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Titian Biography

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TITIAN or Tiziano Vecellio, distinguished painter of the Venetian school, born in Pieve di Cadore, Italy, in 1477; died in Venice, Aug. 27, 1576. He showed remarkable interest in art and painting pictures in color while yet a child, and was taken to Venice by his father, where he studied under Giovanni Bellini and other artists. Giorgione was his fellow-student and friend, and at his death, in 1511, Titian finished some of his pictures. The styles of Titian and Bellini were very similar, and the painting entitled "Homage of Frederick Barbarossa to Pope Alexander III.," begun by the latter, was finished by Titian with remarkable trueness to the basic work. He was invited to Padua in 1511, where he executed several famous frescoes still well preserved. In 1523 he frescoed "St. Christopher Carrying the Infant Christ" in the ducal palace of Venice, and in 1532 painted at Bologna a portrait of Emperor Charles V., receiving for the latter an appointment as Count Palatine and Knight of the Golden Spur. He accompanied Charles to Spain soon after, and spent three years in Madrid, where a number of his masterpieces are in a good state of preservation. In 1550 he executed the portrait of Philip II. of Spain, who patronized him as warmly as had his immediate predecessor, and about the same time he completed the famous group containing paintings of Pope Paul II., Duke Octavio Farnese, and Cardinal Farnese. Titian worked incessantly to an advanced age, and the frescoes and paintings executed by him are very numerous. They exhibit remarkable accuracy in coloring and fine inventive skill. His landscapes, portraits, frescoes, and sacred objects take an equally high rank. Among those of note not mentioned above are "Virgin and San Tiziano;" "Assumption of the Madonna;" "Christ in the Garden;" "David and Goliath;" "Descent of the Holy Ghost upon the Apostles;" "Venus and Adonis;" "St. Margaret with the Dragon;" "Victory of the Venetians over the Janizaries;" "Martyrdom of San Lorenzo; " "Christ Crowned with Thorns;" "Virgin and Child with Saints," and "Diana and Her Nymphs."

The Teachers' and Pupils' Cyclopædia, Vol. V. (Kansas City: Bufton Book Co., 1909) 1923-1924.