Self-portrait of Titian
Lavinia Vecelli, Titian's daughter. Portrait by Titian.
Pietro Aretino
Sculptor and architect Jacopo Sansovino, Titian's friend. Portrait by Tintoretto.
Self-portrait of Giovanni Bellini, a painter and Titian's teacher
Giorgione
(also known as Danaë Receiving the Golden Rain)
also known as Danaë Receiving the Golden Rain
(attributed to Titian or Giorgione)
attributed to Titian or Giorgione
Titian was born sometime between 1488 and 1490, in Pieve di Cadore, Veneto, Italy (the Republic of Venice at the time). He was the eldest of five children in the family of Gregorio Vecellio, a wealthy councillor and captain of the local Venetian militia, and Lucia.
A ten-years-old Titian and his brother Francesco were transferred to Venice where they lived with their uncle and studied mosaic at Sebastiano Zuccato's workshop. Quickly, Titian first became an apprentice to Gentile Bellini, and then to his brother Giovanni, the greatest Venetian painter of the time.
While in Venice, Titian got acquainted with many peers, including Lorenzo Lotto, Sebastiano Luciani and Giorgione. Another pupil of Giovanni Bellini, the latter influenced Titian's early works.
The start of Titian's career can be counted from about 1508 when he worked alongside Giorgione on the external decoration of the Fondaco dei Tedeschi. It was the point of departure for his artistic path.
The first independent commission, the one for the frescoes of three miracles of St. Anthony of Padua, came to the painter two or three years later. It resulted in the Miracle of the Speaking Infant and the Miracle of the Irascible Son, a canvas with a very beautiful landscape background.
Upon his return from Padua to Venice, Titian founded a workshop on the Grand Canal, at S. Samuele. The atelier was managed by his younger brother Francesco. Other early works of that period include the Miracle of Jealous Husband, religious canvases Gypsy Madonna and the Madonna of the Cherries, and mythological paintings Flora and Sacred and Profane Love.
In 1516, Titian succeeded his teacher, Giovanni Bellini, in his post of the official painter of the Republic of Venice. Titian held the post for about sixty years and invested his income in the lumber trade of his birthplace, Pieve di Cadore. The spectacular altarpiece panel for the Basilica di Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari, Assumption of the Virgin, praised for its innovative color palette, dates to the same year. A series of small Madonnas for several rich patrons are also among the examples of Titian's works of the time.
Titian's fame as of a great master grew from day to day, and soon he was assigned as the official painter of King Philip II of Spain. His work was sought out by the noblest and wealthiest people of the time.
By the end of the 1520s, Titian began to incorporate the elements of the style, introduced to him by Jacopo Sansovino and Pietro Aretino, the style, that would later be best known as Mannerism. The painter created the first versions of reclining Venus and experimented with the topic throughout the next twenty years, as can be seen in The Venus of Urbino, Venus and Love and Venus with an Organist and a Dog. His Venus with a Mirror is a natural theme for the goddess of love and beauty.
At the request of Pope Paul III, Titian went to Bologna in May 1543 where he worked on the celebrated official portrait of Pope Paul III Without Cap. Three years later, the master visited Rome for the first and last time with an intention to portray the Farnese family. While in the city, he discovered the archaeological remains of ancient Rome and the Renaissance masterpieces of Michelangelo, Raphael, Sebastiano del Piombo and others. The most notable portrait of the family, created during the trip, are Paul III and His Grandsons Ottavio and Cardinal Alessandro Farnese. Other important portraits of the time included Portrait of Pietro Aretino and Equestrian Portrait of Charles V.
From the beginning of the 1550s onwards, Titian lived permanently in Venice, except the short summer visits to Pieve di Cadore. He worked regularly with Philip II of Spain since then, creating a number of mythological paintings which he dubbed "poesies" himself. The major examples of this kind of works are the Danae with Nursemaid, the Venus and Adonis and The Rape of Europa, perhaps one of the gayest "poesies."
Titian kept his productivity, both in quantity and in creative ideas, throughout his last years. In his later works, the painter shifted from realistic approach to more abstract one, working increasingly through loose brushstrokes.
Cited as the founder of the Venetian School of Italian Renaissance painting alongside Giorgione, Titian was in advance of his time, elaborating a style, that combined the High Renaissance and Mannerist traditions. He turned Venice into a new artistic center, leaving behind the previous ones, Florence and Rome.
Titian's mastery of color and his other painting techinques had an equal great influence on the representatives of the late Italian Renaissance and the artists of Western art. Rubens, Rembrandt, Tintoretto and such 18th- and 19th-century painters, as Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres and Impressionist Manet paid homage to Titian's genius in many of their own masterpieces.
A prolific innovator through all his long life, Titian became a major creator of the state portrait for the glorification of rulers. His portrait of Prince Philip in armor, produced in 1550, set a standard for state portraits and remained such for a long time. In 1532, after he portrayed Emperor Charles V in Bologna, Titian was awarded a title of a Count Palatine and that of a Knight of the Golden Spur. His children also received noble titles, which were signs of a particular honor.
Of a great number of masterpieces, that Titian left behind him, his Danaë series is certainly one of the most outstanding achievements both in color and technique.
Danaë with Nursemaid
(also known as Danaë Receiving the Golden Rain)
Christ Carrying the Cross
(attributed to Titian or Giorgione)
Assumption of the Virgin
Bacchus and Ariadne
Diana and Actaeon
Equestrian Portrait of Charles V
Pesaro Madonna
Pope Paul III and His Grandsons
Sacred and Profane Love
The Rape of Europa
Venus of Urbino
Pietà
Danaë
Danaë
Self-Portrait
The Death of Actaeon
Flaying of Marsyas
Annunciation
Noli me Tangere
An Allegory of Prudence
Tityus
The Crowning with Thorns
Man with a Glove
Flora
Crucifixion
Pastoral Concert
Sacrifice of Isaac
Doge Andrea Gritti
Pope Paul III without Cap
Alfonso d'Avalos Addressing his Troops
Portrait of Jacopo Strada
Martyrdom of Saint Lawrence
Portrait of the Vendramin Family
The Three Ages of Man
Diana and Callisto
The Bacchanal of the Andrians
The Worship of Venus
Portrait of Federico II Gonzaga
Venus with an Organist and a Dog
Portrait of Clarissa Strozzi
Quotations:
"A good painter needs only three colors: black, white and red."
"He who improvises can never make a perfect line of poetry."
"The painter must always seek the essence of things, always represent the essential characteristics and emotions of the person he is painting."
"Painting done under pressure by artists without the necessary talent can only give rise to formlessness, as painting is a profession that requires peace of mind."
According to all retained descriptions of Titian, he was a wise, eloquent and polite person.
Titian's relationship with his colleague, Giorgione, is still under question among scholars and art historians. Some of them claim, that the painters were open rivals, while others state, that they were close friends.
Quotes from others about the person
Giovanni Lomazzo, art theorist: "The sun amidst small stars not only among the Italians but all the painters of the world."
Paul Cézanne, artist: "Titian is like a page out of Shakespeare."
Eugène Delacroix, artist: "Titian, here is a man made to be appreciated by those who grow old [...]. The qualities of the painter are brought to him at the highest point: what he does is done: the eyes look and are animated by the fire of life. Life and reason are everywhere."
Marco Boschini, painter and engraver: "Titian truly was the most excellent of those who painted: because his brushes always gave birth to expressions of life."
Titian was married twice. He first wife was named Cecilia, a barber's daughter, with whom he had a love affair during her service as his housekeeper. The relationship produced two sons, Pomponio and Orazio. After the marriage, Cecilia gave birth to a girl, who didn't survive infancy.
After the death of Cecilia in August 1530, Titian married for the second time. In addition to his daughter, Lavinia, whose probable mother was Titian's second wife, the artist had another daughter, Emilia, possibly born from an affair with a housekeeper. When Titian's second wife died, Orsola Vecellio, his sister, was tasked to look after the artist's children.
(born between 1416-1474 - died 1538)
A councillor and captain of the Venetian militia, Gregorio Vecelli was also head of the castle of Pieve di Cadore and ran local mines for their owners.
(born between 1416-1474)
(born about 1475 - died 1560)
A representative of the early Renaissance, Francesco Vecelli was mainly active in the 1520's and the 1530's in Cadore. He is known for his decorations of an altarpiece for San Vito in Cadore and the organ shutters of San Salvatore in Venice, and for his canvases Annunciation for San Nicola di Bari and Madonna and Child with Saint Jerome and Saint Dorothy.
(born between 1451-1511 - died 1550)
(born between 1451-1511)
(born between 1451-1511)
(née Soldano; born about 1508 - died 6 August 1530)
(born 1523 - died about 1596)
(born 1528 - died 1576)
Orazio Vecelli was an Italian painter, who represented the Renaissance. Mostly known as a portraitist, he also depicted historical subjects from time to time. He then abandoned painting and became an alchemist.
(by marriage Sarcinelli; born 1530 - died 1575)
(by marriage Dossena; born between 1543-1548 - died about 1583)
(1545 - 1611)
Marco Vecelli was an Italian painter, who represented the Renaissance. A favorite pupil of Titian, Marco was close to him in style more than any other member of the family. The best known works of the painter include an allegory in the antechamber of the Sala del Gran Consiglio in the Doge's palace, a picture in the Sala della Bussola, Doge Leonardo Donato before the Virgin and Infant Christ, and the Meeting of Charles V and Clement VII (in the Ducal Palace).
(born 19 or 20 April 1492 - 21 October 1556)
Aretino was an Italian author, playwright, poet, satirist and blackmailer. One of the most powerful writers of his time, he was an open critic of his influential contemporaries.
(2 July 1486 - 27 November 1570)
Jacopo Sansovino, in full Jacopo d'Antonio Sansovino, was an Italian sculptor and architect of the Renaissance. He is best known for his works around the Piazza San Marco in Venice.
(born about 1430 - died 26 November 1516)
Bellini was a painter of the Italian Renaissance, considered to be the most famous member of the Bellini family of Venetian artists. He made a revolution in Venetian painting by bringing more sensuality and colors to it.
(born about 1477-1478 - died 1510)
Giorgione was an Italian painter. A representative of the Venetian school of art, he is known as one of the pioneers of the High Renaissance style. The authorship of only about six of his canvases, preserved till the present day, is fully confirmed.
(8 September 1474 - 6 July 1533)
Ariosto was an Italian poet of the Renaissance, who worked in the genre of epic poetry. The epic poem Orlando Furioso is one of his best known writings. He was the first to use the term "humanism."
