Titian of Venice

Venus of Urbino, 1538, photo courtesy of WCC

          The Venetian artist Titian attained great fame in his day through born talent for observing and painting realistically the natural world.  The painter’s exact birth year eludes art historians to this day, due to his own desire to create a mystery about himself.  He created this confusion for future generations by drastically changing his age in many paintings.  However, through ardent research, historians placed his birth year at somewhere between 1487-90, and the year of his death (something that artist could not befuddle) at 1576.

            Vasari’s biography of Titian, the last in The Lives of Artists, describes him as a man with so much natural talent that had he been given rigorous stylistic schooling, he could have reached the heights of Michelangelo, Leonardo or Raphael. 

Danae Receiving the Golden Rain, 1553, photo courtesy of WCC

            Titian began his studies with Giovanni Bellini, a prominent Venetian painter in his day, and learned the style of Venice at the time.  According to Vasari, in the year 1507, Titian discovered the new technique adopted by Giorgione of Castlefranco and began to emulate it.  Giorgione painted with softer lines and colors; and throughout his career, Titian became known for this chiarascuric style of painting.  His paintings were often mistaken for those of Giovanni. 

            Throughout the beginning of his career, it seems Titian was commissioned many times to finish paintings and portraits by Bellini, who had weakened with age.  He arose to prominence during this time, and received many commissions of both religious paintings and portraits – for which he is best known.  Titian painted many nudes, women who are so ethereal that even Michaelangelo noted (according to Vasari) that “If Titian…had been assisted by art and design as greatly as he had been by Nature…no artist could achieve more or paint better, for he possesse[d] a splendid spirit and a most charming lively style”. 

Boy with Dogs in a Landscape, 1576, photo courtesy of WCC

            In his later career, Titian’s style shifted from his meticulous detailed works to broad and bold brush strokes; and though they seem to be effortless, Vasari writes that “his paintings [we]re reworked and that he ha[d] gone back over them with colors many times, making his effort evident”.  Toward the end of his life, the biography states that Vasari visited the aging artist, who still had brushes in his hands.