Have you just discovered the beautiful paintings of Titian (Tiziano Vecellio) and fallen in love with this artist?
Titian was one of the greatest Italian artists. Straddling the Renaissance and Mannerism, over his very long career this painter absorbed the influences and developments of the great figures of his time.
In this post I tell you the life, the anecdotes and the works of one of the greatest masters of Italian painting.
Titian’s life in brief
- He was born in Pieve di Cadore but lived most of his life in Venice.
- He was a pupil of Giovanni Bellini and was deeply influenced by Giorgione.
- His workshop made him very rich, but he also became an entrepreneur in the timber trade.
- He revolutionised the use of colour in painting.
- He painted the portraits of the most important men of his time.
- He died very old in 1576: the records credit him with up to 99 years, but scholars today believe he was born around 1488-90.
When was Titian born? The disputed birth date
Titian’s birth date is unknown. There are no official documents, and the various accounts don’t agree. Historians usually settle on a date between 1480 and 1490, but some place his birth as early as 1470-1475.
We know for certain that Titian died in Venice in 1576, during an outbreak of the plague. He himself, by then an old man, in a letter to Philip II went so far as to claim he’d been born in 1474 (making him a centenarian!), and tradition credited him with up to 99 years. Modern scholars, however, place his birth around 1488-1490: he would therefore have died at about 86-90. A remarkable age for the time nonetheless, and a very long career.
Why Titian is considered an extraordinary artist
The young Titian came into contact with artists of the calibre of Lorenzo Lotto, Sebastiano del Piombo, Carpaccio and Giorgione, as well as his aforementioned master Bellini.
The painter soon achieved success with canvases that stood out for the exceptional use he managed to make of colour.
Venice at the time was at the height of its splendour: it controlled all the trade of the Mediterranean, and a rich, cultured patriciate spent its money on works of art to embellish its palaces.
On Bellini’s death (1516) he inherited his role as official painter of the Serenissima, with the coveted privilege of the sensería at the Fondaco dei Tedeschi. But his true consecration came with the enormous altarpiece of the Assunta (Assumption, 1516-1518) for the Basilica dei Frari: a Madonna rising to heaven in a whirlwind of light and red, which left Venice open-mouthed and changed Venetian painting forever.
Not just a painter: Titian and the timber trade
Titian was not only a painter but a true entrepreneur: not only did he set up his own hugely successful workshop, he also invested his earnings in the timber trade between his hometown and Venice.
Timber was essential to the shipbuilding industry, so the artist soon earned high profits, becoming richer still.
A grievous loss and a love story ended in tragedy
Titian had one great love, the beautiful Cecilia. They married in 1525, after having their first two children, Pomponio and Orazio.
The two had already been living together for some time and loved each other dearly. But the young woman died in childbirth five years later, giving birth to their daughter Lavinia. It seems the painter was so devastated by the loss that he never remarried.
The children were cared for by his sister Orsola, who moved to Venice specially.
Titian’s portraits
Over his career, Titian built relationships with, and created works and portraits for, the most important and eminent figures of his age: from Charles V to Pope Paul III Farnese, from Philip II of Spain to Henry III of France, from the Gonzaga to Pietro Bembo, from Aretino to the various doges.
As Vasari wrote, “there was scarcely any lord of great name, nor prince, nor great lady, who was not portrayed by Titian”.
His relationship with Charles V was so close that the emperor made him a knight and a count palatine, an almost unheard-of honour for a painter. To this bond is tied one of the most famous anecdotes in the history of art: it’s said that one day, while Titian was painting, he dropped a brush, and Charles V himself stooped to pick it up, saying that Titian deserved to be served by an emperor. True or not, the story says everything about the prestige Titian had reached.
Titian’s revolution of colour
Titian was, more than anyone, the master of light and colour.
He fused the Flemish attention to detail and to matter (glass, pearls, fabrics…) with the search for effects of light and colour that Bellini and Giorgione had begun, becoming one of the greatest masters of Italian painting of all time.
Eugène Delacroix wrote of Titian: “In him the painterly qualities are carried to their highest point: what he paints, is painted; the eyes look and are animated by the fire of life. Life and reason are present everywhere”.
In his final years his painting grew ever freer and more “modern”: rapid brushstrokes, forms dissolving into light. It’s said that the old Titian now painted more with his fingers than with his brushes, smudging the colour directly onto the canvas. A way of painting that anticipates modern art by centuries and influenced masters such as Rubens, Velázquez and, among many others, the young Caravaggio (who trained in Milan in the workshop of Simone Peterzano, himself a pupil of Titian).
Where to see Titian’s works
Titian painted for half of Europe, and today his works are scattered among the great museums of the world. Here’s where to find the most famous:
- In Venice, his city: the Assunta and the Pesaro Altarpiece in the Basilica dei Frari, and other works at the Accademia Galleries (where a skip-the-line ticket is worth it, as the queues are long).
- At the Prado in Madrid, the largest collection of Titian in the world: the Danaë you see on the cover, the Charles V on Horseback and the famous mythological “poesie”.
- At the Uffizi in Florence the Venus of Urbino, at the Galleria Borghese in Rome the Sacred and Profane Love, at the National Gallery in London Bacchus and Ariadne, and more works at the Gemäldegalerie in Berlin.
And you, which painting by Titian made you fall in love?
