a much bolder, freer style with more highly charged brushwork; he handled
the paint increasingly broadly, creating an effect almost like mosaic,
with patches of color. It was noted of his late work (as it was later of
the Impressionists) that while the painting did not cohere if seen close
up, when seen from the "proper" distance it became brilliantly clear. For
splendor of color, the climax was reached in some of Titian's late mythologies
painted for Philip II: Diana and Callisto
(1556-1559), Diana and Actaeon
(1556-1559), The Rape of Europe
(1562), Venus Blindfolding Cupid
(c.1565). Among of his other late works the most notable are Allegory
of Time Governed by Prudence (c.1565), Penitent
St. Mary Magdalene (1565), Religion
Succored by Spain (1572-1575), St.
Sebastian (1575). Titian died on 27 August 1576, in his house
in Biri Grande in Venice. He was buried in Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari
for which he created several of his best works.
In very different ways,
his art influenced painters such as Nicolas
Poussin, Peter Paul Rubens,
Anthony
van Dyck, Diego Velazquez,
Rembrandt,
Francisco
de Goya,
Eugene Delacroix,
Edouard
Maner, Auguste Renoir, to
name but a few.
Bibliography:
Painting of Europe. XIII-XX centuries. Encyclopedic Dictionary.
Moscow. Iskusstvo. 1999.
The Art of the Italian Renaissance. Architecture. Sculpture. Painting.
Drawing. Könemann. 1995.
The
Renaissance Artist at Work: From Pisano to Titian (Icon Editions
Ser.) by Bruce Cole. Westview Press, 1984.
Titian
to 1518: The Emergence of Genius by Paul Joannides. Yale Univ
Pr, 2002.
Titian:
Prince of Painters by Titian, Susanna Biadene (Editor), Mary
Yakush, Palazzo Ducale. Prestel USA, 1990.
Titian's
Women by Rona Goffen. Yale Univ Pr, 1997.
Titian
(Masters of Italian Art Series) by Marion Kaminski. Konemann,
1998.
Titian
by Filippo Pedrocco. Rizzoli International Publications, 2001.
Titian's
Portraits Through Aretino's Lens by Luba Freedman, Pietro Aretino.
Pennsylvania State University Press, 1995.
Titian:
Essays by Charles Hope, Jennifer Fletcher, Jill Dunkerton.
Yale University Press, 2003.
Bellini,
Giorgione, Titian, and the Renaissance of Venetian Painting
by David Alan Brown, Sylvia Ferino-Pagden. Yale University Press, 2006.