According to critics and art historians, including Arnold Hauser and Ernst Gombrich, the impact of Titian’s work was enormous, in fact, he was recognized as a great painter from an early age.
In his portraits, Titian deepened the human character, managing to capture it in his canvases. His religious compositions cover the full range of emotions, from the charm of his young Madonnas to the tragic depths of crucifixion and burial.
- In his mythological images.
- He captured the joy and abandonment of the pagan world of antiquity.
- In their nude photos.
- Venus (Venus and Adonis) and D’nae (D’nae) set a standard of physical beauty and eroticism that has never been surpassed.
Titian was famous for his mastery of colors, his creative work has had a profound influence on countless future generations of artists, great masters such as Rubens and Nicolas Poussin praised him imitating him.
“Titian is the sun among the stars, not only among Italians, but also among all the painters of the world. “- Giovanni Lorenzo on Titian, 1950-
The exact date of his birth is unknown. Titian Vecellio, or Vecelli, was born between 1488 and 1490 in Pieve di Cadore, a town near Belluno, Italy.
There he lived the first years of his life, his parents being Gregory and Lucia Vecellio, who had five children, titian being the eldest of his brothers.
His father was a prominent soldier and city councillor, working as superintendent of Pieve di Cadore Castle and also managing local mines for its owners.
Many family members, including Titian’s grandfather, were notaries, so it is no surprise that the painter’s family is well established in the region.
At the age of 10, with his brother Francesco, he was sent to live with his uncle in Venice, living in this city, titian is said to have been born as an artist, at first the two brothers entered as apprentices in the workshop. of a famous Mosaiquista, Sebastiano Zuccato.
A few years later, Titian entered the studio of the respected Venetian painter Giovanni Bellini, in which the first generation of painters of the Venetian school flourished: Giovanni Palma di Serinalta, Lorenzo Lotto, Sebastiano Luciani and Giorgio da Castelfranco, known as Giorgione. .
Hercules’ fresco at morosini Palace is said to have been one of his first works. Others were Mary and the Son (the so-called Mary Gypsy), who is in Vienna; and Portrait of Elizabeth of Portugal, now located at the Academy of Venice.
In 1508, fondaco dei Tedeschi’s frescoes, painted in collaboration with another Bellini disciple, Giorgione di Castelfranco, marked the beginning of his career. The successful collaboration explains why it is difficult to distinguish between the two artists in the early years of the 16th century.
Of these frescoes, only the ruined contours survive. In this work, the main scenario attributed to Titian was the allegory of prudence.
The two young teachers were also recognized as the two leaders of the new “modern art” school. This type of art was associated with a painting made more flexibly, that is, free from symmetry and other hyertic conventions that could still be found in the work of Giovanni Bellini.
After Giorgione’s untimely death in 1510, Titian continued to paint, following his tradition for some time, however, his style quickly developed his own trademarks, which would include bold and expressive features.
Titian’s first independent commission was the frescoes of the three miracles of Saint Antinio de Pedua in 1511. According to several art critics, the best composition is the Miracle of the Newborn.
Major Giovanni Bellini died in 1516, leaving Titian unrivalled at the Venetian school. For sixty years he was the undisputed master of Venetian painting. Titiano succeeded his teacher Giovanni Bellini and, therefore, began receiving a Pension from the Senate.
“I deliberately avoided the styles of Raphael and Michelangelo because I was ambitious with a higher distinction than that of an intelligent impersonator. “- Titian-
During this period (1516-1530), which corresponds to his stage of domination and maturity, the style of the artist changed and improved, has it gone from his?Giorgionesque? At first to develop broader and more complex topics.
In 1518 he made his famous masterpiece, the Assumption of the Virgin, still in situ, an extraordinary work, made on a large scale and rarely seen in Italy, has left everyone astonished.
Titian’s name was shining brighter and brighter, he was associated with art, so fame soon came. In 1521, the artist was at his most popular time. Although this was long known, from that moment on, buyers turned more to their work.
One of his most extraordinary works, A Morte de Sao Pedro Toortir (1530), unfortunately destroyed in 1867, belongs to this period, only copies and engravings of this image remain.
This work combines extreme violence and a landscape, composed mainly of a large tree that enters the scene and seems to accentuate the drama in a way that tends to baroque.
At the same time, the artist continues his series of little Madonnas, which he portrays in the midst of beautiful landscapes that serve as genre and pastoral poetic images.
It was also the time of the great mythological scenes, among which are the famous Bacanales that can be found in the Prado Museum, which are perhaps the brightest productions of Pagan Culture of the Renaissance.
Titian’s encounter with the Germanic Roman emperor Charles V in Bologna in 1530 was a decisive fact in his life; on this occasion, Titian painted a life-size portrait of the emperor (now lost), an early example of what was still an extremely innovative genre at the time.
He quickly became the principal painter of the imperial court, thus obtaining numerous privileges, honors and even titles, and since then he has been the most sought-after painter in the courts of all Europe.
The artist has earned the admiration and esteem of the powerful not only for the beauty of his painting, but also for his own attitude and for the conceptual subtlety with which he built his paintings.
Proof of his fame is the large number of portraits signed by Titian, preserved in the collections of powerful figures. No other painter of the time painted as many portraits as Titian, although it is thought that it was the students of the master’s degree who painted these paintings.
“It’s not the bright colors, it’s a good design that makes the characters beautiful. “Tiziano.
Titian received a pension from D?Avalos, Marquis de Vasto, and a large annuity from Charles V of the Treasury of Milan.
Another source of income was a contract signed in 1542 to make the grain available to Cadore, his hometown he visited almost every year, where he was considered generous and influential.
Titian had a favorite village on the nearby hill of Manza, where he made his main observations on the shape and effect of the landscape. The so-called Titian mill, constantly visible in its studios, is located in Collontola, near Belluno.
In 1525 he married a woman named Cecilia, daughter of a hairdresser, and the union gave birth to his first son, Pomponio, and two others in a row, including Titian’s favorite, Orazio, who became his assistant.
Around 1526 he felt at ease and quickly became very intimate with Pietro Aretino. Pietro was an influential and daring figure who appeared strangely in the chronicles of the time. Titiano sent a portrait of him to Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua.
After Cecilia’s death in 1530, Titian remarried and became the father of a daughter, Lavunia, but his second wife also died. He moved in with his children and managed to bring his sister Orsa de Cadore and take over the painter’s house.
Titian was about 90 years old when the plague that spread to Venice caused his death on August 27, 1576.
She was a man who lived for a long time for her time and was the only victim of the plague in Venice who received an ecclesiastical burial. Titian was buried in the church of Frari (Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari).
His grave was near his famous painting Madonna di Ca?Pesaro (Mary of Pesaro). No monument marked his tomb until, much later, the Austrian rulers of Venice ordered the great monument to Canova that decorates it today.
His religious paintings were true paradigms of devotional painting with the ability, like no other, to “spoil feelings. “At the same time, his mythological production makes him the most powerful erotic painter to disturb certain moods.