TITIAN

Few individuals have had a greater influence on the development of European painting than the sixteenth-century Venetian artist Titian. His vibrant colours and exciting brushwork have made his work a constant inspiration to artists, from Rubens to the Impressionists and beyond. Every generation has found something new to admire in his astonishing technique, which enabled him to produce fresh interpretations of the most familiar religious and mythological stories as well as portraits and landscapes. Titian employed an extraordinary diversity of style, demonstrating a clever and frequently brilliant response to the demands of his varied clientele: from Venetian patricians and churches, to Roman cardinals and Emperors. The paintings under discussion here provide evidence of Titian's genius as a stylistic innovator and a supreme manipulator of paint. Written by some of the world's most renown Titian scholars, this beautifully illustrated book includes authoritative essays on Titian's life and times, portraits, replicas and techniques, providing the background for a detailed examination of over forty of Titian's most famous paintings