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TITIAN (c. 1477-1576)
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See also:TITIAN (c. 1477-1576) . Tiziano Vecellio, or Vecelli, one of the greatest painters of the See also:world, and in especial the typical representative of the Venetian school, was commonly called during his lifetime " Da Cadore," from the See also:place of his See also:birth, and has also been designated " Il Divino." The See also:country of Cadore, in the See also:Friuli, barren and poor, is watered by the Piave torrent poured forth from the Carnic See also:Alps, and is at no See also:great distance from See also:Tirol. Titian, therefore, was not in any sense a Venetian of the lagoons and Adriatic, but was native to a country, and a range of association, See also:perception and observation, of a directly different See also:kind. See also:Venice conquered Friuli at a date not very remote from the birth of Titian; and Cadore, having to choose between Venetian and imperial See also:allegiance, declared for the former. Approaching the See also:castle of Cadore from the See also:village Sotto See also:Castello, one passes on the right a cottage of humble pretensions, inscribed as Titian's birthplace; the precise locality is named Arsenale. The near See also:mountain—all this range of hills being of See also:dolomite formation—is called Marmarolo. At the neighbouring village of See also:Valle was fought in Titian's lifetime the See also:battle of Cadore, a Venetian victory which he recorded in a See also:painting. In the 12th See also:century the See also:count of Camino became count also of Cadore. He was called Guecello; and this name descended in 1321 to the See also:podesta (or See also:mayor) of Cadore, of the same stock to which the painter belonged. Titian, one of a See also:family of four, and son of Gregorio Vecelli, a distinguished councillor and soldier, and of his wife See also:Lucia, was See also:born in 1477. So it has very generally been stated; but of See also:late years a subsequent date, 1489-1490, has been suggested, so as to make Titian, at the See also:time of his See also:death, not so singularly See also:long-lived a See also:man. As to this interesting point one should remember that See also:Vasari in one passage (at variance with some others) says that Titian was born in 148o; while Titian himself, See also:writing to See also: According to one See also:account, Giorgione was nettled at this superiority, and denied Titian admittance to his house thenceforth. Stories of jealousies between painters are rife in all regions, and in none more than in the Venetian—various statements of this kind applying to Titian himself. One should neither accept nor reject them uninquiringly; See also:counter-See also:evidence of some See also:weight can be cited for Vecelli's vindication in relation to See also:Moroni, Corieggio, See also:Lotto and See also:Coello. Towards 1511, after the cessation of the See also:League of Cambraiwhich had endeavoured to shatter the See also:power of the Venetian See also:republic, and had at any See also:rate succeeded in clipping the wings of the See also:lion of St See also:Mark—Vecelli went to See also:Padua, and painted in the Scuola di S. See also:Antonio a See also:series of frescoes, which continue to be an See also:object of high curiosity to the students of his See also:genius, although they cannot be matched against his finest achievements in oil painting. Another fresco, dated 1523, is " St See also:Christopher carrying the Infant See also:Christ," at the See also:foot of the See also:doge's steps in the ducal palace of Venice. From Padua Titian in 1512 returned to Venice; and in 1513 he obtained a See also:broker's patent in the Fondaco de' Tedeschi (state-warehouse for the See also:German merchants), termed " La Sanseria " or " Senseria " (a See also:privilege much coveted by rising or risen artists), and became See also:superintendent of the See also:government works, being especially charged to See also:complete the paintings left unfinished by Giovanni Bellini in the See also: Titian, it may be well to See also:note as a landmark in this all but centenarian See also:life of incessant See also:artistic labour and productiveness, was now (if we adopt 1477 as the birth-date) in the fortieth See also:year of his See also:age. The same year, 1516, witnessed his first See also:journey to See also:Ferrara. Two years later was produced, for the high See also:altar of the See also: In 1532 he painted in See also:Bologna a portrait of the See also:emperor See also: See also:Heath's Life of Titian, p. 5). A visit was paid to See also:Rome in 1546, when he obtained the freedom of the See also:city, his immediate predecessor in that See also:honour having been Michelangelo in 1537. He could at the same time have succeeded the painter Fra Sebastian in his lucrative See also:office of the piombo, and he made no See also:scruple of becoming a See also:friar for the purpose; but this project lapsed through his being summoned away from Venice in 1547 to paint Charles V. and others, in See also:Augsburg. He was there again in 1550, and executed the portrait of Philip II., which was sent to See also:England and proved a potent See also:auxiliary in the suit of the See also:prince for the See also:hand of See also:Queen Mary. In the preceding year 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 See also:marriage took place in 1554. She died in childbirth in 1560. The years 1551 and 1552 were among those in which Titian worked least assiduously—a circumstance which need excite no surprise in the See also:case of a man aged about seventy-five. He was at the Council of See also:Trent towards 1555, of which his admirable picture or finished sketch in the Louvre bears record. He was never in See also:Spain, notwithstanding the many statements which have been made in the affirmative. Titian's friend Aretino died suddenly in 1556, and another See also:close intimate, the sculptor and architect Jacopo See also:Sansovino, in 1570. With his See also:European fame, and many See also:sources of See also:wealth, Vecelli is the last man one would suppose to have been under the See also:necessity of writing querulous and dunning letters for See also:payment, especially when the defaulter addressed was See also:lord of Spain and of the See also:American Indies; yet he had constantly to complain that his pictures remained unpaid for and hispensions in arrear, and in the very year of his death (See also:February) he recites the many pictures which he had sent within the preceding twenty years without receiving their price. In fact, there is ground for thinking that all his See also:pensions and privileges, large as they were nominally, brought in but See also:precarious returns. It has been pointed out that in the summer of 1566 (when he was elected into the Florentine Academy) he made an See also:official See also:declaration of his income, and put down the various items apparently below their value, not naming at all his See also:salary or pensions. Possibly there was but too much See also:reason for the omission. In See also:September 1565 Titian went to Cadore and designed the decorations for the church at Pieve, partly executed by his pupils. One of these is a Transfiguration, another an See also:Annunciation (now in S. Salvatore, Venice), inscribed " Titianus fecit," by way of protest (it is said) against the disparagement of some persons who cavilled at the See also:veteran's failing handicraft. He continued to accept commissions to the last. He had selected as the place for his See also:burial the See also:chapel of the Crucifix in the church of the Frari; and, in return for a See also:grave, he offered the See also:Franciscans a picture of the " Pieta," representing himself and his son See also:Orazio before the Saviour, another figure in the composition being a sibyl. This work he nearly finished; but some See also:differences arose regarding it, and he then settled to be interred in his native Pieve. Titian was ninety-nine years of age (more or less) when the See also:plague,' which was then raging in Venice, seized him, and carried him off on the 27th of August 1576. ' He was buried in the church of the Frari, as at first intended, and his " Pieta " was finished by Palma Giovane. He lies near his own famous painting, the " Madonna di Casa See also:Pesaro." No memorial marked his grave, until by See also:Austrian command See also:Canova executed the See also:monument so well known to sightseers. Immediately after Titian's own death, his son and pictorial assistant Orazio died of the same epidemic. His sumptuous mansion was plundered during the plague by thieves, who prowled about, scarce controlled.
Titian was a man of correct features and handsome See also:person, with an uncommon See also:air of penetrating observation and self-possessed composure—a Venetian presence worthy to pair with any of those " most potent, grave and See also:reverend signors " whom his See also:pencil has transmitted to posterity. He was highly distinguished, courteous and winning in society, personally unassuming, and a fine See also:speaker, enjoying (as is said by Vasari, who saw him in the See also:spring of 1566) See also:health and prosperity unequalled. The numerous heads currently named Titian's See also:Mistress might dispose us to regard the painter as a man of more than usually relaxed morals; the fact is, however, that these titles are See also:mere See also:fancy-names, and no inference one way or the other can be See also:drawn from them. He gave splendid entertainments at times; and it is related that, when See also: In this sense Titian has never been deposed from his See also:sovereignty in painting, nor can one forecast the time in which he will be deposed. For the complex of qualities which we sum up in the words colour, handling and general force and harmony of effect, he stands unmatched, although in particular items of forcible or impressive execution—not to speak of creative invention—some painters, one in one respect and another in another, may indisputably be preferred to him. He carried to its See also:acme that great colourist conception of the Venetian school of which the first masterpieces are due to the two Bellini, to See also:Carpaccio, and, with more fully See also:developed suavity of manner, to Giorgione. Pre-eminent inventive power or sublimity ' Out of a See also:total See also:population of 190,000 there perished at this time 50,000. of See also:intellect he never evinced. Even in See also:energy of See also:action and more especially in See also:majesty or affluence of composition the See also:palm is not his; it is (so far as concerns the Venetian school) assignable to See also:Tintoretto. Titian is a painter who by wondrous magic of genius and of art satisfies the eye, and through the eye the feelings—sometimes the mind. Titian's pictures abound with memories of his home-country and of the region which led from the hill-summits of Cadore to the queen-city of the Adriatic. He was almost the first painter to exhibit an appreciation of mountains, mainly those of a turreted type, exemplified in the See also:Dolomites. Indeed he gave to landscape generally a new and See also:original vitality, expressing the quality of the objects of nature and their See also:control over the sentiments and See also:imagination with a force that had never before been approached. The earliest See also:Italian picture expressly designated as " landscape " was one which Vecelli sent in 1552 to Philip II. His productive faculty was immense, even when we allow for the abnormal length of his professional career. In Italy, England and elsewhere more than a thousand pictures figure as Titian's; of these about 250 may be regarded as dubious or See also:spurious. There are, for instance, 6 pictures in the See also:National Gallery, See also:London, 18 in the Louvre, 16 in the Pitti, 18 in the Uffizi, 7 in the See also:Naples Museum, 8 in the Venetian Academy (besides the series in the private See also:meeting-hall) and 41 in the See also:Madrid Museum. In the National Gallery 3 other works used to be assigned to Titian, but are now regarded rather as examples of his school.
, Naturally a good See also:deal of See also:attention has been given by artists, connoisseurs and experts to probing the See also:secret of how Titian managed to obtain such astonishing results in colour and surface.' The upshot of this See also:research is but meagre; the secret seems to be not so much one of workmanship as of faculty. His figures were put in with the See also:brush dipped in a See also: He said, " That man would have had no equal if art had done as much for him as nature." He was thinking principally of severity and majesty of draughtsmanship, for he added, " Pity that in Venice they See also:don't learn how to draw well." As a draughtsman of the human figure Titian was not only competent but good and fine, and he is reported to have studied See also:anatomy deeply; but one can easily understand that he See also:fell not a little See also:short of the See also:standard of Michelangelo, and even of other leading Florentines. He was wont to paint in a nude figure with Venetian red, supplemented by a little See also:lake in the See also:contour and towards the extremities. He observed that a colourist ought to manipulate See also: The See also:fortune which he left was, after his decease, squandered by the teitsured prodigal. The other son, Orazio, born xxvt. 33towards 1528, who (as we have seen) assisted Titian professionally, became a portrait-painter of mark—some of his likenesses, almost comparable with Titian's own, being often confounded with his by owners and connoisseurs. He executed an important picture in the hall of the great council, destroyed by See also:fire. He gave to See also:alchemy some of the time which might have been bestowed upon painting. Several other artists of the Vecelli family followed in the See also:wake of Titian. See also:Francesco Vecelli, his See also:elder See also:brother, was introduced to painting by Titian (it is said at the age of twelve, but See also:chronology will hardly admit of this), and painted in the church of S. Vito in Cadore a picture of the titular See also:saint armed. This was a noteworthy performance, of which Titian (the usual See also:story) became jealous; so Francesco was diverted from painting to soldiering, and afterwards to See also:mercantile life. Marco Vecelli, called Marco di Tiziano, Titian's nephew, born in 1545, was constantly with the master in his old age, and. learned his methods of work. He has left some able productions—in the ducal palace, the " Meeting of Charles V. and See also:Clement VII. in 1529 "; in S. Giacomo di Rialto, an " Annunciation "; in SS. Giovani e See also:Paolo, " Christ Fulminant." A son of Marco, named Tiziano (or Tizianello), painted early in the 17th century. From a different See also:branch of the family came Fabrizio di Ettore, a painter who died in 1580. His brother Cesare, who also left some pictures, is well known by his See also:book of engraved costumes, Abiti antichi e moderni. Tommaso Vecelli, also a painter, died in 1620. There was another relative, See also:Girolamo See also:Dante, who, being a See also:scholar and assistant of Titian, was called Girolamo di Tiziano. Various pictures of his were touched up by the master, and are difficult to distinguish from originals. Apart from members of his family, the scholars of Titian were not numerous; See also:Paris See also:Bordone and Bonifazio were the two of See also:superior excellence. El See also:Greco (or Domenico Theotocopuli) was employed by the master to engrave from his works. It is said that Titian himself engraved on See also:copper and on See also:wood, but this may well be questioned. We must now briefly advert to Titian's individual works, taking them in approximate See also:order of time, and merely dividing portraits from other pictures. Details already given indicate that he did not exhibit any extreme precocity ; the earliest works which we proceed to mention may date towards 1505. In the chapel of S. Rocco, Venice, is his " Christ Carrying the See also:Cross," now greatly dilapidated ; it was an object of so much popular devotion as to produce offerings which formed the first funds for See also:building the Scuola di S. Rocco: in the scuolo itself is his " Man of Sorrows." The nobly beautiful picture in the Villa See also:Borghese in Rome, commonly named " Divine and Human Love " (by some, " Artless and Sated Love "), bears some obvious relation to the See also:style of Palma Vecchio. The story goes that Titian was enamoured of Palma's daughter; but nothing distinct on this point is forthcoming. The " See also:Tribute Money " (" Christ and the Pharisee "), now in the See also:Dresden Gallery, dated towards 1508; Titian is said to have painted this highly finished yet not " niggling " picture in order to prove to some Germans that the effect of detail could be produced without those extreme minutiae which mark the style of See also:Albert See also:Durer. The St Mark in the church of the Salute—the evangelist enthroned, along with SS. Sebastian, See also:Roch, Cosmo and Damian—a picture much in the style of Giorgione, belongs to 1512. Towards 1518 was painted, also in the same class of style, the " Three Ages," now in See also:Bridgewater House—a woman guiding the fingers of a shepherd on a See also:reed-See also:pipe, two sleeping children, a See also:cupid, an old man with two skulls, and a second shepherd in the distance—one of the most poetically impressive among all Titian's works. Another work of approximate date was the " See also:Worship of See also:Venus," in the Madrid Museum, showing a statue of Venus, two See also:nymphs, numerous cupids See also:hunting a See also:hare, and other figures. Two of the pictures in the National Gallery, London—the " See also:Holy Family and, St See also:Catherine " and the " Noli me tangere "—were going on at much the same time as the great " Assumption of the Madonna." In 1521 Vecelli finished a painting which had long been due to Duke See also:Alphonso of Ferrara, probably the " Bacchanal," with See also:Ariadne dozing over her See also:wine-See also:cup, which is now in Madrid. The famous " Bacchus and Ariadne " in the National Gallery was produced for the same See also:patron in 1523. The " See also:Flora " of the Uffizi, the " Venus " of See also:Darmstadt, and the lovely " Venus See also:Anadyomene " of the See also:Bridge-See also:water Gallery may date a year or so earlier. Another work of 1523 is the stupendous " Entombment of Christ " in the Louvre, whose See also:depth of colour and of shadow stands as the pictorial See also:equivalent of individual facial expression; the same composition, a less admirable work, appears in the Manfrini Gallery. The Louvre picture comes from the Gonzaga collection and from the gallery of Charles I. in See also:Whitehall. In 1530 Titian completed the " St See also:Peter See also:Martyr " for the church of SS. Giovanni e Paolo; for this work he See also:bore off the See also:prize in competition with Palma Vecchio and Pordenone. Of all his pictures this was the most daring in See also:design of action, while it yielded to none in general power of workmanship and of feeling. It showed the influence of Michelangelo, who was in Venice while Vecelli was engaged upon it. A calamitous fire destroyed it in 1867; the copy of it which has taken its place is the handiwork of Cardi da See also:Cigoli. To 1530 belongs also the " Madonna del Coniglio " (Louvre), painted for Gonzaga; to 1536 the " Venus of Florence "; to 1538 the portraits of the " Twelve Caesars," for Gonzaga; and to 1539 the " Presentation of the Virgin in the See also:Temple "—one of the II conspicuous examples in the Venetian Academy, yet not of the first See also:interest or importance. About 1540 were done the forcible but rather uninspired paintings for S. Spirito, Venice, now in the church of the Salute—" See also:Cain Killing See also:Abel," the " See also:Sacrifice of See also:Abraham " and " See also:David and See also:Goliath "; in 1543 the " Ecce Homo " of the Vienna Gallery, where Arei ino figures as See also:Pilate. The " Venus and Cupid " of Florence, the " Venus " of Madrid and the " Supper of See also:Emmaus " in the Louvre were still in hand, or just completed, when Titian was summoned to Augsburg in 1547. In 1554 he sent to Philip II. in England a second " Danae " and a " Venus and See also:Adonis." About the same time he sent to Charles V. a " Trinity " (or, as Titian himself termed it, " Last See also:Judgment "), which represented the emperor, with his family and others, all in shrouds, praying to the Godhead; See also:Moses and various other personages are also portrayed. This was the object upon which Charles continued to keep his eyes fixed until the film of death closed on them. Later pictures, from 1558 onwards, are the " Martyrdom of St See also:Lawrence," " Christ Crowned with Thorns " (Louvre), ` See also:Diana and See also:Actaeon," " Diana and See also:Callisto," " See also:Jupiter and See also:Antiope," the " Magdalene," " Christ in the See also:Garden," and " See also:Europa "—the last six for Philip II.; of the two Diana subjects there are duplicates in London and in Vienna. Philip, it will be observed, was equally au/ail with nudities and with sanctities. The " Jupiter and Antiope, ' now much restored, is commonly called " La Venus del Pardo," having at first been in the Pardo Palace. The " Magdalene " here spoken of (1561) seems to be the picture now in the Uffizi of Florence; Titian, in one of his letters, said that it was the most popular picture he had ever painted. In 1563 Vecelli offered to Philip II. his " Last Supper," which had been in hand for six years; it was cut down in the See also:Escorial to suit a particular space, and offers now little noticeable beyond the fine grouping. The " St See also:Jerome " of the Brera Gallery in Milan, a work of wonderful energy, spirit and force, especially for a more than octogenarian hand, was probably rather earlier than this; there is a replica of it in the Escorial. One of the master's latest pictures (1574–1575) is in Madrid, and commemorates the " Battle of See also:Lepanto "; it is a work of failing power—but still the power of a Titian. Two of the mosaics in St Mark's church, Venice—the Mark in pontificals and the See also:sword-sheathing angel on the right of the high altar—are after Vecelli's designs; but they are contrary to the true spirit of See also:mosaic work, and the Mark in especial is a decided eyesore.
We now turn to the portraits—works so great in style, so stately, and in the best sense so See also:simple in perception and feeling that, after allowing everything which can be said on behalf of some other masters of the See also:craft, such as Raphael, See also:Velazquez, Rubens and See also:Rembrandt, one is still compelled to say that Titian stands on the whole supreme. Among the highest examples are—Alphonso, duke of Ferrara (Madrid), the same duke and his second wife Laura Dianti (Louvre), commonly called " Titian and his Mistress "; See also:Francis I. (Louvre), painted towards 1536, but not from See also:direct sittings, for Titian never saw the French See also: Of See also:Ariosto, with whom Titian was intimate in Ferrara, though there may probably have been nothing approaching to a romantic friendship between them, the painter is said to have done three portraits. Much uncertainty, however, besets this matter. One of the three appears as a woodcut in an edition of the Orlando furioso. A second, formerly at See also:Cobham Hall, corresponds with the woodcut likeness, and is signed " Titianus F."—a work of admirable beauty; it is now in the National Gallery of London. It is difficult, however, to reconcile the features here with those which appear in some other portraits of Ariosto. There is also in the gallery another and singularly beautiful portrait which used to be called " Ariosto " by Titian, then was assumed to See also:bean " Unknown Poet " by Palma Vecchio ; it is now again attributed to Titian, but not as representing Ariosto. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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