Titian.
The Venetian master of colour.

Titian was born between 1485-1490 in Cadore in the southern Alps, and was rumoured to be over ninety years old when he died of the plague in 1576.

The eldest of four sons he was known as Da Cadore, after his place of birth and the family were well known in the area. At the age of about twelve he was apprenticed to the studios of Gentile and Giovanni Bellini, the leading artists in Venice, and it was here that he met Giorgione a painter who he later joined as an assistant.

Some of the work between Giorgione and Titian has been the subject of controversy, and attributing paintings to one artist or the other remains a contentious issue.

He was not the great architect or sculptor like Michelangelo, or the inventor and scientist that was Leonardo's gift, he was just a painter, but a painter who fully utilised colour in his work. Titian's style did alter throughout his long life but his interest in colour never diminished. His use of paint and brushwork made him the foremost painter in Venice and his execution of both landscapes and portraits brought him great fame in his own lifetime.

"Portrait of a Man". (self portrait)
1510 81,2 × 66,3 cm National Gallery London w)

Titian seems to have left very few drawings, his work was done on the canvass, altering and modifying as he worked with total control over his medium. His early self portrait of 1512 shows his great skill and handling of paint, and the swollen blue shirt sleeve is a fine example of his genius.

"Assumption of the Virgin"
1516-1518 690 × 360 cm (w)

In 1518 he painted his "Assumption of the Virgin" the altarpiece for the Basilica di Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari in Venice. Also in the same church but painted in 1519-1528, his "Pesaro Madonna" is unusual in that it places the Holy Virgin out of the centre of the picture, this was unheard of at the time.

"Pesaro Madonna"
Oil on canvas 4.88 m × 2.69 m cm, Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari, Venice (w)

In 1523 the great artist was at the height of his fame and painted his Bacchus and Ariadne, part of his mythological series for Alfonso d'Este the Duke of Ferrara. He became acquainted with the playwright and poet Pietro Aretino and painted his portrait several times.

"Bacchus and Ariadne"
oil on canvas 176.5 × 191 cm National Gallery, London (w)

"Pietro Aretino"
1512 Galleria Palatina in Palazzo Pitti in Florence. (w)

Titian was married in 1525 to "Cecilia" and the couple had three or possibly four children one, Orazio, became the artist's assistant.

The Venus of Urbino of 1538, now in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, shows the naked figure reclining on a bed and the pose is based on Giorgione's sleeping Venus.

"The Venus of Urbino"
1538 Oil on canvas 119 × 165 cm Uffizi, Florence (w)

The artist was extremely successful and was even given the freedom of the city of Rome during a visit in 1546. The last twenty-five years of Titian's life were spent mainly as a portrait-painter and in the service of Philip II of Spain. He had painted Philip's portrait in 1550 and had also painted Philips father The Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V.

The artist's later paintings are executed with great freedom. He was so comfortable with his medium that one of his pupils, who had watched him work, stated that he finished the pictures 'more with his fingers than his brush'.

Titian's influence is extensive and his legacy is his use of rich colour and artists such as Rubens, Rembrandt, and Manet have taken inspiration from his work.

The Death of Actaeon
(1562) National Gallery, London. (w)

Note the freedom of the brushstrokes in this later work.




From Titian to the High Renaissance
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