PORTRAIT OF A MAN IN A RED CAP
by Titian
1487?-1576
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Tiziano Vecellio whom we know as Titian (TISH an) was born in the Alpine district of Italy. His birthdate has been set as early as 1477 and as late as 1495. We are really not sure when he was born. He studied with the famous painters Giovanni Bellini and his brother Gentile Bellini(jen TEE lay bel LEE nee) and also with Giorgione (johr JYOHN ay).
He married a woman named Cecilia and they had three children. She died when the last child, Lavinia, was born and Titian's sister came to help him with the family.
He became most famous for the portraits he painted. He had some important friends who helped him. He was honored by Emperor Charles V (the Fifth) who named him Count Palatine of the empire and a knight of the Golden Spur. These were great honors for him to have. He painted a picture of the Emperor on horseback. Titian became a wealthy man and invited other artists to visit him in his home in Venice.
Oil paint first began to be used for painting pictures during this time, and Titian became a master at using it to the best advantage. In addition to many portraits he also painted altarpieces and in his later years mythological characters.
Titian
During the last twenty years of his life he began to paint bolder and bolder strokes and even sometimes used his fingers to put the paint on the canvas.
Canvas and board were very expensive and sometimes painters would reuse a canvas by painting over a picture they had already completed. X-ray has revealed some of this repainting in some of Titian's work.
Titian died of the plague in 1576. He was somewhere in his 80's or 90's. Ordinarily if someone died of the plague they could not be buried in the church, but they made an exception for this great man and buried him in the Church of the Frari where two of his famous paintings hung; the "Assumption" and his altarpiece "Madonna dei Casa Pesaro".
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Paintings by Titian
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Biography of Titian
Biography of Titian
from Art Adventures
"The Supper at Emmaus"
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Man With a Glove
King Francis
Dress Up to the Olde Masters
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The Earlier Works of Titian
Online book by Claude Phillips
The Later Works of Titian
Online book by Claude Phillips
Authenticating art work
Portrait of a Noblewoman, or La Bella
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Lives of the Artists, Volume 1
By Giorgio Vasari / Penguin Putnam Inc.
Vasari was himself a painter, but he is really remembered for these biographies which begin with Cimabue and Giotto in the late thirteenth century and trace the developments in Italian art down to the golden epoch of Leonardo, Michelangelo and Titian. Included are Vasari's reflections on the state of contemporary Florentine art - its philosopohy and its aims - which lend considerable historical and critical value to a work which has been tremendously popular since its first edition in 1550.
Famous Artists in this Series
Index to Famous Paintings
Art Appreciation
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