Tiziano
self-portrait
Birth name	Tiziano Vecelli
Born	c. 1485 Pieve di Cadore
Died	27 August 1576 Venice

Tiziano Vecelli or Tiziano Vecellio (c.  1485 – August 27, 1576), better known as Titian, was the leader of the 16th-century Venetian school of the Italian Renaissance. Events 479 BC - Greco-Persian Wars: Persian forces led by Mardonius are routed by Pausanias, the Spartan Venice ( Italian: Venezia, Venetian: Venesia or Venexia) is a city in Northern Italy, the capital of the The Italian Renaissance began the opening phase of the Renaissance, a period of great cultural change and achievement in Europe that spanned the period from the end of the 14th He was born in Pieve di Cadore, near Belluno (Veneto), in the Republic of Venice. Pieve di Cadore is a Comune (municipality in the Province of Belluno in the Italian region Veneto, located about 110 km north Belluno ( Italian: Belluno; Friulian: Belun; German: Beilun) is a town in the Veneto region of northern Veneto or Venetia ( Vèneto) is one of the 20 regions of Italy. The Most Serene Republic of Venice ((Serenìsima Repùblica Vèneta or Repùblica de Venesia Serenissima Repubblica During his lifetime he was often called Da Cadore, taken from the place of his birth.

Recognized by his contemporaries as "the sun amidst small stars" (recalling the famous final line of Dante's Paradiso), Titian was one of the most versatile of Italian painters, equally adept with portraits and landscapes (two genres that first brought him fame), mythological and religious subjects. The Divine Comedy His painting methods, particularly in the application and use of color, would exercise a profound influence not only on painters of the Italian Renaissance, but on future generations of Western art. Also see articles History of painting, Western painting Western Art' redirects here ^[1]

During the course of his long life Titian's artistic manner changed drastically;^[2] however he retained a lifelong interest in colour. His mature works may not contain the vivid, luminous tints of his early pieces, however their loose brushwork and subtlety of polychromatic modulations are without precedent in the history of Western art.

Biography

Early years

No one is sure of the exact date of Titian's birth; when he was old he claimed it was 1477 in a letter to Philip II, but this seems most unlikely. Philip II (Felipe II de España Filipe I ( May 21, 1527 &ndash September 13 1598) was King of Spain from 1556 until 1598 ^[3] Other writers contemporary to his old age give figures for his age which would equate to birth-dates between 1473 to after 1482, but most modern scholars believe a date nearer 1490 is more likely. He was the eldest of a family of four and son of Gregorio Vecelli, a distinguished councillor and soldier, and of his wife Lucia. His father was superintendent of the castle of Pieve di Cadore and also managed local mines for their owners. Pieve di Cadore is a Comune (municipality in the Province of Belluno in the Italian region Veneto, located about 110 km north ^[4] Many relatives, including Titian's grandfather, were notaries, and the family were well-established in the area, which was ruled by Venice. A notary public is an officer who can administer Oaths and Statutory Declarations Witness and authenticate documents

At the age of about ten to twelve he and his brother Francesco (who perhaps followed later) were sent to an uncle in Venice to find an apprenticeship with a painter. The minor painter, Sebastian Zuccato, whose sons became well-known mosaicists, and who may have been a family friend, arranged for the brothers to enter the studio of the elderly Gentile Bellini, from which they later transferred to that of his brother Giovanni Bellini. Gentile Bellini (c 1429 &ndash February 23, 1507) was an Italian painter Giovanni Bellini (c 1430 – 1516 was an Italian Renaissance painter probably the best known of the Bellini family of Venetian painters ^[4] At that time the Bellinis, especially Giovanni, were the leading artists in the city. There he found a group of young men about his own age, among them Giovanni Palma da Serinalta, Lorenzo Lotto, Sebastiano Luciani, and Giorgio da Castelfranco, nicknamed Giorgione. Lorenzo Lotto (c 1480 &ndash 1556 was a Northern Italian painter draughtsman and illustrator traditionally placed in the Venetian school. Sebastiano del Piombo (c 1485 Venice &ndash June 21, 1547, Rome) byname of Sebastiano Luciani, was an Italian Giorgione (c 1477 &ndash 1510 is the familiar name of Giorgio Barbarelli da Castelfranco, an Italian painter a seminal artist of the High Renaissance Francesco Vecellio, his younger brother, later became a painter of some note in Venice. Francesco Vecellio (c 1485 - 1560 was a Venetian painter of the early Renaissance, best known as the elder brother of the painter Titian.

This early portrait (c. 1512) was long wrongly believed to be of Ariosto; it is more likely a self-portrait, and the composition was borrowed by Rembrandt for his own self-portraits. Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (July 15 1606 &ndash October 4 1669 was a Dutch painter and etcher.

A fresco of Hercules on the Morosini Palace is said to have been one of his earliest works; others were the Virgin and Child (the Bellini-esque so-called Gypsy Madonna), in Vienna, and the Visitation of Mary and Elizabeth (from the convent of S. Fresco (plural either frescos or frescoes) is any of several related Painting types done on Plaster on walls or Hercules is the Roman name for the Mythical Greek hero Heracles, son of Zeus and the mortal Alcmena. Andrea), now in the Accademia, Venice. The Accademia is best known now as a museum gallery of pre-1800s art in Venice, Italy.

Titian joined Giorgione as an assistant, but many contemporary critics already found his work more impressive, for example in the exterior frescoes (now lost) that they did for the Fondacio dei Tedeschi, and their relationship evidently had a significant element of rivalry. Distinguishing between their work at this period remains a subject of scholarly controversy, and there has been a substantial movement of attributions from Giorgione to Titian in the 20th century, with little traffic the other way. One of the earliest known works of Titian, the little Ecce Homo of the Scuola di San Rocco, was long regarded as the work of Giorgione. The Chiesa di San Rocco (Church of St Roch) in Venice was built between 1489 and 1508 by Bartolomeo Bon the Younger, but was substantially

The two young masters were likewise recognized as the two leaders of their new school of "arte moderna", that is of painting made more flexible, freed from symmetry and the remnants of hieratic conventions still to be found in the works of Giovanni Bellini.

In 1507-1508 Giorgione was commissioned by the state to execute frescoes on the re-erected Fondaco dei Tedeschi. The Fondaco dei Tedeschi ( Venetian: Fontego dei Tedeschi "The Tedeschi Inn" was the headquarters and restricted living quarters of the German merchant population Titian and Morto da Feltre worked along with him, and some fragments of paintings remain, probably by Giorgione. Morto da Feltre was an Italian painter of the Venetian school who worked at the close of the 15th century and beginning of the 16th Some of their work is known, in part, through the engravings of Fontana. After Giorgione's early death in 1510, Titian continued to paint Giorgionesque subjects for some time, though his style developed its own trademarks, including bold and expressive brushwork.

Titian's talent in fresco is shown in those he painted in 1511 at Padua in the Carmelite church and in the Scuola del Santo, some of which have been preserved, among them the Meeting at the Golden Gate, and three scenes from the life of St. Padua ( Padova 'padova Latin: Patavium, Padoa) is a city in the Veneto, northern Italy. The Order of the Brothers of Our Lady of Mount Carmel or Carmelites (sometimes simply Carmel by Synecdoche; Latin: Ordo fratrum Beatæ Anthony of Padua, the Murder of a Young Woman by Her Husband, A Child Testifying to Its Mother's Innocence, and The Saint Healing the Young Man with a Broken Limb.

From Padua in 1512, Titian returned to Venice; and in 1513 he obtained a broker's patent in the Fondaco dei Tedeschi (state-warehouse for the German merchants), termed La Sanseria or Senseria (a privilege much coveted by rising or risen artists), and became superintendent of the government works, being especially charged to complete the paintings left unfinished by Giovanni Bellini in the hall of the great council in the ducal palace. The German people (Deutsche are an Ethnic group, in the sense of sharing a common German culture, descent and speaking the German language as Giovanni Bellini (c 1430 – 1516 was an Italian Renaissance painter probably the best known of the Bellini family of Venetian painters He set up an atelier on the Grand Canal at S. The Grand Canal ( Italian: Canal Grande, Venetian: Canałasso) is the most important Canal in Venice Italy. Samuele, the precise site being now unknown. It was not until 1516, upon the death of Bellini, that he came into actual enjoyment of his patent. At the same time he entered an exclusive arrangement for painting. The patent yielded him a good annuity of 20 crowns and exempted him from certain taxes — he being bound in return to paint likenesses of the successive Doges of his time at the fixed price of eight crowns each. The Doge ( Venetian language, also Doxe, derived from Latin Dux military leader duke cf The actual number he executed was five.

Growth

It took Titian two years (1516–1518) to complete the oil painting Assunta, whose dynamic three-tier composition and gorgeous color scheme established him as the preeminent painter north of Rome. This article is about the theological concept For the works of art with this title see Assumption of the Virgin Mary in Art and Roman Catholic Marian art.

Giorgione died in 1510 and the aged Bellini, 1516, leaving Titian unrivaled in the Venetian School. For sixty years he was to be the undisputed master of Venetian painting, and as it were, the painter laureate of the Republic Serenissime. As early as 1516 he succeeded his old master Bellini in receiving a pension from the Senate.

During this period (1516-1530), which may be called the period of his mastery and maturity, the artist moved on from his early Giorgionesque style, undertook larger and more complex subjects and for the first time attempted a monumental style. Giorgione (c 1477 &ndash 1510 is the familiar name of Giorgio Barbarelli da Castelfranco, an Italian painter a seminal artist of the High Renaissance

In 1518 he produced for the high altar of the church of the Frari, his famous masterpiece, the Assumption of the Virgin, still in situ. The Basilica di Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari, usually just called the Frari, is one of the greatest churches of Venice and has the status of a Minor basilica Assumption of the Virgin (1516-1518 is a large Oil painting by Titian. This extraordinary piece of colorism, executed on a grand scale rarely before seen in Italy, excited a sensation. The Signoria took note, and observed that Titian was neglecting his work in the hall of the great council. A Signoria (from Signore or Lord) was an abstract noun meaning (roughly 'government governing authority de facto sovereignty lordship in many of the

The pictorial structure of the Assumption — that of uniting in the same composition two or three scenes superimposed on different levels, earth and heaven, the temporal and the infinite — was continued in a series of works such as the retable of San Domenico at Ancona (1520), the retable of Brescia (1522), and the retable of San Niccolò (1523), in the Vatican Museum), each time attaining to a higher and more perfect conception, finally reaching a classic formula in the Pesaro Madonna, (better known as the Madonna di Ca' Pesaro) (c. Ancona (Ankon is a city and a seaport in the Marche, a region of central Italy, population 101909 (2005 Brescia ( Lombard: Brèsa) is a city in the region of Lombardy in northern Italy. The Vatican Museums (Musei Vaticani in Viale Vaticano in Rome, inside the Vatican City, are one of the greatest museums in the world since they display works The Pesaro Madonna (Pala Pesaro (better known as the Madonna di Ca' Pesaro is a painting by the Italian Renaissance master Titian, commissioned by Jacopo Pesaro 1519-1526), at Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari in Venice. The Basilica di Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari, usually just called the Frari, is one of the greatest churches of Venice and has the status of a Minor basilica This perhaps is his most studied work, whose patiently developed plan is set forth with supreme display of order and freedom, originality and style. Here Titian gave a new conception of the traditional groups of donors and holy persons moving in aerial space, the plans and different degrees set in an architectural framework.

Titian was now at the height of his fame, and towards 1521, following the production of a figure of St. Sebastian for the papal legate in Brescia (a work of which there are numerous replicas), purchasers pessed for his work.

To this period belongs a more extraordinary work, The Death of St. Peter Martyr (1530), formerly in the Dominican Church of San Zanipolo, and destroyed by an Austrian shell in 1867. The Basilica di San Giovanni e Paolo, known in the Venetian dialect as San Zanipolo, is one of the largest churches of Venice and has the status of a Minor basilica Only copies and engravings of this proto-Baroque picture remain; it combined extreme violence and a landscape, mostly consisting of a great tree, that pressed into the scene and seems to accentuate the drama in a way that looks forward to the Baroque. Engraving is the practice of incising a design onto a hard usually flat surface by cutting grooves into it Baroque art redirects here Please disambiguate such links to Baroque painting, Baroque sculpture, etc Baroque art redirects here Please disambiguate such links to Baroque painting, Baroque sculpture, etc

The artist simultaneously continued his series of small Madonnas which he treated amid beautiful landscapes in the manner of genre pictures or poetic pastorals, the Virgin with the Rabbit in the Louvre being the finished type of these pictures. Images of the Madonna and Madonna and Child are one of the central Icons of Christianity, representing the Madonna or Mary mother of Jesus The Louvre Museum (Musée du Louvre located in Paris is the world's most visited art museum a historic monument and a national museum of France Another work of the same period, also in the Louvre, is the Entombment. This was also the period of the large mythological scenes for the studiolo of Alfonso d'Este in Ferrara, such as the famous Bacchanals of the Prado, and the Bacchus and Ariadne of London, ". A cabinet was one of a number of terms for a private room in the Domestic architecture and that of Palaces of Early Modern Europe, serving as Alfonso d'Este ( 21 July, 1476 &ndash 31 October, 1534) was Duke of Ferrara during the time of the War of the League of Ferrara is a city in Emilia-Romagna, northern Italy, capital city of the Province of Ferrara. PRADO is a component-based and event-driven Web application framework for PHP 5 Bacchus and Ariadne (1520-23 is an Oil painting by Titian. It is one of a cycle of paintings on mythological subjects produced for Alfonso d'Este London ( ˈlʌndən is the capital and largest urban area in the United Kingdom. . . perhaps the most brilliant productions of the neo-pagan culture or "Alexandrianism" of the Renaissance, many times imitated but never surpassed even by Rubens himself. "^[5] Finally this was the period when the artist composed the half-length figures and busts of young women, probably courtesans, such as Flora of the Uffizi, or The Young Woman at Her Toilet in the Louvre. A courtesan in mid-16th century usage referred to a mistress or trained artisan of dance and singing especially one associated with wealthy powerful or upper-class The Uffizi Gallery (Galleria degli Uffizi one of the oldest and most famous Art Museums in the world is housed in the Palazzo degli Uffizi, a

Titian's state portrait of Emperor Charles V at Mühlberg (1548) established a new genre, that of the grand equestrian portrait. The Battle of Mühlberg was a large battle at Mühlberg in the German of Electorate of Saxony during the Protestant Reformation at which the Catholic princes The composition is steeped both in the Roman tradition of equestrian sculpture and in the medieval representations of an ideal Christian knight, but the weary figure and face have a subtlety few such representations attempt. An equestrian statue is a Statue of a Horse -mounted rider The term is from the Latin " eques," meaning " Knight

In 1525 he married a lady named Cecilia, thereby legitimizing their first child, Pomponio, and two (or perhaps three) others followed, including Titian's favorite, Orazio, who became his assistant. About 1526 he became acquainted, and soon exceedingly intimate, with Pietro Aretino, the influential and audacious figure who features so strangely in the chronicles of the time. Pietro Aretino ( April 20, 1492 – October 21, 1556) was an Italian Author, Playwright, Poet and Titian sent a portrait of him to Gonzaga, duke of Mantua. Mantua (Màntova in the local dialect of Lombard language Mantua is a city in Lombardy, Italy and capital of the province of the

In August 1530 his wife died giving birth to a daughter, Lavinia, and with his three children he moved house, and got his sister Orsa to come from Cadore and take charge of the household. The mansion, difficult to find now, is in the Bin Grande, then a fashionable suburb, at the extreme end of Venice, on the sea, with beautiful gardens and a view towards Murano.

Maturity

During the next period (1530-1550), Titian developed the style introduced by his dramatic Death of St. Peter Martyr. The Venetian government, dissatisfied with Titian's neglect of the work for the ducal palace, ordered him in 1538 to refund the money which he had received, and Pordenone, his rival of recent years, was installed in his place. Pordenone ( Friulian: Pordenon) is a Comune of Pordenone province of northeast Italy in the Friuli-Venezia Giulia However, at the end of a year Pordenone died, and Titian, who meanwhile applied himself diligently to painting in the hall the Battle of Cadore, was reinstated. This major battle scene, was lost along with so many other major works by Venetian artists by the great fire which destroyed all the old pictures in the great chambers of the Doge's Palace in 1577. The Doge's Palace is a gothic Palace in Venice. In Italian it is called the Palazzo Ducale di Venezia. It represented in life-size the moment at which the Venetian general, D'Alviano attacked the enemy with horses and men crashing down into a stream, and was the artist's most important attempt at a tumultuous and heroic scene of movement to rival Raphael's Battle of Constantine and the equally ill-fated Battle of Cascina of Michelangelo and The Battle of Anghiari of Leonardo (both unfinished). Bartolomeo d'Alviano (1455-1515 was an Italian Condottiero and captain who distinguished himself in the defence of the Venetian Republic against the Raphael Sanzio, usually known by his first name alone (in Italian Raffaello) (April 6 or March 28 1483 – April 6 1520 was an Italian painter and Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni Two biographies were published of him during his lifetime One of them by Giorgio Vasari, proposed that he was the pinnacle of all There remains only a poor, incomplete copy at the Uffizi, and a mediocre engraving by Fontana. The Speech of the Marquis del Vasto (Madrid, 1541) was also partly destroyed by fire. But this period of the master's work is still represented by the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin (Venice, 1539), one of his most popular canvasses, and by the Ecce Homo (Vienna, 1541). Vienna ( in Wien; see also other names) is the Capital of Austria, and is also one of the nine States of Austria. Despite its loss, the painting had a great influence on Bolognese art and Rubens, both in the handling of details and the general effect of horses, soldiers, lictors, powerful stirrings of crowds at the foot of a stairway, lit by torches with the flapping of banners against the sky. Bologna (boloɲa from Latin Bononia, Bulåggna in Bolognese dialect is the capital city of Emilia-Romagna in northern Italy

Titian's unmatched handling of color is exemplified by his Danaë, one of several mythological paintings (or "poems" as the painter called them) commissioned by Philip II of Spain in 1554. For other uses see Danae (plant and Danaë (painting In Greek mythology, Danaë (Δανάη English translation Philip II (Felipe II de España Filipe I ( May 21, 1527 &ndash September 13 1598) was King of Spain from 1556 until 1598 Although Michelangelo adjudged this piece deficient from the point of view of drawing, Titian's studio reproduced it for other patrons more than once. Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni Two biographies were published of him during his lifetime One of them by Giorgio Vasari, proposed that he was the pinnacle of all

Less successful were the pendentives of the cupola at Sta. A pendentive is a constructive device permitting the placing of a circular Dome over a square room or an elliptical Dome over a rectangular room Maria della Salute (Death of Abel, Sacrifice of Abraham, David and Goliath). These violent scenes viewed in perspective from below — like the famous pendentives of the Sistine Chapel — were by their very nature in unfavorable situations. Sistine Chapel (Cappella Sistina is the best-known Chapel in the Apostolic Palace, the official residence of the Pope in Vatican City. They were nevertheless much admired and imitated, Rubens among others applying this system to his forty ceilings (the sketches only remain) of the Jesuit church at Antwerp. The Society of Jesus ( Latin: Societas Iesu, SJ and SI or SJ, SI) is a Catholic religious order

At this time also, the time of his visit to Rome, the artist began his series of reclining Venuses (The Venus of Urbino of the Uffizi, Venus and Love at the same museum, Venus and the Organ-Player, Madrid), in which is recognized the effect or the direct reflection of the impression produced on the master by contact with ancient sculpture. Rome ( Roma ˈroma Roma is the capital city of Italy and Lazio, and is Italy's largest and most populous city with more than 2 The Venus of Urbino (1538 is an Oil painting by the Italian master Titian. Giorgione had already dealt with the subject in his Dresden picture, finished by Titian, but here a purple drapery substituted for a landscape background changed, by its harmonious coloring, the whole meaning of the scene. Giorgione (c 1477 &ndash 1510 is the familiar name of Giorgio Barbarelli da Castelfranco, an Italian painter a seminal artist of the High Renaissance

Titian had from the beginning of his career shown himself to be a masterful portrait-painter, in works like La Bella (Eleanora de Gonzaga, Duchess of Urbino, at the Pitti Palace). He painted the likenesses of princes, or Doges, cardinals or monks, and artists or writers. ". . . no other painter was so successful in extracting from each physiognomy so many traits at once characteristic and beautiful," according to the Catholic Encyclopedia. Among portrait-painters Titian is compared to Rembrandt and Velásquez, with the interior life of the former, and the clearness, certainty, and obviousness of the latter. Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (July 15 1606 &ndash October 4 1669 was a Dutch painter and etcher. Diego Rodríguez de Silva y Velázquez ( June 6, 1599 &ndash August 6, 1660) was a Spanish painter who was the leading

The last-named qualities are sufficiently manifested in the Portrait of Paul III of Naples, or the sketch of the same pope and his two nephews, the Portrait of Aretino of the Pitti Palace, the Eleanora of Portugal (Madrid), and the series of King Charles V of the same museum, the Charles V with a Greyhound (1533), and especially the Charles V at Mühlberg (1548), an equestrian picture which as a symphony of purples is perhaps the ne plus ultra of the art of painting. Naples ( Napoli, Neapolitan: Nàpule) is a historic City in southern Italy, the Capital of the The Portrait of Paul III and his Nephews Alessandro and Ottavio Farnese is a painting by the Italian artist Titian, from 1546 Charles V (24 February 1500 &ndash 21 September 1558 was

In 1532 after painting a portrait of the emperor Charles V in Bologna he was made a Count Palatine and knight of the Golden Spur. His children were also made nobles of the Empire, which for a painter was an exceptional honor.

The Rape of Europa (1562) is a bold diagonal composition which was admired and copied by Rubens. Europa ( Greek Εὐρώπη was a Phoenician woman of high lineage in Greek mythology, from whom the name of the Continent Europe In contrast to the clarity of Titian's early works, it is almost baroque in its blurred lines, swirling colors, and vibrant brushstrokes. Baroque art redirects here Please disambiguate such links to Baroque painting, Baroque sculpture, etc

As a matter of professional and worldly success his position from about this time is regarded as equal only to that of Raphael, Michelangelo, and at a later date Rubens. Raphael Sanzio, usually known by his first name alone (in Italian Raffaello) (April 6 or March 28 1483 – April 6 1520 was an Italian painter and Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni Two biographies were published of him during his lifetime One of them by Giorgio Vasari, proposed that he was the pinnacle of all In 1540 he received a pension from D'Avalos, marquis del Vasto, and an annuity of 200 crowns (which was afterwards doubled) from Charles V from the treasury of Milan. Milan (Milano Milan (listen) is one of the largest cities in Italy, located in the plains of Lombardy.

Another source of profit, for he was always aware of money, was a contract obtained in 1542 for supplying grain to Cadore, where he visited almost every year and where he was both generous and influential.

Titian had a favorite villa on the neighboring Manza Hill, from which (it may be inferred) he made his chief observations of landscape form and effect. The so-called Titian's mill, constantly discernible in his studies, is at Collontola, near Belluno. ^[6]

He visited Rome in 1546, and obtained the freedom of the city — his immediate predecessor in that honour having been Michelangelo in 1537. Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni Two biographies were published of him during his lifetime One of them by Giorgio Vasari, proposed that he was the pinnacle of all He could at the same time have succeeded the painter Sebastiano del Piombo in his lucrative office as holder of the piombo or Papal seal, and he was prepared to take holy orders for the purpose; but the project lapsed through his being summoned away from Venice in 1547 to paint Charles V and others in Augsburg. Sebastiano del Piombo (c 1485 Venice &ndash June 21, 1547, Rome) byname of Sebastiano Luciani, was an Italian A seal can mean a wax seal bearing an impressed figure or an embossed figure in paper with the purpose of authenticating a document but the term can also mean any device for In a general sense the term Holy Orders refers to those in the Christian religion who have been ordained in Apostolic Succession. Augsburg is an independent City in the south-west of Bavaria. He was there again in 1550, and executed the portrait of Philip II which was sent to England and proved useful in Philip's suit for the hand of Queen Mary. Philip II (Felipe II de España Filipe I ( May 21, 1527 &ndash September 13 1598) was King of Spain from 1556 until 1598 Mary I (18 February 1516 &ndash 17 November 1558 was Queen of England and Queen of Ireland from 19 July 1553 until her death

Final years

In Titian's later works, the forms lose their solidity and melt into the lush texture of shady, shimmering colors and unsettling atmospheric effects. In addition to energetic brushwork, Titian was said to put paint on with his fingers toward the completion of a painting.

During the last twenty-five years of his life (1550-1576) the artist worked mainly for Philip II and as a portrait-painter he became more self-critical, an insatiable perfectionist, keeping some pictures in his studio for ten years, never wearying of returning to them and retouching them, constantly adding new expressions at once more refined, concise, and subtle. He also finished off many copies of earlier works of his by his pupils, giving rise to many problems of attribution and priority among versions of his works, which were also very widely copied and faked outside his studio, during his lifetime and afterwards.

For each of the problems which he successively undertook he furnished a new and more perfect formula. He never again equaled the emotion and tragedy of the Crowning with Thorns (Louvre), in the expression of the mysterious and the divine he never equaled the poetry of the Pilgrims of Emmaus, while in superb and heroic brilliancy he never again executed anything more grand than The Doge Grimani adoring Faith (Venice, Doge's Palace), or the Trinity, of Madrid. The Louvre Museum (Musée du Louvre located in Paris is the world's most visited art museum a historic monument and a national museum of France The Doge's Palace is a gothic Palace in Venice. In Italian it is called the Palazzo Ducale di Venezia.

On the other hand from the standpoint of flesh tints, his most moving pictures are those of his old age, the Dan of Naples and of Madrid, the Antiope of the Louvre, the Rape of Europa (Boston, Gardner collection), etc. Europa ( Greek Εὐρώπη was a Phoenician woman of high lineage in Greek mythology, from whom the name of the Continent Europe He even attempted problems of chiaroscuro in fantastic night effects (Martyrdom of St. Laurence, Church of the Jesuits, Venice; St. Jerome, Louvre). In the domain of the real he always remained equally strong, sure, and master of himself; his portraits of Philip II (Madrid), those of his daughter, Lavinia, and those of himself are numbered among his masterpieces.

Titian had engaged his daughter Lavinia, the beautiful girl whom he loved deeply and painted various times, to Cornelio Sarcinelli of Serravalle. She had succeeded her aunt Orsa, then deceased, as the manager of the household, which, with the lordly income that Titian made by this time, placed her on a corresponding footing. The marriage took place in 1554. She died in childbirth in 1560.

Like so many of his late works, Titian's last painting, the Pietà, is a dramatic scene of suffering in a nocturnal setting. Pietà is the last painting by the Italian master Titian (c 1575 It was apparently intended for his own tomb chapel.

He was at the Council of Trent towards 1555, of which his admirable picture or finished sketch in the Louvre bears record. The Council of Trent was the 19th Ecumenical Council of the Roman Catholic Church. Titian's friend Aretino died suddenly in 1556, and another close intimate, the sculptor and architect Jacopo Sansovino, in 1570. Jacopo d'Antonio Sansovino ( July 2 1486 &ndash November 27 1570) was an Italian sculptor and architect known best for his works In September 1565 Titian went to Cadore and designed the decorations for the church at Pieve, partly executed by his pupils. One of these is a Transfiguration, another an Annunciation (now in S. The Annunciation in San Salvador di Venezia, Venice was painted by the Italian Renaissance artist Titian between Salvatore, Venice), inscribed Titianus fecit, by way of protest (it is said) against the disparagement of some persons who cavilled at the veteran's failing handicraft.

He continued to accept commissions to the last. He had selected as the place for his burial the chapel of the Crucifix in the church of the Fran; and, in return for a grave, he offered the Franciscans a picture of the Pietà, representing himself and his son Orazio before the Saviour, another figure in the composition being a sibyl. The term Franciscan is commonly used to refer to members of Catholic Pietà is the last painting by the Italian master Titian (c 1575 This work he nearly finished; but some differences arose regarding it, and he then settled to be interred in his native Pieve.

Titian was approximately 90 years old when the plague raging in Venice took him on 27 August 1576. Bubonic plague is the best-known manifestation of the bacterial disease plague, caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis (formerly known as Events 479 BC - Greco-Persian Wars: Persian forces led by Mardonius are routed by Pausanias, the Spartan He was the only victim of the Venice plague to be given a church burial. He was interred in the Frari (Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari), as at first intended, and his Pietà was finished by Palma the Younger. The Basilica di Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari, usually just called the Frari, is one of the greatest churches of Venice and has the status of a Minor basilica The Basilica di Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari, usually just called the Frari, is one of the greatest churches of Venice and has the status of a Minor basilica Palma il Giovane (1544-1626 was a Mannerist painter. Giovane was obsessed with painting reported his biographer "When his wife was being buried he began to paint and He lies near his own famous painting, the Madonna di Ca' Pesaro. No memorial marked his grave, until much later the Austrian rulers of Venice commissioned Canova to provide the large monument.

Immediately after Titian's own death, his son and pictorial assistant, Orazio, died of the same epidemic. His sumptuous mansion was plundered during the plague by thieves.

Printmaking

Titian himself never attempted engraving, but he was very conscious of the importance of printmaking as a means of further expanding his reputation. Engraving is the practice of incising a design onto a hard usually flat surface by cutting grooves into it Printmaking is the Process of making artworks by Printing, normally on Paper. In the period 1517–1520 he designed a number of woodcuts, including an enormous and impressive one of The Crossing of the Red Sea, and collaborated with Domenico Campagnola and others, who produced further prints based on his paintings and drawings. For the origins of the technique and non-artistic use see Woodblock printing; for the related technique invented in the 18th century see Wood engraving Domenico Campagnola (c 1500 &ndash 1564 was an Italian painter and Printmaker in Engraving and Woodcut of the Venetian An old master print is a work of art produced by a Printing process within the Western tradition (European or New World Much later he provided drawings based on his paintings to Cornelius Cort from the Netherlands, who brilliantly engraved them. Cornelis Cort (1533? - c March 17 1578) was a Dutch Engraver and draughtsman.

Family

The Allegory of Age Governed by Prudence (c. The Allegory of Prudence (c 1565-1570 is an Oil painting by the Italian master Titian.  1565–1570) is thought to depict Titian, his son Orazio, and a young cousin, Marco Vecellio.

Several other artists of the Vecelli family followed in the wake of Titian. Francesco Vecellio, his elder brother, was introduced to painting by Titian (it is said at the age of twelve, but chronology will hardly admit of this), and painted in the church of S. Francesco Vecellio (c 1485 - 1560 was a Venetian painter of the early Renaissance, best known as the elder brother of the painter Titian. Vito in Cadore a picture of the titular saint armed. This was a noteworthy performance, of which Titian (the usual story) became jealous; so Francesco was diverted from painting to soldiering, and afterwards to mercantile life.

Marco Vecellio, called Marco di Tiziano, Titian's nephew, born in 1545, was constantly with the master in his old age, and, learned his methods of work. Marco Vecellio (1545-1611 was an Italian painter of the Renaissance period He has left some able productions in the ducal palace, the Meeting of Charles V. and Clement VII. For the Antipope (1378&ndash1394 see Antipope Clement VII. Pope Clement VII ( May 26, 1478 &ndash September in 1529 ; in S. Giacomo di Rialto, an Annunciation ; in SS. Giovani e Paolo, Christ Fulminant. A son of Marco, named Tiziano (or Tizianello), painted early in the 17th century.

From a different branch of the family came Fabrizio di Ettore, a painter who died in 1580. His brother Cesare, who also left some pictures, is well known by his book of engraved costumes, Abiti antichi e moderni. Tommaso Vecelli, also a painter, died in 1620. There was another relative, Girolamo Dante, who, being a scholar and assistant of Titian, was called Girolamo di Tiziano. Various pictures of his were touched up by the master, and are difficult to distinguish from originals.

Few of the pupils and assistants of Titian became well-known in their own right; for some being his assistant was probably a lifetime career. Paris Bordone and Bonifazio Veronese were two of superior excellence. Paris Bordon or Bordone (1495 &ndash January 19 1570) was a Venetian painter of the Renaissance, who while training Bonifazio Veronese (also Bonifazio Veneziano; 1487 - 1553 was an Italian painter El Greco (or Dominikos Theotokopoulos) was said (by Giulio Clovio) to have been employed by the master in his last years. El Greco' ("The Greek " 1541 &ndash April 7 1614 was a painter, sculptor, and architect of the Spanish Renaissance Giorgio Giulio Clovio ( Croatian: Juraj Julije Klović; 1498&ndash January 5 1578) was a Renaissance illuminator miniaturist and

Notes

External links

• Titian's paintings
• Tiziano Vecellio at Web Gallery of Art
• Christies' sale blurb for the recently restored 'Mother and Child'
• Bell, Malcolm The early work of Titian, at Internet Archive
• Titian at Panopticon Virtual Art Gallery