Titian

Tiziano Vecelli or Vecellio (c. 1488-90 – August 27, 1576), commonly known as Titian, was one of the greatest 16th century Renaissance painters of Venice, Italy.

Final Years

During the last twenty-five years of his life (1550-1576) the artist,

Related Topics:
1550 - 1576

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more and more absorbed in his work as a portrait-painter and also more

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self-critical, an insatiable perfectionist,

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finished only a few great works.

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Some of his pictures he kept for ten years in his studio, never wearying of returning to them and retouching them, constantly adding new expressions at once more refined, concise, and subtle.

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For each of the problems which he successively undertook he furnished a

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new and more perfect formula. He never again equaled the emotion and

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tragedy of the Crowning with Thorns (Louvre), in the expression of the

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mysterious and the divine he never equaled the poetry of the

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Pilgrims of Emmaus, while in superb and heroic brilliancy he never

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again executed anything more grand than The Doge Grimani adoring

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Faith (Venice, Doge's Palace), or the Trinity, of Madrid.

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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. 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.

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Vecelli had affianced 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, now deceased, as the manager of the household, which, with the lordly income that Titian made by this time, was placed on a corresponding footing. The marriage took place in 1554. She died in childbirth in 1560.

Related Topics:
1554 - 1560

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He was at the Council of Trent towards 1555, of which his admirable picture or finished sketch in the Louvre bears record.

Related Topics:
Council of Trent - 1555

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Titian's friend Aretino died suddenly in 1556, and another

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close intimate, the sculptor and architect Jacopo Sansovino, in 1570.

Related Topics:
Jacopo Sansovino - 1570

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In September 1565 Titian went to Cadore and designed the decorations

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for the church at Pieve, partly executed by his pupils. One of these

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is a Transfiguration, another an Annunciation (now in S. Salvatore,

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Venice), inscribed Titianus fecit, by way of protest (it is said)

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against the disparagement of some persons who cavilled at the veteran's

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failing handicraft.

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He continued to accept commissions to the last. He

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had selected as the place for his burial the chapel of the Crucifix in

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the church of the Fran; and, in return for a grave, he offered the

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Franciscans a picture of the Pietà, representing himself and his son

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Orazio before the Saviour, another figure in the composition being a

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sibyl. This work he nearly finished; but some differences arose

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regarding it, and he then settled to be interred in his native Pieve.

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Titian was ninety-nine years of age (more or less) when the plague,

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which was then raging in Venice, seized him, and carried him off on 27 August 1576. He was the only victim of that plague outbreak to be given a church burial and was interred in the Frari (Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari), as at first intended, and his Pietà was finished by Palma Giovane. He

Related Topics:
27 August - 1576 - Palma Giovane

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lies near his own famous painting, the Madonna di Ca' Pesaro. No

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memorial marked his grave, until by Austrian command Canova executed

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the monument so well known to sightseers.

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Immediately after Titian's

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own death, his son and pictorial assistant Orazio died, of the same

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epidemic. His sumptuous mansion was plundered during the plague by

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thieves.

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