Portal:Titian
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Introduction
Tiziano Vecelli or Tiziano Vecellio (pronounced [titˈtsjaːno veˈtʃɛlljo]; c. 1488/1490 – 27 August 1576), known in English as Titian /ˈtɪʃən/, was an Italian painter, the most important member of the 16th-century Venetian school. He was born in Pieve di Cadore, near Belluno, then in the Republic of Venice). During his lifetime he was often called da Cadore, taken from the place of his birth.
Recognized by his contemporaries as "The Sun Amidst Small Stars" (recalling the famous final line of Dante's Paradiso), Titian was one of the most versatile of Italian painters, equally adept with portraits, landscape backgrounds, and mythological and religious subjects. His painting methods, particularly in the application and use of colour, would exercise a profound influence not only on painters of the late Italian Renaissance, but on future generations of Western art.
Selected general articles
Venus with a Mirror (about 1555) is a painting by Titian, now in the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, and it is considered to be one of the collection's highlights.
The pose of the Venus resembles the classical statues of the Venus de' Medici in Florence or the Capitoline Venus in Rome, which Titian may have seen when he wrote that was "learning from the marvelous ancient stones." The painting is said to celebrate the ideal beauty of the female form, or to be a critique of vanity, or perhaps both. It was copied by several later artists, including Peter Paul Rubens and Anthony van Dyck. Read more...
Religion saved by Spain is an oil on canvas painting produced between 1572 and 1575 by Titian, an Italian master of the Venetian school, commemorating the Battle of Lepanto in 1571. It is one of his later works, and is considered to be an outstanding piece. Other titles are Spain succoring Religion or Religion succored by Spain.
It was sent to Philip II of Spain in 1576, remained in the Spanish Royal Collection subsequently, and had been in the Prado Museum since the 19th century. Read more...
The Madonna of the Cherries is a 1515 painting by Titian, heavily influenced by the work of Giovanni Bellini. Originally oil on wood, it was later transferred to canvas. During the 17th century it formed part of the collection of Archduke Leopold Wilhelm, where it was copied by David Teniers. It is now in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. Read more...
The Pietà now in the Gallerie dell'Accademia in Venice is one of the last paintings by the Italian master Titian, and in its final, extended, state was left incomplete at his death in 1576, to be completed by Palma Giovane. Titian had intended it to hang over his grave, and the two stages of painting were to make it fit in two different churches.
The picture is among Titian's last, one of several left unfinished at his death. An inscription in the lower part of the picture records that it was finished by Palma Giovane, whose interventions seem to have been kept to the minimum necessary, and doing his best to match Titian's own style. A minimalist view of the areas he worked on is that it "was limited to the angel with the torch and to touching up the tympanum of the stone shrine", but the female statue and Jerome's cloak have also been suspected of showing his hand, and he may have touched up the architecture more generally. Read more...
Oil on canvas, 102 cm × 64 cm (40 in × 25 in), c 1534-36. Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna
Portrait of Isabella d'Este (or Isabella in Black) is an oil-on-canvas painting by the Italian painter Titian, completed between 1534 and 1536. It shows the Marquess of Mantua, Isabella d'Este, daughter of Ercole I d'Este, Duke of Ferrara, and Eleanor of Naples with an ermine zibellino draped over her shoulder.
Although Titian depicts her as a young woman, she was around 62 at the time Isabella was socially ambitious and aware of the effect a painting by a renowned artists might have on her reputation and prestige - she also commissioned portraits by Leonardo da Vinci and Andrea Mantegna. Read more...
Diana and Actaeon is a painting by the Italian Renaissance master Titian, finished in 1556–1559, and is considered amongst Titian's greatest works. It portrays the moment in which the hunter Actaeon bursts in where the goddess Diana and her nymphs are bathing. Diana is furious, and will turn Actaeon into a stag, who is then pursued and killed by his own hounds, a scene Titian later painted in his The Death of Actaeon (National Gallery).
Diana is the woman on the right side of the painting. She is wearing a crown with a crescent moon on it and is being covered by the dark skinned woman who may be her servant. The nymphs display a variety of reactions, and a variety of nude poses. Read more...
The Miracle of the Jealous Husband is a fresco by the Italian Renaissance master Titian, executed in 1511 as part of the decoration of the Scuola del Santo in Padua, northern Italy.
It portrays a man stabbing his wife after she has been unjustly accused of adultery. When the man discovers the truth, he begs for pardon to St. Anthony, who resuscitates the woman (this scene is portrayed in smaller size on the right). The idyllic background is inspired by Giorgione's paintings. Read more...
Danaë (or Danaë and the Shower of Gold) is a series of at least six versions of the same composition by Italian painter Titian and his workshop made between about 1544 and the 1560s. The scene is based on the mythological princess Danaë, as -very briefly- recounted by the Roman poet Ovid, and at greater length by Boccaccio. She was isolated in a bronze tower following a prophecy that her firstborn would eventually kill her father. Although aware of the consequences, Danaë was seduced and became pregnant by Zeus (in Roman mythology Jupiter), who, inflamed by lust, descended from Mount Olympus to seduce her in the form of a shower of gold.
Titian and his workshop produced at least six versions of the painting, which vary to degrees. The major surviving versions are in Naples, London, Madrid, Vienna, Chicago, and St. Petersburg. The voluptuous figure of Danaë, with legs half spread, hardly changes, and was probably traced from a studio drawing or version. Her bed and its hangings are another constant. Other elements vary considerably; the first version, now in Naples, was painted between 1544–46, and is the only one with a figure of Cupid at the right, rather than an old woman catching the shower of gold. She is a different figure at each appearance, though the pose in the Hermitage follows the Prado version. The small dog resting at Danaë's side in the Prado and Chicago versions is generally absent. Read more...
Portrait of a Knight of Malta is a c.1515 oil on canvas painting by Titian of a knight belonging to the Order of Malta. It is now in the Uffizi in Florence. The last bead of the rosary held by the knight bears the number XXXV (35), showing the subject's age at the time of the portrait. W.F. Dickes. argued that he was Stefano Colonna, the condottiero who led the republican resistance during the siege of Florence.[better source needed] cited in
Thanks to Paolo del Sera, his agent in Venice, cardinal Leopoldo de' Medici acquired several works by the Venetian school for his collection, which later became part of the Uffizi. Portrait was one of these works, costing 300 piastres, showing it was already considered to be an autograph work. It was exhibited in the Tribuna in 1677 and attributed to Giorgione in 1709, as shown on a label on the back of the painting. It was then moved to the villa di Poggio a Caiano. After several subsequent moves, in 1798 it finally arrived back Uffizi. Read more...
The Allegory of Prudence (c. 1565–1570) is an oil painting attributed to the Italian artist Titian and his assistants. It is in the National Gallery, London.
The painting portrays three human heads, each facing in a different direction, above three animal heads, depicting (from left) a wolf, a lion and a dog. The painting is usually interpreted as operating on a number of levels. At the first level, the different ages of the three human heads represent the "Three Ages of Man" (youth, maturity, old age). The different directions in which they are facing reflect a second, wider concept of Time itself as having a past, present and future. This theme is repeated in the animal heads which, according to some traditions, are associated with those categories of time. The third level, from which the painting has acquired its present name, is suggested by a barely visible inscription, EX PRAETERITO/PRAESENS PRUDENTER AGIT/NE FUTURA ACTIONẼ DETURPET (“From the experience of the past, the present acts prudently, lest it spoil future actions”). Read more...
The Averoldi Polyptych is a painting by the Italian late Renaissance painter Titian, dating to 1520–1522 and in the basilica church of Santi Nazaro e Celso in Brescia, northern Italy.
It is signed "Ticianus Faciebat / MDXXII" on the column of the panel with St. Sebastian. Read more...
The Vendramin Family venerating a Relic of the True Cross, Portrait of the Vendramin Family etc. is a painting by the Italian Renaissance master Titian and his workshop, executed in the early 1540s, and now in the National Gallery in London.
The canvas was commissioned by the patrician Vendramin family, and portrays, as dictated by Venetian custom, only male members of the dynasty. It includes the brothers Andrea and Gabriele Vendramin, and Andrea's seven sons. However Andrea was apparently only three years older than Gabriele, which one would not think from the two figures here. It remains uncertain which is which. The three young boys kneeling on the left were added later by another artist, and are markedly lower in quality. Read more...
The Portrait of Charles V with a Dog is a portrait of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor with a hunting dog, painted by Titian in 1533. It passed from Charles to the Spanish royal collection, from which it passed to its present owner, the Prado.
It is a copy or reinterpretation of a portrait of Charles painted in 1532 by Jakob Seisenegger. That portrait was natural but had not pleased its subject and so during his stay in Bologna in 1533 (when Titian also happened to be there) Charles paid Titian 500 ducats to paint a new version of it. This new version is similar to its predecessor but completely transforms its composition, stylising Charles' body by increasing the size of the fur wrap, decreasing the size of the doublet, raising the position of the eyes and lowering the horizon to make Charles fill the space. He is also shown approaching the viewer and the space around him has been emptied and simplified, with warmer colours than in the original. It later inspired Goya's 1799 Charles IV in his Hunting Clothes. Read more...
The Pesaro Madonna (Italian: Pala Pesaro) (better known as the Madonna di Ca' Pesaro) is a painting by the late Italian Renaissance master Titian, commissioned by Jacopo Pesaro, whose family acquired in 1518 the chapel in the Frari Basilica in Venice for which the work was painted, and where it remains today. Jacopo was Bishop of Paphos, in Cyprus, and had been named commander of the papal fleet by the Borgia pope, Alexander VI. This painting recalls one of Titian's earliest paintings Jacopo Pesaro being presented by Pope Alexander VI to Saint Peter, c. 1510-11 Read more...
The Worship of Venus is an oil on canvas painting by the Italian artist Titian completed between 1518–1519, housed at the Museo del Prado in Madrid, Spain. It describes a Roman rite of worship conducted in honour of the goddess Venus each 1 April. On this occasion, women would make offerings to representations of the goddess so as to cleanse "every blemish on their bodies".
In Titian's work, two nymphs, one young and one matronly, are situated to the right of the ceremony, attending to a shrine holding a representation of Venus. The shrine is surrounded by votive tablets. The older woman checks on the decorations with the use of a mirror which she holds high in her extended right hand. The foreground of the canvas is thronged with a swarm of male infants, or putti, who distract themselves in activities such as climbing trees, leaping, flying, gathering apples, lying around, fighting, fondling, shooting arrows and pulling each other's hair. A dam is shown in the middle background, near a sunlit meadow. The far distance is decorated with a mountain and blue sky. Read more...
Sacred and Profane Love (Italian: Amor Sacro e Amor Profano) is an oil painting by Titian, probably painted in 1514, early in his career. The painting is presumed to have been commissioned by Niccolò Aurelio, a secretary to the Venetian Council of Ten, whose coat of arms appears on the sarcophagus or fountain, to celebrate his marriage to a young widow, Laura Bagarotto. It perhaps depicts a figure representing the bride dressed in white, sitting beside Cupid and accompanied by the goddess Venus.
The title of the painting is first recorded in 1693, when it was listed in an inventory as Amor Divino e Amor Profano (Divine love and Profane love), and may not represent the original concept at all. Read more...
The Death of Actaeon is a late work by the Italian Renaissance painter Titian, painted in oil on canvas from about 1559 to his death in 1576 and now in the National Gallery in London. It is very probably one of the two paintings the artist stated he had started and hopes to finish (one of which he calls "Actaeon mauled by hounds") in a letter to their commissioner Philip II of Spain during June 1559. However, most of Titian's work on this painting possibly dates to the late 1560s, but with touches from the 1570s. Titian seems never to have resolved it to his satisfaction, and the painting apparently remained in his studio until his death in 1576. There has been considerable debate as to whether it is finished or not, as with other very late Titians, such as the Flaying of Marsyas, which unlike this has a signature, perhaps an indication of completion.
It is a sequel of Titian's work Diana and Actaeon showing the story's tragic conclusion, which approximately follows the Roman poet Ovid's account in the Metamorphoses: after Actaeon surprised the goddess Diana bathing naked in the woods, she transformed him into a stag and he was attacked and killed by his own hounds. Read more...
:For the painting of the same subject by Rubens, see Diana and Callisto (Rubens).
Diana and Callisto is a painting completed between 1556 and 1559 by the Italian late Renaissance artist Titian. It portrays the moment in which the goddess Diana discovers that her maid Callisto has become pregnant by Jupiter. The painting was jointly purchased by the National Gallery and the National Galleries of Scotland for £45 million in March 2012. The painting is currently on display at the National Gallery in London. There is a later version by Titian and his workshop in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. Read more...
Portrait of Laura Dianti is a c. 1520–25 painting by Titian, now held in the H. Kisters Collection at Kreuzlingen. It is signed "TICI/ANVS F." and depicts Laura Dianti, lover and later wife of Alfonso I d'Este.
Titian painted several portraits of Dianti, perhaps including the Woman with a Mirror, now at the Louvre. In this one, she wears a sumptuous blue dress, jewellery and a diadem. Her right arm runs down the side of her body while her left hand rests on the shoulder of an African page boy. Read more...
The Eleven Caesars was a series of eleven painted half-length portraits of Roman emperors made by Titian in 1536-40 for Federico II, Duke of Mantua. They were among his best-known works, inspired by the Lives of the Caesars by Suetonius. Titian's paintings were originally housed in a new room inside the Palazzo Ducale di Mantova. Bernardino Campi added a twelfth portrait in 1562.
The portraits were copied by Flemish engravers in the late 16th and early 17th centuries, who added engravings of twelve Roman Empresses. Between 1627 and 1628 the paintings were sold to Charles I of England by Vincenzo II Gonzaga, and when the Royal Collection of Charles I was broken up and sold after his execution by the English Commonwealth, the Eleven Caesars passed in 1651 into the collection of Philip IV of Spain. They were all destroyed in a catastrophic fire at the Royal Alcazar of Madrid in 1734, and are now only known from copies and engravings. Read more...
Portrait of Federico II Gonzaga (c. 1529) is a painting by Titian, who signed it Ticianus f.. Today in the Museo del Prado, Madrid, it portrays Federico II, Duke of Mantua who married in 1529; the portrait may have been commissioned for the occasion. The dog is an allegory of faithfulness.
The work is mentioned in a 1666 inventory of the Royal Alcázar of Madrid, coming from the collection of Marquess de Leganés. Previous owners included Charles I of England, who purchased many paintings from the Gonzaga collection. Read more...
The Venus of Urbino (also known as Reclining Venus) is an oil painting by the Italian painter Titian, which seems to have been begun in 1532 or 1534, and was perhaps completed in 1534, but not sold until 1538. It depicts a nude young woman, traditionally identified with the goddess Venus, reclining on a couch or bed in the sumptuous surroundings of a Renaissance palace. It is now in the Galleria degli Uffizi in Florence.
The figure's pose is based on the Dresden Venus, traditionally attributed to Giorgione but which Titian at least completed. In this depiction, Titian has domesticated Venus by moving her to an indoor setting, engaging her with the viewer, and making her sensuality explicit. Devoid as it is of any classical or allegorical trappings – Venus displays none of the attributes of the goddess she is supposed to represent – the painting is sensual and unapologetically erotic. Read more...
A Man with a Quilted Sleeve is a painting of about 1510 by the Venetian painter Titian in the National Gallery, London, measuring 81.2 by 66.3 centimetres (32.0 in × 26.1 in). Though the quality of the painting has always been praised, there has been much discussion as to the identity of the sitter. It was long thought to be a portrait of Ariosto, then a self-portrait, but in 2017 is called Portrait of Gerolamo (?) Barbarigo by the gallery, having also been called merely Portrait of a Man, the title used here, The Man with the Blue Sleeve, and no doubt other variants.
Placing a parapet, a low wood or stone sill or ledge, between the subject and the viewer is a common feature of early Renaissance Italian portraits, as a useful way of solving "the principal compositional problem" of portraits at less than full-length, how "to justify the cutting of the figure". By having the large sleeve project slightly beyond the parapet, Titian "subverts" the usual barrier effect, bringing the picture space into "our space" as viewers. The turning pose, with the head slightly atilt and an eyebrow appearing raised, exactly halfway across the composition, adds life and drama. The "broad spiral motion in depth of the head and arm" suggests that Titian had some awareness of contemporary developments in painting in Florence. The sleeve is brilliantly painted, and the "merging of the shadowed portions of the figure with the grey atmospheric background ... is one of the most innovative and influential aspects of the painting". Read more...
Portrait of Vincenzo Mosti is a painting by Titian, executed around 1520 and now housed in the Galleria Palatina of Florence, Italy. Read more...
The Man with a Glove is an oil-on-canvas portrait by the Italian Renaissance artist Titian, c. 1520. It has been in the Musée du Louvre, Paris. Read more...
Woman with a Mirror (French: La Femme au miroir) is a painting by Titian, dated to c. 1515 and now in the Musée du Louvre. Read more...
Girl in a Fur is a 1536–1538 painting by Titian, now in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. He painted the same model in La Bella and Venus of Urbino. Read more...
Portrait of a Man is an oil on canvas painting by Titian (950,2x45,1 cm), dating to around 1512. Wilhelm von Bode attributed it to Giorgione and Richter to Palma il Vecchio, but Longhi, Suida, Phillips, Morassi, Pallucchini and Pignatti all attributed it to Titian.
Owned by the Grimani family in Venice, it passed through various owners, including W. Savage in London and Benjamin Altman in New York, who bequeathed it to the Metropolitan Museum in New York City in 1913. Read more...
Self-Portrait (c. 1567), oil on canvas, 86 cm × 65 cm. Museo del Prado, Madrid
Self-Portrait is an oil-on-canvas painting by the Italian painter Titian. Dating to about 1560, when Titian would have been over 70 years old, it is the later of his two surviving self-portraits. The painting is a realistic and unflattering depiction of the physical effects of old age, and as such shows none of the self-confidence of his earlier self-portrait (c. 1546–47) now in Berlin. That painting shows Titian in three-quarter view in an alert pose.
Titian looks remote, aged and gaunt, staring into the middle distance, seemingly lost in thought. Yet the portrait projects dignity, authority and the mark of a master painter. Read more...
St. Mark Enthroned is an early painting by the Italian Renaissance artist Titian, executed in 1510 or 1511, which is still in the church of Santa Maria della Salute ("Saint Mary of Health") in Venice, for which it was commissioned. Read more...
Holy Family with a Shepherd is a c.1510 painting by Titian, now in the National Gallery, London. It has also previously been attributed to Paris Bordone. It has previously been dated to around 1516 due to its colouring's similarities to the Balbi Holy Conversation of c.1516 . The c.1510 date, based on the similarity of its figure of Saint Joseph to that of St. Mark Enthroned, is now more widely accepted. It shows Titian still under the influences of Giorgione and Giovanni Bellini, which also favours the c.1510 dating.
The work is first recorded in the collection of the Palazzo Borghese in Rome in 1693 and remained there throughout the 19th century. It was probably seen there by Antony van Dyck, who produced a drawing copying it. After passing through other private collections, it was bequeathed to the National Gallery by William Holwell Carr in 1831. Read more...
The Pardo Venus, Louvre, 196 x 385 cm
The Pardo Venus is a painting by the Venetian artist Titian, completed in 1551 and now in the Louvre Museum. It is also known as Jupiter and Antiope, since it seems to show the story of Jupiter and Antiope from Book VI of the Metamorphoses (lines 110-111). It is Titian's largest mythological painting, and was the first major mythological painting produced by the artist for Philip II of Spain. It was long kept in the Royal Palace of El Pardo near Madrid (not to be confused with the Prado, a purpose-built museum), hence its usual name; whether Venus is actually represented is uncertain. It later belonged to the English and French royal collections.
Analysis of its style and composition shows that Titian modified a Bacchanalian scene he had begun much earlier in his career by completing the landscape background and adding figures. For Sidney Freedburg it was "probably in substance an invention of the later 1530s, though significantly reworked later; it is full of motifs and ideas that have been recollected from an earlier and more Giorgionesque time, ordered in an obvious and uncomplicated classicizing scheme." Read more...
The Three Ages of Man is a painting by Titian, dated between 1512 and 1514, and now displayed at the National Gallery of Scotland in Edinburgh. The 90 cm high by 151 cm wide Renaissance art work was most likely influenced by Giorgione’s themes and motifs of landscapes and nude figures—Titian was known to have completed some of Giorgione’s unfinished works after Giorgione died at age 33 of the plague in 1510. The painting represents the artist’s conception of the life cycle. Childhood and manhood are synonymous with earthly love and death approaching old age are drawn realistically. Titian’s widely chosen topic in art history, ages of man, mixed with his own allegorical interpretation make The Three Ages of Man is one of Titian’s most famous works. Read more...
The Bache Madonna or Madonna and Child is an oil painting on wood by Titian, dating to c. 1508 and belonging to his juvenile period, when he was still strongly influenced by Giorgione.
Investigation has suggested that the artist first posed the figures sitting erect in the center of the composition, in the manner of Giovanni Bellini. However, the final pose is more informal, emphasising the tender bond between the mother and her child. Read more...
La Bella is a portrait of an unknown woman by Titian, painted around 1536 and now in the Palazzo Pitti in Florence. The work of a mature artist, it shows the woman with Renaissance ideal proportions and a natural expressive force. The composition is clear.
La Bella is often discussed as alternative to Titian's Portrait of Isabella d'Este in Vienna, because the order was a cajoling rejuvenated portrait by the more than 60 years old art patron. Eye colour, hair colour, eye brows and sex appeal would even homogenize all portraits of Isabella d'Este. Read more...
Vanity is an oil painting by Italian late Renaissance painter Titian, dated to around 1515 and now held at the Alte Pinakothek in Munich, Germany. Read more...
The Pastoral Concert, Fête champêtre or Le Concert champêtre is an oil painting of c. 1509 attributed to either of the Italian Renaissance masters, Titian (more usually today) or Giorgione. It is in the Musée du Louvre in Paris. Read more...
The Portrait of Alfonso I d'Este is a now-lost painting by Titian, dating to 1523. It was painted as a pendant to the Portrait of Laura Dianti of the same year (Laura Dianti was Alfonso I d'Este's lover) and is now known through copies, one of which is by Rubens and another of which is held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Others are held in the collections of the countess of Vogüe Commarin at Dijon and the Statens Museum for Kunst in Copenhagen - the latter is the oldest but only shows the head and shoulders.
The painting showed its subject with his right hand on the muzzle of a cannon and his left hand on the hilt of his sword, underlining his martial prowess during a tense time in his relations with the papacy. It was an influence on Dosso Dossi's later portrait of the duke in a similar pose, leaning on a cannon. Read more...
The Sleeping Venus, also known as the Dresden Venus, is a painting traditionally attributed to the Italian Renaissance painter Giorgione, although it has long been usually thought that Titian completed it after Giorgione's death in 1510. The landscape and sky are generally accepted to be mainly by him. In the 21st century, much scholarly opinion has shifted further, to see the nude figure of Venus as also painted by Titian, leaving Giorgione's contribution uncertain. It is in the Gemäldegalerie, Dresden.
The painting, one of the last works by Giorgione (if it is), portrays a nude woman whose profile seems to echo the rolling contours of the hills in the background. It is the first known reclining nude in Western painting, and together with the Pastoral Concert (Louvre), another painting disputed between Titian and Giorgione, it established "the genre of erotic mythological pastoral", with female nudes in a landscape, accompanied in that case by clothed males. A single nude woman in any position was an unusual subject for a large painting at this date, although it was to become popular for centuries afterwards, as "the reclining female nude became a distinctive feature of Venetian painting". Read more...
Violante is an oil painting attributed to Titian, dated to around 1515 and now held at the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. Read more...
Titian paintings on display in the Museo del Prado (from left to right: Danaë and the Shower of Gold, The Worship of Venus , The Bacchanal of the Andrians, and Venus and Adonis)
This incomplete list of works by Titian contains representative portraits and mythological and religious works from a large oeuvre that spanned 70 years. (Titian left relatively few drawings.) Painting titles and dates often vary by source. Read more...
Salome is an oil painting, probably of Salome with the head of John the Baptist, by the Italian late Renaissance painter Titian. It is usually dated to around 1515 and is now in the Doria Pamphilj Gallery in Rome. Like other paintings of this subject, it has sometimes been considered to represent Judith with the Head of Holofernes, the other biblical incident found in art showing a female and a severed male head . Historically, the main figure has also been called Herodias, the mother of Salome.
Sometimes attributed to Giorgione, the painting is now usually seen as one where Titian's personal style can be seen in development, with a "sense of physical proximity and involvement of the viewer", in which "expert handling of the malleable oil medium enabled the artist to evoke the sensation of softly spun hair upon creamy flesh". Read more...
Venus Anadyomene (Greek -Venus rising from the sea), is a c. 1520 oil painting by Titian, depicting Venus rising from the sea and wringing her hair, after her birth fully-grown. Venus, said to have been born from a shell, is identified by the shell at bottom left. It is smaller than usual in the birth of Venus scenes, such as Botticelli's, and is just intended to identify the subject rather than be a boat-like vessel for Venus, as in Sandro Botticelli's The Birth of Venus and other depictions.
The voluptuousness of the Venus presented, and her sideways glance, also owes much to the Crouching Venus and Cnidian Venus types of antique sculpture. The wringing of her hair is a direct imitation of Apelles's lost masterwork of the same title. Titian deliberately included this detail to prove that he could rival the art of antiquity in which the goddess was also washing her hair — a fact mentioned in Pliny's Natural History. Read more...
Did you know...
- ... that Titian intended his painting of the Pietà to hang over his grave, but it never did?
- ... that the various versions of Titian's Venus and Musician include organists, lute-players, Cupids, and dogs, but always a nude Venus?
- ... that Perseus and Andromeda by Titian "hung unglazed over a bath in Sir Richard Wallace's dressing room" for over 20 years?
- ... that Titian's painting of Venus and Adonis exists in "two-dog" and "three-dog" versions?
- ... that the sitter in Titian's A Man with a Quilted Sleeve has been thought to be the poet Ludovico Ariosto, a Venetian patrician, or Titian himself?
- ... that the landscape in Titian's Gypsy Madonna virtually repeats part of that in the Dresden Venus?
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Selected images
The Allegory of Age Governed by Prudence (c. 1565–1570) is thought to depict (from left) Titian, his son Orazio, and his nephew, Marco Vecellio.
The Death of Actaeon, 1559–1575
The Rape of Europa c, 1560-1562, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, is a bold diagonal composition that Rubens admired and copied. In contrast to the clarity of Titian's early works, it is almost baroque in its blurred lines, swirling colours, and vibrant brushstrokes.
The Aldobrandini Madonna, c 1530
Pope Paul III and His Grandsons, c 1546
Danaë, before 1550
Bacchus and Ariadne, c. 1520–1523
Perseus and Andromeda, c. 1554–56
Venus and Adonis, 1554
Pietà, c. 1576, his last painting
Salome with the Head of John the Baptist c. 1515, (Galleria Doria Pamphilj, Rome), or Judith; this religious work also functions as an idealized portrait of a beauty, a genre developed by Titian, supposedly often using Venetian courtesans as models.
Portrait of Federico II Gonzaga, c. 1529. Museo del Prado, Madrid.
Venus Anadyomene, c. 1520
It took Titian two years (1516–1518) to complete his Assumption of the Virgin, whose dynamic three-tier composition and colour scheme established him as the preeminent painter north of Rome.
Self-Portrait, c. 1567; Museo del Prado, Madrid.
A Man with a Quilted Sleeve, an early portrait, c. 1509, National Gallery, London
Diana and Actaeon, 1556–1559
Tarquin and Lucretia, 1571
Diana and Callisto, 1556–1559
Venus and Organist and Little Dog, c. 1550
The Entombment, c. 1572, Prado
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