(Pieve di Cadore 1487/1490 - Venice 1576)
Titian Vecellio or Vecelli, known in Spain as Ticiano, was an Italian painter. He is the most important master of the great Venetian painting school and one of the greatest geniuses of universal painting. His work was admired by the most significant figures of his time, and since then, above all variations of tastes and styles, it has always been considered one of the great achievements of European culture.
The date of birth of Titian has been the subject of numerous discussions; indeed, there is a tradition that he lived for 99 years, which would imply that he was born in 1477, a notion that seems unlikely, so modern critics preferably accept the date 1487 or 1490. He was the second of the five children of the notary of Pieve di Cadore, Gregorio Vecellio. As a child, he was taken to Venice and worked in the workshop of Giovanni Bellini and later in that of the young Giorgione, the romantic and great renovator of Venetian painting, who would powerfully influence his work. Alongside Giorgione, he worked (1508) on the frescoes of the Fondaco dei Tedeschi in Venice, now mostly lost; and in his youthful works, the assimilation of his master's revolutionary form of expression is so evident that a good number of critics believe in the collaboration between Giorgione and Titian in works traditionally attributed to the former, such as Sleeping Venus, from the Dresden museum; and even considering the early death of Giorgione (1510), there are authors who attribute the mentioned works entirely to Titian.
Be that as it may, the disappearance of Giorgione and the departure to Rome of his classmate Sebastiano del Biombo left Titian in Venice as the undisputed master of the city's painting, and upon the death of the elderly Giovanni Bellini in 1516, he was appointed the official painter of the Most Serene Republic.
After the frescoes painted in Padua in 1511, with The Miracles of Saint Anthony, his first important work was the grand composition of the Ascension (1516-1518) for the Venetian church of Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari, in which Titian achieves the full manifestation of a highly original style, where alongside the new chromatic expression initiated by his master, there appears a secure mastery of reality and an almost incredible ability for the harmonious distribution of masses in grand compositions, of Olympic serenity, populated with figures grouped in the most varied attitudes and arranged in the most difficult foreshortening but without violence or distortions.
Following that religious composition are others no less daring: Annunciation (1520, Treviso Cathedral), Madonna in Glory with the Child and Saints (1520, Pinacoteca of Ancona), Averoldi Polyptych (1520-1522, Church of Saints Nazarius and Celsus, Brescia), Burial of Christ (1525, Louvre). In his smaller works, the influence of Giorgione is still visible at this time: Noli me tangere (1511, National Gallery, London), The Three Ages of Man (1512, National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh), Sacred and Profane Love (1515, Borghese Gallery, Rome); on the other hand, in his early portraits, the vigorous personality of the great Venetian master is already evident, who manages to characterize each of his subjects, imparting a special charm to his fascinating female figures: La schiavona (1510, National Gallery, London).
In 1526, he created the so-called Pesaro altarpiece in the same Venetian convent for which he had already painted the Ascension; this work marks a highly fruitful period of full maturity for the artist, coinciding with the time of great royal commissions, which began with the portrait of Emperor Charles V, made on the occasion of his coronation in Bologna; three years later, he painted the second portrait of the monarch (Prado), which earned him the title of court painter (1533).
Around 1545-1546, Titian visited Rome to paint a portrait of Pope Paul III (Capodimonte Gallery, Naples), in which the pontiff appears chatting or discussing with his nephews, Alessandro and Ottavio Farnese, in a fully naturalistic attitude, completely removed from the conventional posed court portrait that had been done until then. During this trip, the Venetian master became familiar with the works of Michelangelo and the Roman mannerists. In the five months he spent in Rome, Titian painted numerous works for the Farnese: Danaë, Portrait of Cardinal Pietro Bembo, Portrait of Cardinal Alessandro Farnese (all in the National Gallery of Capodimonte, Naples).
By around 1560, envious critics began to speak of signs of decline in the master's painting; in reality, he developed a new style at that time, fully visible in the “models” that have reached us, sketches treated by the master that were later completed by his disciples in the workshop. These are paintings with nervous brushwork, colors applied in overlapping glazes, creating a general effect that has been termed “magical impressionism.”
The production of Titian in these last decades includes works of extraordinary strength, both in the religious and mythological realms, and especially in his portraits, where the artist can reach, with lucid insight, to the very last intricacies of the spirit of the depicted characters. Death overtook the painter while he was working on The Pietà (Academy Gallery, Venice), which he intended to decorate his tomb, a work of intense but serene drama.
Titian Vecellio or Vecelli, known in Spain as Ticiano, was an Italian painter. He is the most important master of the great Venetian painting school and one of the greatest geniuses of universal painting. His work was admired by the most significant figures of his time, and since then, above all variations of tastes and styles, it has always been considered one of the great achievements of European culture.
The date of birth of Titian has been the subject of numerous discussions; indeed, there is a tradition that he lived for 99 years, which would imply that he was born in 1477, a notion that seems unlikely, so modern critics preferably accept the date 1487 or 1490. He was the second of the five children of the notary of Pieve di Cadore, Gregorio Vecellio. As a child, he was taken to Venice and worked in the workshop of Giovanni Bellini and later in that of the young Giorgione, the romantic and great renovator of Venetian painting, who would powerfully influence his work. Alongside Giorgione, he worked (1508) on the frescoes of the Fondaco dei Tedeschi in Venice, now mostly lost; and in his youthful works, the assimilation of his master's revolutionary form of expression is so evident that a good number of critics believe in the collaboration between Giorgione and Titian in works traditionally attributed to the former, such as Sleeping Venus, from the Dresden museum; and even considering the early death of Giorgione (1510), there are authors who attribute the mentioned works entirely to Titian.
Be that as it may, the disappearance of Giorgione and the departure to Rome of his classmate Sebastiano del Biombo left Titian in Venice as the undisputed master of the city's painting, and upon the death of the elderly Giovanni Bellini in 1516, he was appointed the official painter of the Most Serene Republic.
After the frescoes painted in Padua in 1511, with The Miracles of Saint Anthony, his first important work was the grand composition of the Ascension (1516-1518) for the Venetian church of Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari, in which Titian achieves the full manifestation of a highly original style, where alongside the new chromatic expression initiated by his master, there appears a secure mastery of reality and an almost incredible ability for the harmonious distribution of masses in grand compositions, of Olympic serenity, populated with figures grouped in the most varied attitudes and arranged in the most difficult foreshortening but without violence or distortions.
Following that religious composition are others no less daring: Annunciation (1520, Treviso Cathedral), Madonna in Glory with the Child and Saints (1520, Pinacoteca of Ancona), Averoldi Polyptych (1520-1522, Church of Saints Nazarius and Celsus, Brescia), Burial of Christ (1525, Louvre). In his smaller works, the influence of Giorgione is still visible at this time: Noli me tangere (1511, National Gallery, London), The Three Ages of Man (1512, National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh), Sacred and Profane Love (1515, Borghese Gallery, Rome); on the other hand, in his early portraits, the vigorous personality of the great Venetian master is already evident, who manages to characterize each of his subjects, imparting a special charm to his fascinating female figures: La schiavona (1510, National Gallery, London).
In 1526, he created the so-called Pesaro altarpiece in the same Venetian convent for which he had already painted the Ascension; this work marks a highly fruitful period of full maturity for the artist, coinciding with the time of great royal commissions, which began with the portrait of Emperor Charles V, made on the occasion of his coronation in Bologna; three years later, he painted the second portrait of the monarch (Prado), which earned him the title of court painter (1533).
Around 1545-1546, Titian visited Rome to paint a portrait of Pope Paul III (Capodimonte Gallery, Naples), in which the pontiff appears chatting or discussing with his nephews, Alessandro and Ottavio Farnese, in a fully naturalistic attitude, completely removed from the conventional posed court portrait that had been done until then. During this trip, the Venetian master became familiar with the works of Michelangelo and the Roman mannerists. In the five months he spent in Rome, Titian painted numerous works for the Farnese: Danaë, Portrait of Cardinal Pietro Bembo, Portrait of Cardinal Alessandro Farnese (all in the National Gallery of Capodimonte, Naples).
By around 1560, envious critics began to speak of signs of decline in the master's painting; in reality, he developed a new style at that time, fully visible in the “models” that have reached us, sketches treated by the master that were later completed by his disciples in the workshop. These are paintings with nervous brushwork, colors applied in overlapping glazes, creating a general effect that has been termed “magical impressionism.”
The production of Titian in these last decades includes works of extraordinary strength, both in the religious and mythological realms, and especially in his portraits, where the artist can reach, with lucid insight, to the very last intricacies of the spirit of the depicted characters. Death overtook the painter while he was working on The Pietà (Academy Gallery, Venice), which he intended to decorate his tomb, a work of intense but serene drama.
