Tiziano Vecellio: pupil of the Bellini brothers, rival of Giorgione
Tiziano Vecellio was probably born between 1488 and 1490 in Pieve di Cadore near Belluno in the historical region of Cadore. Titian came to Venice as a child, where his early talent opened the door to the workshop of the city's most important painters at the time: the brothers Gentile Bellini (1429-1507) and Giovanni Bellini (1437-1516). There, alongside artists such as Sebastiano del Piombo (1485-1547) and Lorenzo Lotto (1480-1557), he also met Giorgione (1478-1510), who became both an important point of reference and his first great rival. For both artists, the work on the exterior frescoes of the Fondaco dei Tedeschi (‘warehouse of the Germans’), rebuilt under the direction of Antonio Abbondi (died 1549), signalled their breakthrough. However, only fragments of this first dated work by Titian have survived. Despite their growing rivalry, Tiziano Vecellio and Giorgione often worked together.
Titian became the most important painter of the Venetian school
Tiziano Vecellio went through four phases in his artistic career, whereby in his early period (around 1500-1518) he closely followed first the Bellini brothers, and then his older rival Giorgione. The similarities between Tiziano Vecellio and Giorgione are so great that art history has struggled with the attribution of many works and has repeatedly had to make corrections. Even after Giorgione's death, Titian continued to adhere to the mutual style, but after his teacher Giovanni Bellini had also died, there was no longer a serious competitor within the Venetian school and Tiziano Vecellio was able to go his own way. He turned down the offer from Cardinal Pietro Bembo (1470-1547) to work for the Holy See, opened a workshop on the Grand Canal in 1513, and received a sinecure (an office with income but without obligations) from the city of Venice in 1517, which relieved him of all economic worries. Another contract exempted him from paying taxes and granted him a salary for which he had to paint portraits of all the Doges of Venice for a flat rate until the end of his life.
During his heyday, he produced portraits full of splendour and profundity
In his second phase, Tiziano Vecellio developed a monumental style, took on commissions for Alfonso d'Este (1476-1534), and met the poet Ludovico Ariosto (1474-1533) at his court in Ferrara, whom he portrayed several times. The writer Pietro Aretino (1492-1556) was also one of his closest friends in Venice. In addition to his monumental paintings, he also created small-format portraits of women, including the work Young Woman with a Mirror, which is now in the Louvre. The most important painting of the second period, however, is the Assumption of the Virgin (Assunta) for the church of Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari. Titian's third phase is considered his heyday, in which he succeeded in depicting the great personalities of his time in all their splendour and glory, characterising them in a profound way. The most famous of these portraits include King Charles V, Pope Paul III and the Dukes Ottavio Farnese and Alessandro Farnese. In the fourth and final phase of Titian's long artistic career, the grandiose and dramatic composition full of light and shadow once again dominated.
A long artistic career brought fame and fortune
Tiziano Vecellio had a less idealised understanding of art than the two other great Renaissance masters Michelangelo (1475-1564) and Raphael (1483-1520). Before his visit to Rome in 1546, he had probably had little opportunity to study ancient cultural artefacts, but this did not detract from his immense success; in terms of wealth and fame, only Michelangelo and Raphael and later Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640) were his equals in this period. Titian was also extremely enterprising and was one of the first artists to sign his works in order to increase their value, whilst the scope of his oeuvre is also remarkable. His nephew and favourite pupil Marco Vecellio (1545-1611) followed in Titian's footsteps and achieved a remarkable stylistic similarity.
Tiziano Vecellio died of the plague on 27th August 1576 in Venice; he was the only victim of the epidemic to receive a church burial.
Tiziano Vecellio - Works that have already been sold at Kunsthaus Lempertz:
