Tiziano Vecellio native of Pieve di Cadore (1480/1485), but Venetian by choice, has reached precocious stardom when, little more than a adolescent, worked with Giorgione in the decoration of the facade of the Fondaco dei Tedeschi. He soon became a painter sought by important personalities such as Francis I, Charles V, Philip II, the Duke of Mantua and Urbino, the Duke of Ferrara and Pope Paul III. His ongoing research and its persistent renew, certainly due to the strong consensus, to the honor and the celebrities, has kept his pictorial vein always fresh, almost inexhaustible. The development of his painting has been comprehensive: the refined brushstrokes were spread with his particular technique, he knew how to give the pictorial material completely opposite meanings like solidity or evanescence, heaviness or lightness. Titian, after a brief childlike stint in the workshop of Sebastiano Zucato, began his long artistic career starting from Giambellino, of which there are clear reflections in the canvas where he is portrayed Alexander VI presenting Bishop Jacopo Pesaro to San Pietro (now conserved at Museum of Antwerp).
During the year 1508 he came in contact with the painting of Giorgione; a contact that was very direct because he, as already said, he actively collaborated with him in the decoration of the facade of the Fondaco dei Tedeschi. Sadly the fresco is, now, completely lost, except for a fragment of a naked figure.
Already in one of Titian’s early works, “St. Mark Enthroned” (Santa Maria della Salute Church in Venice) it has to be noted his revolutionary technique founded on an absolute use of color used to shape forms; in addition it shows quite an affinity with the Florentine formalism compositional, especially where the figure of San Marco silhouetted against the sky, between four saints (Sebastian, Damian and Cosmas Rocco). The work resulted in a structure that gave movement to the search for an effective theatrical effect, all soaked in a warm and bright coloring of sunlight.
In the three frescoes the “Miracles of Saint Anthony” for the Scuola del Santo the topics were taken from Catholic narrations: baby Jesus excuses his mother, the miracle of an injured woman and the miracle of a foot healed. The painting was frescoed in the Scuola del Santo in Padua: the width of the work, the forms in glimpse, the linear and aerial perspective of the landscape, the colorful close-ups, all these evidences narrate the gradual development of painting Titian.
Thus, trained more and more his own artistic characteristic, Giorgione’s influence appeared increasingly mild in Titian’s works. It can be noticed slightly in some smaller religious works like the “Holy Family” of the National Gallery in London and “The Tribute Money” (placed in Dresden and commissioned by Alfonso d’Este); a more explicit inspiration from Giorgione’s manner has to be recognized in some profane pictures, like “The Concert” of Pitti Palace. This painting, during latter centuries, was hotly debated among those who argue that it has been fully realized by Titian, and others who see the painting as the result of a collaboration with Giorgione. Although, beyond the chromaticism and forms, the overall message is clearly built under Titian's psychological poetic: the monk, characterized by a face troubled as the typical Titian’s melancholic figures, was painted with a dynamic approach, especially for the body and the hands: his nervous fingers, excitedly playing on the keyboard, could quite certainly exclude the participation of Giorgione to the realization of the work.
The “Sacred and the Profane Love” kept in the Galleria Borghese in Rome has two beautiful female figures in opposition to each other. The one on the right (the sacred love), is painted in bright light and cloaked in a lit red, it is silhouetted by a sky with vivid colors and a clear landscape; while the one on the left (the profane love), sumptuously dressed, is standing surrounded by a shady mass. A well balanced chromaticism, as well as the compositional structure and the luministic details, creates, in a landscape so rich in golden tones, a symbolic meaning that evokes intriguing mysteries. Even in this work is evident the influence of Giorgione, but only with regard to the idealization of the characters, certainly not for the richness of color, now typical of Titian.
The “Salome with the Head of John the Baptist” (Galleria Doria, Rome) and “Flora” (Uffizi, Florence), all belonging to the first period of Titian, are the expression of a buxom beauty made in a warm and harmonious coloring. Some expressions of characters painted of “The Concert” (Palazzo Pitti, Florence) had made Titian a great expert in the field of portraiture: he was able to interpret the most varied moods of his subjects. A clear evidence of this is recognizable in “The portrait of Eleonora Gonzaga” (Uffizi, Florence): a figure so solidly structured and so resolute, sumptuously dressed, is represented sitting with his face bright and with a firm and decided attitude; the same characteristics could be find in “The Man With the Glove” (Louvre, Paris) and in “The Knight of Malta”, both made with an intense and rich chromaticism.
In sacred themed works, Titian developed his art through an extraordinary originality. In “The Assumption” (Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari Church, Venice), created between 1516 and 1518, the structuring of the figure, drawn in perspective as the Fifteenth century manner would required, was replaced by a throbbing image immersed in a warm atmosphere and surrounded by cherubs arranged in semicircle. Below are placed the apostles who, with upward arms arranged in a tumultuous movement, express deep sense of elevation. At the top of the composition is placed the firm figure of God: he was painted in backlight and in stark contrast to the figures in motion. The coloring of this painting is very effective especially in the effects of light and shadow, but the intensity of expression and the taste of the monumental, along with the classical structure and the concatenation of the figures in the style of Michelangelo, are elements that gave to the painting of Titian a new dramatic value.
In profane paintings such as “Bacchanal” (Museo del Prado, Madrid) and “Bacchus and Ariadne” (National Gallery, London), all the figures are filled with such force that erupts in a fit of life, in a compelling spontaneity of fantasy in a brightness sundial.
And yet Titian did not stop there and his artistic talent seemed inexhaustible. This was the period in which he realized the animated altarpiece “Madonna in Glory with the Christ Child and Sts Francis and Alvise” (Ancona Municipal Museum, 1520), the magnificent altarpiece of Saints Averoldi Nazari and Celso Church in Brescia (1522), the monumental altarpiece “Gritti” in the Pinacoteca Vaticana (1523) and “The Death of St Peter Martyr” (now lost) for the homonymous church in Venice.
Between 1519 and 1526 Titian had realized the famous “Pala Pesaro”, also known as “Madonna di Ca' Pesaro”, now kept in Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari Church in Venice. This painting, from an iconographic point of view, it presented a great novelty since the composition was made diagonally with the use of two gigantic columns, one larger than the other thanks to a prospective effect. The composition is crossed by dark clouds that with their volumetric form and with the effects of shadow on the same columns emphasize the depth of the space in which the figures were also located. Above the clouds two winged cherubs bearing the symbols of the Passion. The scene, inserted at the bottom, beyond the arc in the foreground, was placed at the center of a space that seems to have no end, neither to the right nor to the left nor to the top, as it is dominated by a gloomy sky.
The colors balance is perfect and a strong and peaceful brightness was not setted to enlighten the group, instead it was just slightly made clearer around the Virgin and the Child. With the use of precious nuances, effects of light and shade and pleasing contrasts, Titian created an effect of great realism as well as underlined the centrality of the group Madonna-Baby Jesus.
Titian had built his other paintings equally monumental, like the rhythmic and elliptical crowd created for “The Entombment” (Louvre). The painting was dated between 1520 and 1525 and was ordered by the Duke of Mantua. The lack of the balanced contrast like those in the manners of Raphael, was counterbalanced with a chromaticism more homogeneous, which gave a sad atmosphere mirrored by the presence of the twilight.
The “Presentation of the Virgin at the Temple” (Gallerie dell’Accademia,Venice), was painted by Titian between 1534 and 1538 for the Charity School in Venice. He created an extraordinary unity and balance between environment, figures and the colonnade. The style reminds somewhat paintings of Mantegna, but here Titian painted the architectural structure, the crowd and the characters with a different perspective structures: in this way the figure of the Virgin dominates over all others.
In his other famous works of smaller proportions, Titian portrayed half figures. Among these paintings like "The Penitent Magdalene" (1532, Palatine Gallery of Pitti Palace in Florence). Magdalene was silhouetted in a sky full of lively colors, with the beautiful and warm complexion covered only by long, golden hair. Again in other small works, he created precious thematic realizations such as "The Madonna of the Rabbit" (1530, Louvre, Paris), in which is shown an exceptional elegance. As could be seen, in portraying isolated characters, Titian developed a specific chromatic ability in building a pyramidal structure, similar to the composition of Raphael, like the one in the portrait of “Vincenzo Mosti" (1526, Palatine Gallery Pitti Palace).
The portrait of the elderly Pope Paul III with his nephews Ottavio and Alessandro dressed as Cardinals (Gallery Capodimonte, Naples), that Titian did not fully completed, expresses, anyway, with the attitudes of the characters, something perturbing. The overall dark coloring of the environment gives signals of sadness and pain, and the presence of velvet curtains made out of a dark red satin between whitened and golden robes, are symbols of a latent distress. The table to the right of the Pope is covered with a strong red tablecloth, and the dark background was obtained with fast and indefinite brushstrokes and with colors that come into harmony with the drama evoked by the scene. The pope, who is talking with Ottavio, has a look of great suspicion, while Cardinal behind him is taken up in the attitude of an high official. Titian had managed very well to express the mood of the characters and the sense of an hidden cruelty; in fact, few years later, Ottavio attempted to assassinate his father.
“The Venus of Urbino” (1538, the Uffizi Museum, Florence), is a painting of a young naked woman, lasciviously lying on a bed in a luxurious interior; in the background are placed the figures of two maids. At the foot of the bed is resting a little dog, highlighting in a symbolic way, the profanity of this character. The young girl was depicted with eyes wide open meaning her full awareness of her own nakedness and, at the same time, her pride and charm. Her gaze, alert, determined and penetrating, is facing the viewer of the painting. Made up with a chromaticism soft and warm, her complexion is in pleasant contrast with the sheets and the pillows, both tending to dark colour, and even more so considering the very dark background on the left side of the canvas. The expression of this painting, vigorous and passionate, is now far from that dreamy "Venus" by Giorgione.
Since 1541 Titian had begun to cure most of the plastic sense of his painting in order to achieve heroic forms harmonized with the color. This research led him certainly to concern about the Roman School, also to a new fascination for the Classical works of art.
In the “The Crowning with Thorns” (Louvre Museum, Paris), Titian crossed in full the mannerist conflict inside artistic poetics: in this painting there are obvious references to the colossal figures decorating the Palazzo del Te, in Mantua; those frescoes were made by Giulio Romano and appeared as the most explicit mediation between the culture of Rome and the one from northern Italy. Nevertheless the wide gradation of color in a somber tone, put Titian's style away from that "Manner" that was already very influential in the world of late Renaissance paintings. Other similar or partial references have to be found in the paintings of the same period, made for the ceiling of the Augustinians of the Island of S. Spirito (David and Goliath, Abraham and Isaac, Cain and Abel) and currently kept in the sacristy of Health in Venice. All these works of art are dominated by bold views taken from the bottom up, twisted and screened with admirable spatial effects; a great resemblance has to be noticed with some Michelangelo's figures that Titian had been able to see in his trip to Rome. After the Roman experience his works had become more monumental, and his coloring more effective in the creation of a figurative world.
Some works of Titian seemed to anticipate the Impressionist techniques all because of his divisionism-like brushstrokes, combinations of light colors, and because of his blends or gradients; but it is an anachronistic misunderstanding: in all those cases, Titian's techniques were used as a tools to visualize a fabulous world and certainly not to pursue a naturalistic poetic. The talent and creativity of Titian had conceived, in his late period paintings, rich decided brushstrokes and well defined combinations of color spots.
Accordingly, the coloring style of Titian became even more deeply passionate as evidenced in "Annunciation" of the San Salvatore Church in Venice, where the great event of the Catholic Mystery was entrusted mainly to intense and fiery tones. Another work, that can be considered close to the Annunciation for color effects, is "Tarquin and Lucretia" (Akademie der Kunst Bildende, Vienna). Titian had invented sudden contrasts of light and threadlike shadows, creating pleasant effects of movement and plasticity.
With the "The Crowning with Thorns" (Bayerische Staats Gemalde Sammlung, Monaco), Titian recurred again to color changes: through the combinations of different brushstrokes he had created unusual vibrant effects. A certainly different outcome from the "The Crowning with Thorns" at the Louvre.
"Pietà" was the last work of Titian. It was prepared by the artist for his own burial at the Frari Church in Venice. Sadly he failed to finish it, for he died at the age of 86 years (and not for old age but of plague). The painting will be finished by Palma the Younger who already collaborated in the latter works while old Titian was still alive. In this painting the dynamic strength of Titian appears with all its strength, even deeper than the one displayed in the previous periods of his artistic life. The intense and dramatic fervor that is evidenced in a shaken Maddalena, contrasts with the median group (Christ, the Virgin and the consternation Nicodemus) gathered together in a dignified suffering. All is lit by a subdued light and the background of the scene is a big Mannerist niche framed by columns.
Titian, in the course of his long artistic activity, had varied several times his own style and had marked the assertion of full and bright color. He had mastered the unit of the color gradients with an undisputed variation of tones, and an impression of spontaneity indispensable in painting.
Works Consulted
Bayer, Andrea. North of the Apennines: Sixteenth-century Italian Painting in Venice and the Veneto. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2005. Print.
Dunkerton, Jill, and Marika Spring. The National Gallery Technical Bulletin: Volume 34. , 2013. Print.
Grabski, Józef. ""victoria Amoris": Titian's Venus of Urbino ; a Commemorative Allegory of Marital Love." Artibus Et Historiae / Istituto Internationale Per Le Ricerche Di Storia Dell'arte (irsa). (1999): 9-33. Print.
Rearick, William R. "Titian Drawings: A Progress Report." Artibus Et Historiae / Istituto Internationale Per Le Ricerche Di Storia Dell'arte (irsa). (1991): 9-37. Print.
Schulz, Jürgen. "Titian at the Fondaco Dei Tedeschi." The Burlington Magazine / Ed. Benedict Nicolson. (2001): 567-569. Print.
