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.

Maturity

During the next period (1530-1550), as was foreshadowed by his

Related Topics:
1530 - 1550

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Martyrdom of St. Peter, Titian devoted himself more and more to the

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dramatic style. From this time date his historical scenes, of which

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unhappily it is difficult to judge, the most characteristic having

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been much injured or destroyed; thus, the Battle of Cadore, the

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artist's greatest effort to master movement and to express even

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tumult, his most violent attempt to go out of himself and achieve the

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heroic, wherein he rivals the War of Pisa, The Battle of Anghiari,

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and the Battle of Constantine, perished in 1577, the year of

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Titian's death, in the fire which destroyed all the old pictures

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adorning the Doge's Palace. There is extant only a poor, incomplete

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copy at the Uffizi, and a mediocre engraving by Fontana. In like

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manner the Speech of the Marquis del Vasto (Madrid, 1541) was partly

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destroyed by fire. But this portion of the master's work is adequately

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represented by the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin (Venice,

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1539), one of his most popular canvasses, and by the great Ecce Homo

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(Vienna, 1541), one of the most pathetic and life-like of

Related Topics:
Vienna - 1541

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masterpieces.

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The School of Bologna and Rubens (Miracles of St.

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Benedict, St. Francis, etc.) many times borrowed the distinguished and

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magisterial mise-en-scène, the grand and stirring effect, and these

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horses, soldiers, lictors, these powerful stirrings of crowds at the

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foot of a stairway, while over all are the light of torches and the

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flapping of banners against the sky, have been often repeated.

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Less successful were the pendentives of the cupola at Sta. Maria della

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Salute (Death of Abel, Sacrifice of Abraham, David and Goliath).

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These violent scenes viewed in perspective from below -- like the

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famous pendentives of the Sistine Chapel -- were by their very nature

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in unfavorable situations. They were nevertheless much admired and

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imitated, Rubens among others applying this system to his forty

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ceilings (the sketches only remain) of the Jesuit church at

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Antwerp.

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At this time also, the time of his visit to Rome, the artist began his

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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

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which must be recognized the effect or the direct reflection of the

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impression produced on the master by contact with ancient sculpture.

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Giorgione had already dealt with the subject in the splendid Dresden

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picture, but here a purple drapery substituted for its background of

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verdure was sufficient to change by its harmonious coloring the whole

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meaning of the scene.

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Furthermore Titian had from the beginning of his career shown himself to be an

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incomparable portrait-painter, in works like La Bella (Eleanora de Gonzaga, Duchess of Urbino, at the Pitti Palace). It is impossible to enumerate, even briefly, Titian's splendid gallery of portraits; princes, or Doges, cardinals or monks, artists or writers, no other painter was so successful in extracting from each physiognomy so many traits at once characteristic and beautiful. Among portrait-painters Titian is comparable only to the greatest, a Rembrandt or a Velásquez, with the interior life of the former, and the clearness, certainty, and obviousness of the latter.

Related Topics:
Rembrandt - Velásquez

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The last-named qualities are sufficiently manifested in the Paul III of Naples, or the sketch of the same pope and his two nephews, the 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.

Related Topics:
Naples - Pope - King Charles V - 1533

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In 1532, after painting in Bologna a portrait of the emperor Charles V, he was created a count palatine and knight of the Golden Spur. His children were also made nobles of the empire, which for a painter was a highly exceptional honor.

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The Venetian government, dissatisfied at Titian's neglect of the work

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for the ducal palace, ordered him in 1538 to refund the money which he

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had received for time unemployed; and Pordenone, his formidable rival

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of recent years, was installed in his place. At the end of a year,

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however, Pordenone died; and Titian, who had meanwhile applied himself

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diligently to painting in the hall the battle of Cadore, was

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reinstated. This great picture, which was burned with several others

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in 1577?, represented in life-size the moment at which the Venetian

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captain, D'Alviano, fronted the enemy, with horses and men crashing

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down into the stream. Fontanas engraving, and a sketch by Titian

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himself in the gallery of the Uffizi in Florence, record the energetic

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composition.

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As a matter of professional and worldly success, his

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position from about this time may be regarded as higher than that of

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any other painter known. to history, except Raphael, Michelangelo, and

Related Topics:
Raphael - Michelangelo

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at a later date Rubens. In 1540 he received a pension from D'Avalos,

Related Topics:
Rubens - 1540

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marquis del Vasto, and an annuity of 200 crowns (which was afterwards

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doubled) from Charles V on the treasury of Milan.

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Another source of

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profit for he was always sufficiently keen after money was a contract,

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obtained in 1542, for supplying grain to Cadore, which he visited with

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regularity almost every year, and where he was both generous and

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influential.

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Titian had a

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favorite villa on the neighboring Manza Hill, from which (it may be

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inferred) he made his chief observations of landscape form and effect.

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The so-called Titian's mill, constantly discernible in his studies, is

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at Collontola, near Belluno (see R. F. Heaths Life of Titian, p. 5).

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A visit was paid to Rome in 1546, when he obtained the freedom of the

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city, his immediate predecessor in that honour having been

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Michelangelo in 1537. He could at the same time have succeeded the

Related Topics:
Michelangelo - 1537

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painter Fra Sebastiano in his lucrative office of the piombo, and he

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made no scruple of becoming a friar for the purpose; but this project

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lapsed through his being summoned away from Venice in 1547 to paint

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Charles V. and others, in Augsburg. He was there again in 1550, and

Related Topics:
Augsburg - 1550

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executed the portrait of Philip II., which was sent to England and

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proved a potent auxiliary in the suit of the prince for the hand of

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Queen Mary.

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