Titian

near Venice

His Italian name was Tiziano Vecellio.

💡 Did you know? Titian was born in the mountains near Venice and came to the lagoon city as a child to train.

Venetian Renaissance

Titian was the towering master of the Venetian Renaissance and shaped painting for decades.

💡 Did you know? Unlike the Florentines, the Venetians around Titian relied on colour and light rather than strict drawing.

colour

Titian built his pictures from glowing layers of colour, at the end often applying paint with his fingers.

💡 Did you know? His late works are painted so freely that some thought them unfinished.

Emperor Charles V

Emperor Charles V esteemed Titian so highly that he ennobled him: by legend, he once picked up the painter's dropped brush himself.

💡 Did you know? Legend has it the emperor once picked up a brush Titian had dropped.

popes, kings and princes

Titian portrayed the powerful of his time: popes, emperors, kings and princes across Europe.

💡 Did you know? To own a Titian portrait was the ultimate status symbol: rulers waited patiently for their turn.

1576 in Venice

His style influenced painting up to the Impressionists.

💡 Did you know? Titian lived well past 80 (his exact age is uncertain) and died in 1576 during a plague epidemic in Venice.

Venus of Urbino

Around 1538: one of the most famous nudes in art history.

💡 Did you know? The frank, self-assured gaze of the reclining Venus inspired Manet's „Olympia“ centuries later.

Sleeping Venus

Painted around 1509.

💡 Did you know? Titian finished this picture by his early-deceased teacher Giorgione: a turning point in the painting of the nude.

Assumption of the Virgin

Around 1516 to 1518: a vast altarpiece of dramatic power.

💡 Did you know? The huge altarpiece in Venice amazed contemporaries with its bold upward movement.

Sacred and Profane Love

Painted around 1514.

💡 Did you know? Two female figures (one clothed, one nude) embody two forms of love; the meaning is still disputed.

Equestrian Portrait of Charles V

Painted around 1548.

💡 Did you know? The equestrian portrait of the emperor became the model for all royal equestrian portraits of the following centuries.

Flora

Painted around 1517.

💡 Did you know? A young woman as goddess of flowers: the epitome of Venetian, sensual beauty.

The Feast of the Gods

Painted around 1514.

💡 Did you know? Titian completed and reworked this mythological feast begun by the aged Giovanni Bellini.

Allegory of Prudence

Painted around 1550.

💡 Did you know? Three human heads and three animal heads stand for past, present and future.

Bacchus and Ariadne

Painted around 1520.

💡 Did you know? The wine god leaps from his chariot in wild motion: a high point of dynamic Renaissance painting.

Diana and Actaeon

Painted around 1557.

💡 Did you know? The hunter Actaeon surprises the bathing goddess: a masterpiece from Titian's series of myths for the Spanish king.

Pesaro Madonna

Painted around 1522.

💡 Did you know? Titian boldly moved the Madonna from the centre to the side: a revolutionary composition.

The Rape of Europa

Painted around 1560.

💡 Did you know? Zeus as a bull carries Europa off across the sea: a late, wildly dynamic riot of colour.

Titian

Titian (c. 1488 to 1576) was the towering painter of the Venetian Renaissance, famous as a master of colour and as portraitist of Europe's powerful.

💡 Did you know? Titian lived to a great age and worked to the last; his late pictures, with their almost dissolving colour, look astonishingly modern.