TITIAN

born 1488/90, Pieve di Cadore, republic of Venice died Aug. 27, 1576, Venice Italian in full Tiziano Vecellio, or Vecelli the greatest Italian Renaissance painter of the Venetian school. He was recognized early in his own lifetime as a supremely great painter, and his reputation has in the intervening centuries never suffered a decline. In 1590 the art theorist Giovanni Lomazzo declared him the sun amidst small stars not only among the Italians but all the painters of the world. The universality of Titian's genius is not questioned today, for he was surpassingly great in all aspects of the painter's art. In his portraits he searched and penetrated human character and recorded it in canvases of pictorial brilliance. His religious compositions cover the full range of emotion from the charm of his youthful Madonnas to the tragic depths of the late Crucifixion and the Entombment. In his mythological pictures he captured the gaiety and abandon of the pagan world of antiquity, and in his paintings of the nude Venus (Venus and Adonis) and the Danae (Danae with Nursemaid) he set a standard for physical beauty and often sumptuous eroticism that has never been surpassed. Other great mastersRubens and Nicolas Poussin, for examplepaid him the compliment of imitation. Additional reading J.A. Crowe and G.B. Cavalcaselle, Titian: His Life and Times, 2 vol. (1877, reprinted 1978), was the first major monograph on the artist. David Rosand, Titian (1978), provides a modern introductory text, while his Painting in Cinquecento Venice: Titian, Veronese, Tintoretto (1982), gives a more general view of 16th-century painting. Bernard Berenson, Italian Pictures of the Renaissance: A List of the Principal Artists and Their Works with an Index of Places, Venetian School, vol. 1, pp. 183192 (1957, reissued 1972), lists authentic works with illustrations. Erwin Panofsky, Problems in Titian, Mostly Iconographic (1969), is an exegesis of the unclear subject matter of several of Titian's works. Charles Hope, Titian (1980), contradicts much established opinion. Studies in Italian include A. Venturi, Storia dell'arte italiana, vol. 9, pt. 3, pp. 93386 (1928, reprinted 1968), with a summary of documents; Rodolfo Pallucchini, Tiziano, 2 vol. (1969), fully illustrated; and Grazia Agostini et al. (eds.), Tiziano nelle Gallerie Fiorentine (1978), a comprehensive survey of works attributed to Titian in the collections of the Pitti and Uffizi Galleries, Florence. Surveys in English of Titian's works include Hans Tietze, Titian, the Paintings and Drawings, 2nd ed., rev. (1950; originally published in German, 1936); and Harold E. Wethey, The Paintings of Titian, 3 vol. (196975), a complete corpus with catalogue raisonn, and Titian and His Drawings (1987). David Rosand (ed.), Titian: His World and His Legacy (1982), is a collection of essays. Harold E. Wethey The Editors of the Encyclopdia Britannica Major Works: Religious paintings Frescoes of three miracles of St. Anthony of Padua (151011; Scuola del Santo, Padua); Gipsy Madonna (c. 1510; Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna); Salome (c. 1515; Galleria Doria-Pamphili, Rome); Assumption (151618; Sta. Maria dei Frari, Venice); Madonna and Child with SS. Francis and Alvise and Alvise Gozzi As Donor (signed 1520; Pinacoteca, Ancona); Resurrection Altarpiece (signed 1522; SS. Nazaro e Celso, Brescia); Pesaro Madonna (151926; Sta. Maria dei Frari, Venice); Entombment (152632; Louvre, Paris); Madonna and Child with St. Catherine and a Rabbit (c. 1530; Louvre, Paris); Madonna and Child with SS. John the Baptist and Catherine of Alexandria (c. 1530; National Gallery, London); The Presentation of the Virgin in the Temple (153438; Accademia, Venice); Christ Before Pilate (signed 1543; Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna); three Old Testament subjects (154344; Sta. Maria della Salute, ceiling of the sacristy, Venice); Christ Crowned with Thorns (154650; Louvre, Paris); Martyrdom of St. Lawrence (154857; Gesuiti, Venice); Trinity (La Gloria) (1554; Prado, Madrid); Crucifixion (1558; S. Domenico, Ancona); Entombment (1559; Prado, Madrid); Magdalen (c. 1560; Hermitage, Leningrad); Annunciation (156065; S. Salvatore, Venice); Madonna and Child in Evening Landscape, (156265; Alte Pinakothek, Munich); Christ Crowned with Thorns (157076; Alte Pinakothek, Munich); St. Jerome (1575; Nuevos Museos, Escorial); Piet (1576; Accademia, Venice). Mythological paintings Sacred and Profane Love (151215; Borghese Gallery, Rome); Flora (c. 1515; Uffizi, Florence); The Three Ages of Man (c. 1515; National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh, lent by the Duke of Sutherland); Bacchus and Ariadne (Ferrara Bacchanals, 152023, National Gallery, London); Worship of Venus (151819) and The Andrians (152324; both in Prado, Madrid); Venus Anadyomene (c. 1525; National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh, lent by the Duke of Sutherland; Venus of Urbino (1538; Uffizi, Florence); Jupiter and Antiope, so-called Venus of El Pardo (c. 1540, perhaps finished c. 1560; Louvre, Paris); Venus and Cupid with an Organist (signed c. 1550; Prado, Madrid); Venus with a Mirror (155055; National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.); Danae with Nursemaid (155354; Prado, Madrid); Venus and Adonis (155354; Prado, Madrid); Perseus and Andromeda (155456; Wallace Collection, London); Diana and Actaeon and Diana and Callisto (1559; National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh, lent by the Duke of Sutherland); The Rape of Europa (c. 155962; Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Fenway Court, Boston); Venus and the Lute Player (c. 1560; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York); Nymph and Shepherd ( c. 1570; Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna); Tarquin and Lucretia (1571; Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge); The Flaying of Marsyas (c. 157076; Umeleckohistorick Muzeum, Kromerz, Czech.). Portraits The Concert (151012; Pitti Palace, Florence); Gentleman in Blue, so-called Ariosto (signed c. 1512; National Gallery, London); Young Man with Cap and Gloves (151215; Earl of Halifax Collection, Garrowby Hall, London); Man with a Glove (152022; Louvre, Paris); Federico II Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua (c. 1523; Prado, Madrid); Alfonso d'Avalos, Marques del Vasto (1533; Marquis de Ganay Collection, Paris); Francesco Maria della Rovere, Duke of Urbino (153638; Uffizi, Florence); Doge Andrea Gritti (153538; National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.); The Young Englishman, so-called (154045; Pitti Palace, Florence); Pietro Aretino (c. 1545; Pitti Palace, Florence); Clarice Strozzi (1542; Staatliche Museen Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Berlin); Pope Paul III Without Cap (1543; Museo e Gallerie Nazionali di Capodimonte, Naples); The Vendramin Family (154347; National Gallery, London); Paul III and His Grandsons Ottavio and Cardinal Alessandro Farnese (1546; Museo e Gallerie Nazionali di Capodimonte, Naples); The Emperor Charles V at Mhlberg (1548; Prado, Madrid); Giovanni Battista Castaldo (1548; Becker Collection, Dortmund); Self Portrait (c. 1550; Staatliche Museen Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Berlin); Philip II (155051; Prado, Madrid); Giovanni Francesco Acquaviva, Duke of Atri (1552; Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Kassel); Lavinia with Fan, so-called (155560; Gemldegalerie, Dresden); Jacopo Strada (156768; Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna); Triple Portrait Mask, Allegory of Prudence (c. 1570; National Gallery, London).