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137-556: Artists Clergy Monarchs Popes Tiziano Vecellio ( Italian: [titˈtsjaːno veˈtʃɛlljo] ; c.  1488/90  – 27 August 1576), Latinized as Titianus , hence known in English as Titian ( / ˈ t ɪ ʃ ən / TISH -ən ), was an Italian Renaissance painter , the most important artist of Renaissance Venetian painting . He was born in Pieve di Cadore , near Belluno . During his lifetime he

274-401: A boy pulling a thorn from his foot. Brunelleschi's creation is challenging in its dynamic intensity. Less elegant than Ghiberti's, it is more about human drama and impending tragedy. Ghiberti won the competition. His first set of Baptistry doors took 27 years to complete, after which he was commissioned to make another. In the total of 50 years that Ghiberti worked on them, the doors provided

411-671: A collection of Flemish paintings and setting up a Humanist Academy . Antonello da Messina seems to have had access to the King's collection, which may have included the works of Jan van Eyck . Recent evidence indicates that Antonello was likely in contact with Van Eyck's most accomplished follower, Petrus Christus , in Milan in early 1456 and likely learned the techniques of oil painting, including painting almost microscopic detail and minute gradations of light, directly from Christus. As well, his works' calmer expressions on peoples' faces and calmness in

548-573: A competition was held amongst seven young artists to select the artist to create a pair of bronze doors for the Florence Baptistery , the oldest remaining church in the city. The competitors were each to design a bronze panel of similar shape and size, representing the Sacrifice of Isaac . Two of the panels from the competition have survived, those by Lorenzo Ghiberti and Brunelleschi . Each panel shows some strongly classicising motifs indicating

685-430: A date between 1488 and 1490 is more likely, though his age at death being 99 had been accepted into the 20th century. He was the son of Gregorio Vecellio and his wife Lucia, of whom little is known. Gregorio was superintendent of the castle of Pieve di Cadore and managed local mines for their owners. Gregorio was also a distinguished councilor and soldier. Many relatives, including Titian's grandfather, were notaries , and

822-702: A fresco cycle of the Life of St. Peter in the chapel of the Brancacci family, at the Carmelite Church in Florence. They both were called by the name of Tommaso and were nicknamed Masaccio and Masolino , Slovenly Tom and Little Tom. More than any other artist, Masaccio recognized the implications in the work of Giotto. He carried forward the practice of painting from nature. His frescos demonstrate an understanding of anatomy, of foreshortening, of linear perspective, of light, and

959-588: A later variant was produced for Philip II, for whom Titian painted many of his most important mythological paintings. Although Michelangelo adjudged this piece deficient from the point of view of drawing, Titian and his studio produced several versions for other patrons. Another famous painting is Bacchus and Ariadne , depicting Theseus , whose ship is shown in the distance and who has just left Ariadne at Naxos, when Bacchus arrives, jumping from his chariot, drawn by two cheetahs, and falling immediately in love with Ariadne. Bacchus raised her to heaven. Her constellation

1096-522: A lifelong interest in colour. Although his mature works may not contain the vivid, luminous tints of his early pieces, they are renowned for their loose brushwork and subtlety of tone. The exact time or date of Titian's birth is uncertain. When he was an old man he claimed in a letter to Philip II, King of Spain , to have been born in 1474, but this seems most unlikely. Other writers contemporary to his old age give figures that would equate to birth dates between 1473 and after 1482. Most modern scholars believe

1233-621: A major subject for High Renaissance painters such as Raphael and Titian and continue into the Mannerist period in works of artists such as Bronzino . With the growth of Humanism , artists turned to Classical themes, particularly to fulfill commissions for the decoration of the homes of wealthy patrons, the best known being Botticelli 's Birth of Venus for the Medici. Increasingly, Classical themes were also seen as providing suitable allegorical material for civic commissions. Humanism also influenced

1370-476: A more extraordinary work, The Assassination of Saint Peter Martyr (1530), formerly in the Dominican Church of San Zanipolo , and destroyed by an Austrian shell in 1867. Only copies and engravings of this proto- Baroque picture remain. It combined extreme violence and a landscape, mostly consisting of a great tree, that pressed into the scene and seems to accentuate the drama in a way that looks forward to

1507-457: A new conception of the traditional groups of donors and holy persons moving in aerial space, the plans and different degrees set in an architectural framework. Titian was then at the height of his fame, and towards 1521, following the production of a figure of St. Sebastian for the papal legate in Brescia (of which there are numerous replicas), purchasers pressed for his work. To this period belongs

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1644-580: A new standard for narrative pictures. His Ognissanti Madonna hangs in the Uffizi Gallery , Florence, in the same room as Cimabue's Santa Trinita Madonna and Duccio's Ruccellai Madonna where the stylistic comparisons between the three can easily be made. One of the features apparent in Giotto's work is his observation of naturalistic perspective. He is regarded as the herald of the Renaissance. Giotto had

1781-514: A number of contemporaries who were either trained and influenced by him, or whose observation of nature had led them in a similar direction. Although several of Giotto's pupils assimilated the direction that his work had taken, none was to become as successful as he. Taddeo Gaddi achieved the first large painting of a night scene in an Annunciation to the Shepherds in the Baroncelli Chapel of

1918-421: A number of these in terra verde ("green earth"), enlivening his compositions with touches of vermilion. The best known is his equestrian portrait of John Hawkwood on the wall of Florence Cathedral . Both here and on the four heads of prophets that he painted around the inner clock face in the cathedral, he used strongly contrasting tones, suggesting that each figure was being lit by a natural light source, as if

2055-821: A painter of some note in Venice. A fresco of Hercules on the Morosini Palace is said to have been one of Titian's earliest works. Others were the Bellini-esque so-called Gypsy Madonna in Vienna, and the Visitation of Mary and Elizabeth (from the convent of Sant'Andrea), now in the Accademia , Venice. A Man with a Quilted Sleeve is an early portrait, painted around 1509 and described by Giorgio Vasari in 1568. Scholars long believed it depicted Ludovico Ariosto , but now think it

2192-710: A poor, incomplete copy at the Uffizi, and a mediocre engraving by Fontana. The Speech of the Marquis del Vasto (Madrid, 1541) was also partly destroyed by fire. But this period of the master's work is still represented by the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin (Venice, 1539), one of his most popular canvasses, and by the Ecce Homo ( Vienna , 1541). Despite its loss, the painting had a great influence on Bolognese art and Rubens, both in

2329-630: A profound influence not only on painters of the late Italian Renaissance , but on future generations of Western artists . His career was successful from the start, and he became sought after by patrons, initially from Venice and its possessions, then joined by the north Italian princes, and finally the Habsburgs and papacy. Along with Giorgione , he is considered a founder of the Venetian school of Italian Renaissance painting . During his long life, Titian's artistic manner changed drastically, but he retained

2466-459: A purple drapery substituted for a landscape background changed, by its harmonious colouring, the whole meaning of the scene. From the beginning of his career, Titian was a masterful portrait-painter, in works like La Bella (Eleanora de Gonzaga, Duchess of Urbino, at the Pitti Palace ). He painted the likenesses of princes, or Doges, cardinals or monks, and artists or writers. "...no other painter

2603-493: A richness of detail, and an idealised quality not compatible with the starker realities of Giotto's paintings. In the early 15th century, bridging the gap between International Gothic and the Renaissance are the paintings of Fra Angelico , many of which, being altarpieces in tempera, show the Gothic love of elaboration, gold leaf and brilliant colour. It is in his frescoes at his convent of Sant' Marco that Fra Angelico shows himself

2740-459: A series of large mythological paintings known as the "poesie", mostly from Ovid , which scholars regard as among his greatest works. Thanks to the prudishness of Philip's successors, these were later mostly given as gifts, and only two remain in the Prado. Titian was producing religious works for Philip at the same time, some of which—the ones inside Ribeira Palace —are known to have been destroyed during

2877-427: A shepherd boy from the hills north of Florence, became Cimabue's apprentice and emerged as the most outstanding painter of his time. Giotto, possibly influenced by Pietro Cavallini and other Roman painters, did not base the figures he painted upon any painterly tradition, but upon the observation of life. Unlike those of his Byzantine contemporaries, Giotto's figures are solidly three-dimensional; they stand squarely on

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3014-554: A significant element of rivalry. Distinguishing between their work during this period remains a subject of scholarly controversy. A substantial number of attributions have moved from Giorgione to Titian in the 20th century, with little traffic the other way. One of the earliest known Titian works, Christ Carrying the Cross in the Scuola Grande di San Rocco , depicting the Ecce Homo scene,

3151-514: A state of penitence and absolution. The inevitability of death, the rewards for the penitent and the penalties of sin were emphasised in a number of frescoes, remarkable for their grim depictions of suffering and their surreal images of the torments of Hell . These include the Triumph of Death by Giotto's pupil Orcagna , now in a fragmentary state at the Museum of Santa Croce, and the Triumph of Death in

3288-531: A substitute for paintings; and collaborated with Domenico Campagnola and others, who produced additional prints based on his paintings and drawings. Much later he provided drawings based on his paintings to Cornelis Cort from the Netherlands who engraved them. Martino Rota followed Cort from about 1558 to 1568. Titian employed an extensive array of pigments and it can be said that he availed himself of virtually all available pigments of his time. In addition to

3425-404: A training ground for many of the artists of Florence. Being narrative in subject and employing not only skill in arranging figurative compositions but also the burgeoning skill of linear perspective , the doors were to have an enormous influence on the development of Florentine pictorial art. The first Early Renaissance frescos or paintings were started in 1425 when two artists commenced painting

3562-544: Is at Collontola, near Belluno. He visited Rome in 1546 and obtained the freedom of the city—his immediate predecessor in that honor having been Michelangelo in 1537. He could at the same time have succeeded the painter Sebastiano del Piombo in his lucrative office as holder of the piombo or Papal seal , and he was prepared to take Holy Orders for the purpose; but the project lapsed through his being summoned away from Venice in 1547 to paint Charles V and others in Augsburg . He

3699-746: Is given in the companion articles Renaissance art and Renaissance architecture . Italian Renaissance painting is most often divided into four periods: the Proto-Renaissance (1300–1425), the Early Renaissance (1425–1495), the High Renaissance (1495–1520), and Mannerism (1520–1600). The dates for these periods represent the overall trend in Italian painting and do not cover all painters as the lives of individual artists and their personal styles overlapped these periods. The Proto-Renaissance begins with

3836-588: Is incorrect; Andrea died several years before Domenico. In another example, Vasari's biography of Giovanni Antonio Bazzi, whom he calls " Il Sodoma ", published only in the second edition of the Lives (1568) after Bazzi's death, condemns the artist as being immoral, bestial, and vain. Vasari dismisses Bazzi's work as lazy and offensive, despite the artist's having been named a Cavalier of the Supreme Order of Christ by Pope Leo X and having received important commissions for

3973-522: Is known, in part, through the engravings of Fontana . After Giorgione's early death in 1510, Titian continued to paint Giorgionesque subjects for some time, though his style developed its own features, including bold and expressive brushwork. Titian's talent in fresco is shown in those he painted in 1511 at Padua in the Carmelite church and in the Scuola del Santo , some of which have been preserved, among them

4110-505: Is now regarded as including many factual errors, especially when covering artists from before he was born. Vasari was a Mannerist painter who was highly regarded both as a painter and architect in his day, but rather less so in later centuries. He was effectively what would now be called the minister of culture to the Medici court in Florence , and the Lives promoted, with enduring success,

4247-506: Is of Gerolamo Barbarigo. Rembrandt borrowed the composition for his self-portraits. Titian joined Giorgione as an assistant, but many contemporary critics already found Titian's work more impressive—for example, in exterior frescoes (now almost totally destroyed) that they collaborated on for the Fondaco dei Tedeschi (state-warehouse for the German merchants). Their relationship evidently contained

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4384-446: Is said) against the disparagement of some persons who caviled at the veteran's failing handicraft. Around 1560, Titian painted the oil on canvas Madonna and Child with Saints Luke and Catherine of Alexandria , a derivative on the motif of Madonna and Child . It is suggested that members of Titian's Venice workshop probably painted the curtain and Luke, because of the lower quality of those parts. He continued to accept commissions to

4521-527: Is shown in the sky. The painting belongs to a series commissioned from Bellini, Titian, and Dosso Dossi, for the Camerino d'Alabastro (Alabaster Room) in the Ducal Palace, Ferrara , by Alfonso I d'Este, Duke of Ferrara , who in 1510 even tried to commission Michelangelo and Raphael . During the next period (1530–1550), Titian developed the style introduced by his dramatic Death of St. Peter Martyr . In 1538,

4658-416: Is the powerful, even "repellent" Flaying of Marsyas ( Kroměříž , Czech Republic ). Another violent masterpiece is Tarquin and Lucretia ( Cambridge , Fitzwilliam Museum ). For each problem he undertook, he furnished a new and more perfect formula. He never again equaled the emotion and tragedy of The Crowning with Thorns (Louvre); in the expression of the mysterious and the divine he never equaled

4795-465: Is thought he aided Masaccio in the creation of his famous trompe-l'œil niche around the Holy Trinity he painted at Santa Maria Novella . According to Vasari, Paolo Uccello was so obsessed with perspective that he thought of little else and experimented with it in many paintings, the best known being the three The Battle of San Romano paintings (completed by 1450s) which use broken weapons on

4932-643: The Maestà , in the Palazzo Pubblico , Siena . Portraiture was uncommon in the 14th and early 15th centuries, mostly limited to civic commemorative pictures such as the equestrian portraits of Guidoriccio da Fogliano by Simone Martini , 1327, in Siena and, of the early 15th century, John Hawkwood by Uccello in Florence Cathedral and its companion portraying Niccolò da Tolentino by Andrea del Castagno . During

5069-679: The Portrait of Pietro Aretino of the Pitti Palace, the Portrait of Isabella of Portugal (Madrid), and the series of Emperor Charles V of the same museum, the Charles V with a Greyhound (1533), and especially the Equestrian Portrait of Charles V (1548), an equestrian picture in a symphony of purples. This state portrait of Charles V (1548) at the Battle of Mühlberg established a new genre, that of

5206-763: The camerino of Alfonso d'Este in Ferrara , The Bacchanal of the Andrians and the Worship of Venus in the Museo del Prado and the Bacchus and Ariadne (1520–23) in London , "perhaps the most brilliant productions of the neo-pagan culture or 'Alexandrianism' of the Renaissance , many times imitated but never surpassed even by Rubens himself." Finally this was the period when Titian composed

5343-813: The 1755 Lisbon Earthquake . The "poesie" series contained the following works: The poesie, except for The Death of Actaeon , were brought together for the first time in nearly 500 years in an exhibition in 2020 and 2021 that travelled from the National Gallery in London, to the Museo del Prado in Madrid, to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, where it closed on January 2, 2022. Another painting that apparently remained in his studio at his death, and has been much less well known until recent decades,

5480-556: The Camposanto Monumentale at Pisa by an unknown painter, perhaps Francesco Traini or Buonamico Buffalmacco who worked on the other three of a series of frescoes on the subject of Salvation. It is unknown exactly when these frescoes were begun but it is generally presumed they post-date 1348. Two important fresco painters were active in Padua in the late 14th century, Altichiero and Giusto de' Menabuoi . Giusto's masterpiece,

5617-508: The Jesuit church at Antwerp. At this time also, during his visit to Rome , the artist began a series of reclining Venuses: The Venus of Urbino of the Uffizi, Venus and Love at the same museum, Venus—and the Organ-Player , Madrid, which shows the influence of contact with ancient sculpture. Giorgione had already dealt with the subject in his Dresden picture, finished by Titian, but here

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5754-778: The Meeting at the Golden Gate , and three scenes ( Miracoli di sant'Antonio ) from the life of St. Anthony of Padua , The Miracle of the Jealous Husband, which depicts the Murder of a Young Woman by Her Husband , A Child Testifying to Its Mother's Innocence , and The Saint Healing the Young Man with a Broken Limb . The Resurrected Christ (Uffizi) also dates to 1511-1512. In 1512 Titian returned to Venice from Padua; in 1513 he obtained La Senseria (a profitable privilege much coveted by artists) in

5891-690: The Palazzo Vecchio in Florence, where he and his assistants worked from 1555. Vasari also helped to organize the decoration of the Studiolo , now reassembled in the Palazzo Vecchio. In Rome, he painted frescos in the Sala Regia . Among his better-known pupils or followers are Sebastiano Flori , Bartolomeo Carducci , Mirabello Cavalori (Salincorno), Stefano Veltroni (of Monte San Savino ), and Alessandro Fortori (of Arezzo). His last major commission

6028-508: The Pietà that represented himself and his son Orazio, with a sibyl , before the Savior. He nearly finished this work, but differences arose regarding it, and he settled on being interred in his native Pieve. While the plague raged in Venice, Titian died on 27 August 1576. Depending on his unknown birthdate (see above), he was somewhere from his late eighties or even close to 100. Titian was interred in

6165-694: The Sassetti Chapel at Santa Trinita and the Tornabuoni Chapel at Santa Maria Novella . In these cycles of the Life of St Francis and the Life of the Virgin Mary and Life of John the Baptist there was room for portraits of patrons and of the patrons' patrons. Thanks to Sassetti's patronage, there is a portrait of the man himself, with his employer, Lorenzo il Magnifico , and Lorenzo's three sons with their tutor,

6302-638: The Villa Farnese and other sites. Vasari's biographies are interspersed with amusing gossip. Many of his anecdotes seem plausible, while others are assumed fictions, such as the tale of young Giotto painting a fly on the surface of a painting by Cimabue that supposedly, the older master repeatedly tried to brush away (a genre tale that echoes anecdotes told of the Greek painter Apelles ). He did carry out research archives for exact dates, as modern art historians do, and his biographies are considered more reliable in

6439-460: The illusionistic pierced balustrade that surrounds a trompe-l'œil view of the sky that decks the ceiling of the chamber. Mantegna's main legacy in considered the introduction of spatial illusionism, carried out by a mastery of perspective, both in frescoes and in sacra conversazione paintings: his tradition of ceiling decoration was followed for almost three centuries. In 1442 Alfonso V of Aragon became ruler of Naples , bringing with him

6576-415: The 1460s, Cosimo de' Medici had established Marsilio Ficino as his resident Humanist philosopher, and facilitated his translation of Plato and his teaching of Platonic philosophy , which focused on humanity as the centre of the natural universe, on each person's personal relationship with God, and on fraternal or "platonic" love as being the closest that a person could get to emulating or understanding

6713-414: The 15th and first half of the 16th centuries, one workshop more than any other dominated the production of Madonnas. They were the della Robbia family, and they were not painters but modellers in clay. Luca della Robbia , famous for his cantoria gallery at the cathedral, was the first sculptor to use glazed terracotta for large sculptures. Many of the durable works of this family have survived. The skill of

6850-404: The 15th century portraiture became common, initially often formalised profile portraits but increasingly three-quarter face, bust-length portraits. Patrons of art works such as altarpieces and fresco cycles often were included in the scenes, a notable example being the inclusion of the Sassetti and Medici families in Domenico Ghirlandaio 's cycle in the Sassetti Chapel . Portraiture was to become

6987-418: The Baroque. The artist simultaneously continued a series of small Madonnas , which he placed amid beautiful landscapes, in the manner of genre pictures or poetic pastorals. The Virgin with the Rabbit , in The Louvre , is the finished type of these pictures. Another work of the same period, also in the Louvre , is the Entombment . This was also the period of the three large and famous mythological scenes for

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7124-436: The Church of Santa Croce, Florence. The paintings in the Upper Church of the Basilica of St. Francis, Assisi , are examples of naturalistic painting of the period, often ascribed to Giotto himself, but more probably the work of artists surrounding Pietro Cavallini . A late painting by Cimabue in the Lower Church at Assisi, of the Madonna and St. Francis , also clearly shows greater naturalism than his panel paintings and

7261-605: The Concert by Lorenzo Costa of about 1490. Important events were often recorded or commemorated in paintings such as Uccello's Battle of San Romano , as were important local religious festivals. History and historic characters were often depicted in a way that reflected on current events or on the lives of current people. Portraits were often painted of contemporaries in the guise of characters from history or literature. The writings of Dante , Voragine's Golden Legend and Boccaccio 's The Decameron were important sources of themes. In all these subjects, increasingly, and in

7398-427: The Empire, which for a painter was an exceptional honor. This appointment allowed him to gain royal patronage and work on prestigious commissions. As a matter of professional and worldly success, his position from about this time is regarded as equal only to that of Raphael , Michelangelo and, at a later date, Rubens . In 1540 he received a pension from d'Avalos, marquis del Vasto, and an annuity of 200 crowns (which

7535-433: The Eremitani , near the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua. Unfortunately, the building was mostly destroyed during World War II, and they are only known from photographs which reveal an already highly developed sense of perspective and a knowledge of antiquity, for which the ancient University of Padua had become well known, early in the 15th century. Mantegna's last work in Padua was a monumental San Zeno altarpiece , created for

7672-500: The Florentine Accademia e Compagnia delle Arti del Disegno , with Grand Duke Cosimo I de' Medici and Michelangelo as capi of the institution. Thirty-six artists were chosen as members. He died on 27 June 1574 in Florence , Grand Duchy of Tuscany , aged 62. In 1529, he visited Rome where he studied the works of Raphael and other artists of the Roman High Renaissance . Vasari's own Mannerist paintings were more admired in his lifetime than afterwards. In 1547, he completed

7809-422: The Fondaco dei Tedeschi. He became superintendent of the government works, especially charged with completing the paintings left unfinished by Giovanni Bellini in the hall of the great council in the ducal palace . He set up an atelier on the Grand Canal at S. Samuele, the precise site being now unknown. It was not until 1516, after the death of Giovanni Bellini, that he came into actual enjoyment of his patent. At

7946-442: The Frari (Basilica di Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari ), as at first intended, and his Pietà was finished by Palma il Giovane . He lies near his own famous painting, the Madonna di Ca' Pesaro. No memorial marked his grave. Much later the Austrian rulers of Venice commissioned Antonio Canova to sculpt the large monument still in the church. Very shortly after Titian's death, his son, assistant and sole heir Orazio , also died of

8083-424: The Humanist poet and philosopher, Agnolo Poliziano . In the Tornabuoni Chapel is another portrait of Poliziano, accompanied by the other influential members of the Platonic Academy including Marsilio Ficino. Giorgio Vasari Giorgio Vasari ( / v ə ˈ s ɑːr i / , US also /- ˈ z ɑːr -, v ɑː ˈ z ɑːr i / ; Italian: [ˈdʒordʒo vaˈzaːri] ; 30 July 1511 – 27 June 1574)

8220-511: The Jesuits, Venice; St. Jerome , Louvre; Crucifixion , Church of San Domenico, Ancona). Titian had engaged his daughter Lavinia, the beautiful girl whom he loved deeply and painted various times, to Cornelio Sarcinelli of Serravalle. She had succeeded her aunt Orsa, then deceased, as the manager of the household, which, with the lordly income that Titian made by this time, placed her on a corresponding footing. Lavinia's marriage to Cornelio took place in 1554. She died in childbirth in 1560. Titian

8357-405: The Madonna and Child. These two painters, with their contemporaries, Guido of Siena , Coppo di Marcovaldo and the mysterious painter upon whose style the school may have been based, the so-called Master of St Bernardino, all worked in a manner that was highly formalised and dependent upon the ancient tradition of icon painting. In these tempera paintings many of the details were rigidly fixed by

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8494-434: The Renaissance period . The following is a summary of points dealt with more fully in the main articles that are cited above. A number of Classical texts, that had been lost to Western European scholars for centuries, became available. These included Philosophy, Poetry, Drama, Science, a thesis on the Arts and Early Christian Theology. The resulting interest in Humanist philosophy meant that man's relationship with humanity,

8631-406: The Venetian government, dissatisfied with Titian's neglect of his work for the ducal palace, ordered him to refund the money he had received, and Il Pordenone , his rival of recent years, was installed in his place. However, at the end of a year Pordenone died, and Titian, who meanwhile applied himself diligently to painting in the hall the Battle of Cadore , was reinstated. This major battle scene

8768-431: The abbot of the Basilica of San Zeno , Verona from 1457 to 1459. This polyptych of which the predella panels are particularly notable for the handling of landscape elements, was to influence the further development of Renaissance art in Northern Italy. Mantegna's most famous work is the interior decoration of the Camera degli Sposi in the Ducal palace, Mantua , dated about 1470. The walls are frescoed with scenes of

8905-675: The art of painting. The establishment of the Medici Bank and the subsequent trade it generated brought unprecedented wealth to a single Italian city, Florence . Cosimo de' Medici set a new standard for patronage of the arts, not associated with the church or monarchy. The serendipitous presence within the region of Florence of certain individuals of artistic genius, most notably Giotto , Masaccio , Brunelleschi, Piero della Francesca , Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo , formed an ethos that supported and encouraged many lesser artists to achieve work of extraordinary quality. A similar heritage of artistic achievement occurred in Venice through

9042-409: The artist moved on from his early Giorgionesque style, undertook larger, more complex subjects, and for the first time attempted a monumental style. Giorgione died in 1510 and Giovanni Bellini in 1516, leaving Titian unrivaled in the Venetian School. For sixty years he was the undisputed master of Venetian painting. In 1516, he completed his famous masterpiece, the Assumption of the Virgin , for

9179-462: The artistic disciple of Giotto. These devotional paintings, which adorn the cells and corridors inhabited by the friars, represent episodes from the life of Jesus , many of them being scenes of the Crucifixion . They are starkly simple, restrained in colour and intense in mood as the artist sought to make spiritual revelations a visual reality. The earliest truly Renaissance images in Florence date from 1401, although they are not paintings. That year

9316-409: The arts had been in the air since the time of Alberti . Vasari's term, applied to the change in artistic styles with the work of Giotto, eventually would become the French term Renaissance (rebirth) widely applied to the era that followed. Vasari was responsible for the modern use of the term Gothic art , as well, although he only used the word Goth in association with the German style that preceded

9453-422: The case of his contemporary painters and those of the preceding generation. Modern criticism – with new materials produced by research – has revised many of his dates and facts. Vasari included a short autobiography at the end of the Lives , and added further details about himself and his family in his lives of Lazzaro Vasari and Francesco Salviati . According to the historian Richard Goldthwaite, Vasari

9590-427: The church of Santa Croce in Bosco Marengo ( Province of Alessandria , Piedmont ). In 1562, Vasari built the octagonal dome on the Basilica of Our Lady of Humility in Pistoia , an important example of High Renaissance architecture. In Rome, Vasari worked with Giacomo Barozzi da Vignola and Bartolomeo Ammannati at Pope Julius III 's Villa Giulia . Often called "the first art historian", Vasari invented

9727-405: The circle of Andrea del Sarto and his pupils, Rosso Fiorentino and Jacopo Pontormo , where his humanist education was encouraged. He was befriended by Michelangelo , whose painting style would influence his own. Vasari enjoyed high repute during his lifetime and amassed a considerable fortune. He married Niccolosa Bacci, a member of one of the richest and most prominent families of Arezzo. He

9864-510: The common pigments of the Renaissance period, such as ultramarine , vermilion , lead-tin yellow , ochres , and azurite , he also used the rare pigments realgar and orpiment . Italian Renaissance painter The city of Florence in Tuscany is renowned as the birthplace of the Renaissance , and in particular of Renaissance painting, although later in the era Rome and Venice assumed increasing importance in painting. A detailed background

10001-505: The cultural change. The term was adopted thereafter in historiography and is still in use today. Vasari was born prematurely on 30 July 1511 in Arezzo , Tuscany . Recommended at an early age by his cousin Luca Signorelli , he became a pupil of Guglielmo da Marsiglia , a skillful painter of stained glass . Sent to Florence at the age of sixteen by Cardinal Silvio Passerini , he joined

10138-624: The decoration of the Padua Baptistery , follows the theme of humanity's Creation, Downfall, and Salvation, also having a rare Apocalypse cycle in the small chancel. While the whole work is exceptional for its breadth, quality and intact state, the treatment of human emotion is conservative by comparison with that of Altichiero's Crucifixion at the Basilica of Sant'Antonio , also in Padua. Giusto's work relies on formalised gestures, where Altichiero relates

10275-478: The della Robbias, particularly Andrea della Robbia , was to give great naturalism to the babies that they modelled as Jesus , and expressions of great piety and sweetness to the Madonna. They were to set a standard to be emulated by other artists of Florence. Among those who painted devotional Madonnas during the Early Renaissance are Fra Angelico , Fra Filippo Lippi , Verrocchio and Davide Ghirlandaio . The custom

10412-453: The direction that art and philosophy were moving, at that time. Ghiberti used the naked figure of Isaac to create a small sculpture in the Classical style. The figure kneels on a tomb decorated with acanthus scrolls that are also a reference to the art of Ancient Rome. In Brunelleschi's panel, one of the additional figures included in the scene is reminiscent of a well-known Roman bronze figure of

10549-469: The dome which was not built until the following century. During the later 14th century, International Gothic was the style that dominated Tuscan painting. It can be seen to an extent in the work of Pietro and Ambrogio Lorenzetti, which is marked by a formalized sweetness and grace in the figures, and Late Gothic gracefulness in the draperies. The style is fully developed in the works of Simone Martini and Gentile da Fabriano , which have an elegance and

10686-493: The elderly Gentile Bellini , from which they later transferred to that of his brother Giovanni Bellini . At that time the Bellinis, especially Giovanni, were the leading artists in the city. There Titian found a group of young men about his own age, among them Giovanni Palma da Serinalta, Lorenzo Lotto , Sebastiano Luciani , and Giorgio da Castelfranco, nicknamed Giorgione . Francesco Vecellio , Titian's older brother, later became

10823-661: The end of his life. Like many of his late works, Titian's last painting, the Pietà , is a dramatic, nocturnal scene of suffering. He apparently intended it for his own tomb chapel. He had selected, as his burial place, the chapel of the Crucifix in the Basilica di Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari, the church of the Franciscan Order. In payment for a grave, he offered the Franciscans a picture of

10960-411: The family was well-established in the area, which was ruled by Venice. At the age of about ten to twelve Titian and his brother Francesco (who perhaps followed later) were sent to an uncle in Venice to find an apprenticeship with a painter. The minor painter Sebastian Zuccato, whose sons became well-known mosaicists , and who may have been a family friend, arranged for the brothers to enter the studio of

11097-413: The first half of the 15th century, the achieving of the effect of realistic space in a painting by the employment of linear perspective was a major preoccupation of many painters, as well as the architects Brunelleschi and Alberti who both theorised about the subject. Brunelleschi is known to have done a number of careful studies of the piazza and octagonal baptistery outside Florence Cathedral and it

11234-528: The genre of the encyclopedia of artistic biographies with his Le Vite de' più eccellenti pittori, scultori, ed architettori ( Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects ). This work was first published in 1550 and dedicated to Grand Duke Cosimo I de' Medici . Vasari introduced the term "Rinascita" (rebirth in Italian) in printed works – although an awareness of an ongoing "rebirth" in

11371-540: The gentle and pretty figures painted by Masolino on the opposite side of Adam and Eve receiving the forbidden fruit . The painting of the Brancacci Chapel was left incomplete when Masaccio died at 26 in 1428. The Tribute Money was completed by Masolino while the remainder of the work in the chapel was finished by Filippino Lippi in the 1480s. Masaccio's work became a source of inspiration to many later painters, including Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo . During

11508-581: The grand equestrian portrait. The composition is steeped both in the Roman tradition of equestrian sculpture and in the medieval representations of an ideal Christian knight, but the weary figure and face have a subtlety few such representations attempt. In 1532, after painting a portrait of the emperor Charles V in Bologna, he was made a Count Palatine and knight of the Golden Spur . His children were also made nobles of

11645-460: The ground, and fields on the distant hills to give an impression of perspective. In the 1450s Piero della Francesca , in paintings such as The Flagellation of Christ , demonstrated his mastery over linear perspective and also over the science of light. Another painting exists, a cityscape, by an unknown artist, perhaps Piero della Francesca, that demonstrates the sort of experiment that Brunelleschi had been making. From this time linear perspective

11782-521: The ground, have discernible anatomy and are clothed in garments with weight and structure. But more than anything, what set Giotto's figures apart from those of his contemporaries are their emotions. In the faces of Giotto's figures are joy, rage, despair, shame, spite and love. The cycle of frescoes of the Life of Christ and the Life of the Virgin that he painted in the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua set

11919-523: The half-length figures and busts of young women, such as Flora in the Uffizi and Woman with a Mirror in the Louvre. At least according to popular legend, they were modeled by some of Venice's famous courtesans . Titian's skill with colour is exemplified by his Danaë , one of several mythological paintings, or "poesie" ("poems"), as the painter called them. This painting was done for Alessandro Farnese, but

12056-661: The hall of the chancery in Palazzo della Cancelleria in Rome with frescoes that received the name Sala dei Cento Giorni . He was regularly employed by members of the Medici family in Florence and Rome. He also worked in Naples (for example on the Vasari Sacristy ), Arezzo, and other places. Many of his paintings still exist, the most important being on the wall and ceiling of the Sala di Cosimo I in

12193-593: The handling of details and the general effect of horses, soldiers, lictors, powerful stirrings of crowds at the foot of a stairway, lit by torches with the flapping of banners against the sky. Less successful were the pendentives of the cupola at Santa Maria della Salute ( Death of Abel , Sacrifice of Abraham , David and Goliath ). These violent scenes viewed in perspective from below were by their very nature in unfavourable situations. They were nevertheless much admired and imitated, Rubens among others applying this system to his forty ceilings (the sketches only remain) of

12330-461: The high altar and created a series of bronze panels in which he achieved a remarkable illusion of depth, with perspective in the architectural settings and apparent roundness of the human form all in very shallow relief. At only 17 years old, Mantegna accepted his first commission, fresco cycles of the Lives of Saints James and Christopher for the Ovetari Chapel in the transept of the church of

12467-519: The high altar of the Basilica di Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari , where it is still in situ . This piece of colourism, executed on a grand scale rarely before seen in Italy, created a sensation. The Signoria took note and observed that Titian was neglecting his work in the hall of the great council, but in 1516 he succeeded his master Giovanni Bellini in receiving a pension from the Senate. Furthermore, he painted

12604-549: The idea of Florentine superiority in the visual arts . Vasari designed the Tomb of Michelangelo , his hero, in the Basilica of Santa Croce , Florence that was completed in 1578. Based on Vasari's text in print about Giotto 's new manner of painting as a rinascita (rebirth), author Jules Michelet in his Histoire de France (1835) suggested the adoption of Vasari's concept, using the term Renaissance (rebirth, in French) to distinguish

12741-633: The incidents surrounding Christ's death with great human drama and intensity. In Florence, at the Spanish Chapel of Santa Maria Novella , Andrea di Bonaiuto was commissioned to emphasise the role of the Church in the redemptive process, and that of the Dominican Order in particular. His fresco Allegory of the Active and Triumphant Church is remarkable for its depiction of Florence Cathedral , complete with

12878-497: The invention of engraving . Venetian art in particular (along with arts from other parts of Europe), is ignored systematically in the first edition. Between his first and second editions, Vasari visited Venice and while the second edition gave more attention to Venetian art (finally including Titian ), it did so without achieving a neutral point of view. Many inaccuracies exist within his Lives . For example, Vasari writes that Andrea del Castagno killed Domenico Veneziano , which

13015-473: The latter works of Giovanni Bellini , and Titian . The Mannerist period, dealt with in a separate article, included the latter works of Michelangelo, as well as Pontormo , Parmigianino , Bronzino , and Tintoretto . The influences upon the development of Renaissance painting in Italy are those that also affected architecture, engineering, philosophy, language, literature, natural sciences, politics, ethics, theology, and other aspects of Italian society during

13152-452: The life of the Gonzaga family , talking, greeting a younger son and his tutor on their return from Rome, preparing for a hunt and other such scenes that make no obvious reference to matters historic, literary, philosophic or religious. They are remarkable for simply being about family life. The one concession is the scattering of jolly winged putti , who hold up plaques and garlands and clamber on

13289-569: The love of God. In the Medieval period, everything related to the Classical period was perceived as associated with paganism. In the Renaissance it came increasingly to be associated with enlightenment . The figures of Classical mythology began to take on a new symbolic role in Christian art and in particular, the Goddess Venus took on a new discretion. Born fully formed, by a sort of miracle, she

13426-580: The manner in which religious themes were depicted, notably on Michelangelo's Ceiling of the Sistine Chapel . Other motifs were drawn from contemporary life, sometimes with allegorical meaning, some sometimes purely decorative. Incidents important to a particular family might be recorded like those in the Camera degli Sposi that Mantegna painted for the Gonzaga family at Mantua . Increasingly, still lifes and decorative scenes from life were painted, such as

13563-557: The medieval churches of Santa Maria Novella and Santa Croce . In both buildings, he removed the original rood screen and loft, and remodeled the retro- choirs in the Mannerist taste of his time. In Santa Croce, he produced the painting of The Adoration of the Magi commissioned by Pope Pius V in 1566 and completed in February 1567. It was restored recently, before being exhibited in 2011 in Rome and Naples. Eventually, it will be returned to

13700-484: The most influential painters of northern Italy was Andrea Mantegna of Padua , who had the good fortune to be in his teen years at the time in which the great Florentine sculptor Donatello was working there. Donatello created the enormous equestrian bronze, the first since the Roman Empire, of the condotiero Gattemelata , still visible on its plinth in the square outside the Basilica of Sant'Antonio . He also worked on

13837-566: The objects would have excited Piero della Francesca . In Florence, in the later 15th century, most works of art, even those that were done as decoration for churches, were generally commissioned and paid for by private patrons. Much of the patronage came from the Medici family, or those who were closely associated with or related to them, such as the Sassetti, the Ruccellai, and the Tornabuoni. In

13974-483: The paintings of Masaccio and Paolo Uccello . Simultaneous with gaining access to the Classical texts, Europe gained access to advanced mathematics which had its provenance in the works of Byzantine and Islamic scholars. The advent of movable type printing in the 15th century meant that ideas could be disseminated easily, and an increasing number of books were written for a broad public. The development of oil paint and its introduction to Italy had lasting effects on

14111-474: The plague, greatly complicating the settlement of his estate, as he had made no will. Titian never attempted engraving , but he was very conscious of the importance of printmaking as a means to expand his reputation. In the period 1515–1520 he designed a number of woodcuts , including an enormous and impressive one of The Drowning of Pharaoh's Army in the Red Sea , in twelve blocks, intended as wall decoration as

14248-632: The poetry of the Pilgrims of Emmaus ; while in superb and heroic brilliancy he never again executed anything more grand than The Doge Grimani adoring Faith (Venice, Doge's Palace), or the Trinity , of Madrid. On the other hand, from the standpoint of flesh tints, his most moving pictures are those of his old age, such as the poesie and the Antiope of the Louvre. He even attempted problems of chiaroscuro in fantastic night effects ( Martyrdom of St. Laurence , Church of

14385-461: The professional life of the painter Giotto and includes Taddeo Gaddi , Orcagna , and Altichiero . The Early Renaissance style was started by Masaccio and then further developed by Fra Angelico , Paolo Uccello , Piero della Francesca , Sandro Botticelli , Verrocchio , Domenico Ghirlandaio , and Giovanni Bellini . The High Renaissance period was that of Leonardo da Vinci , Michelangelo , Raphael , Andrea del Sarto , Coreggio , Giorgione ,

14522-428: The rebirth, which he identified as "barbaric". The Lives also included a novel treatise on the technical methods employed in the arts. The book was partly rewritten and extended in 1568, with the addition of woodcut portraits of artists (some conjectural). The work shows a consistent and notorious bias in favour of Florentines and tends to attribute to them all the developments in Renaissance art – for example,

14659-477: The remains of his earlier frescoes in the upper church. A common theme in the decoration of Medieval churches was the Last Judgement , which in northern European churches frequently occupies a sculptural space above the west door, but in Italian churches such as Giotto's Scrovegni Chapel it is painted on the inner west wall. The Black Death of 1348 caused its survivors to focus on the need to approach death in

14796-601: The retable of San Niccolò (1523), in the Vatican Museums , each time attaining to a higher and more perfect conception. He finally reached a classic formula in the Pesaro Madonna , better known as the Madonna di Ca' Pesaro (c. 1519–1526), also for the Frari church. This is perhaps his most studied work, whose patiently developed plan is set forth with supreme display of order and freedom, originality and style. Here Titian gave

14933-613: The riverside environment. In Florence, Vasari also designed the long passage, now called Vasari Corridor, which connects the Uffizi with the Palazzo Pitti on the other side of the river. The corridor passes alongside the River Arno on an arcade, crosses the Ponte Vecchio , and winds around the exterior of several buildings. It was once the location of the Mercado de Vecchio. He renovated

15070-407: The same time he entered an exclusive arrangement for painting. The patent yielded him a good annuity of 20 crowns and exempted him from certain taxes. In return, he was bound to paint likenesses of the successive Doges of his time at the fixed price of eight crowns each. The actual number he painted was five. During this period (1516–1530), which may be called the period of his mastery and maturity,

15207-596: The similar painting of Assumption of the Virgin above the altar in Dubrovnik Cathedral , in Ragusa (now Croatia ). The pictorial structure of the Assumption —that of uniting in the same composition two or three scenes superimposed on different levels, earth and heaven, the temporal and the infinite—was continued in a series of works such as the retable of San Domenico at Ancona (1520), the retable of Brescia (1522), and

15344-410: The small painting is framed by a late Gothic arch, through which is viewed an interior, domestic on one side and ecclesiastic on the other, in the centre of which the saint sits in a wooden corral surrounded by his possessions while his lion prowls in the shadows on the floor. The way the light streams in through every door and window casting both natural and reflected light across the architecture and all

15481-527: The source was an actual window in the cathedral. Piero della Francesca carried his study of light further. In the Flagellation he demonstrates a knowledge of how light is proportionally disseminated from its point of origin. There are two sources of light in this painting, one internal to a building and the other external. Of the internal source, though the light itself is invisible, its position can be calculated with mathematical certainty. Leonardo da Vinci

15618-484: The study of drapery. In the Brancacci Chapel , his Tribute Money fresco has a single vanishing point and uses a strong contrast between light and dark to convey a three-dimensional quality to the work. As well, the figures of Adam and Eve being expelled from Eden , painted on the side of the arch into the chapel, are renowned for their realistic depiction of the human form and of human emotion. They contrast with

15755-521: The subject matter, the precise position of the hands of the Madonna and Christ Child, for example, being dictated by the nature of the blessing that the painting invoked upon the viewer. The angle of the Virgin's head and shoulders, the folds in her veil, and the lines with which her features were defined had all been repeated in countless such paintings. Cimabue and Duccio took steps in the direction of greater naturalism, as did their contemporary, Pietro Cavallini of Rome. Giotto (1266–1337), by tradition

15892-550: The talented Bellini family, their influential inlaw Mantegna , Giorgione , Titian and Tintoretto . Much painting of the Renaissance period was commissioned by or for the Catholic Church . These works were often of large scale and were frequently cycles painted in fresco of the Life of Christ , the Life of the Virgin or the life of a saint, particularly St. Francis of Assisi . There were also many allegorical paintings on

16029-706: The theme of Salvation and the role of the Church in attaining it. Churches also commissioned altarpieces , which were painted in tempera on panel and later in oil on canvas . Apart from large altarpieces, small devotional pictures were produced in very large numbers, both for churches and for private individuals, the most common theme being the Madonna and Child . Throughout the period, civic commissions were also important. Local government buildings were decorated with frescoes and other works both secular, such as Ambrogio Lorenzetti 's The Allegory of Good and Bad Government , and religious, such as Simone Martini 's fresco of

16166-453: The universe and with God was no longer the exclusive province of the Church. A revived interest in the Classics brought about the first archaeological study of Roman remains by the architect Brunelleschi and sculptor Donatello . The revival of a style of architecture based on classical precedents inspired a corresponding classicism in painting, which manifested itself as early as the 1420s in

16303-582: The vista at the far end of its long narrow courtyard. It is a unique piece of urban planning that functions as a public piazza, and which, if considered as a short street, is unique as a Renaissance street with a unified architectural treatment. The view of the Loggia from the Arno reveals that, with the Vasari Corridor , it is one of the very few structures lining the river that is open to the river and appears to embrace

16440-502: The works of almost all painters, certain underlying painterly practices were being developed: the observation of nature, the study of anatomy, of light, and perspective. The art of the region of Tuscany in the late 13th century was dominated by two masters of the Italo-Byzantine style, Cimabue of Florence and Duccio of Siena . Their commissions were mostly religious paintings, several of them being very large altarpieces showing

16577-850: The works' overall composition also appears to be a Netherlandish influence. Antonello went to Venice in 1475 and remained there until the fall of 1476 so it is likely that Antonello passed on the techniques of using oil paints, painting the gradation of light, and the principles of calmness to Venetian painters , including Giovanni Bellini, one of the most significant painters of the High Renaissance in Northern Italy, during that visit. Antonello painted mostly small meticulous portraits in glowing colours. But one of his most famous works, St. Jerome in His Study , demonstrates his superior ability at handling linear perspective and light. The composition of

16714-560: Was a vast The Last Judgement fresco on the ceiling of the cupola of the Florence Cathedral that he began in 1572 with the assistance of the Bolognese painter Lorenzo Sabatini . Unfinished at the time of Vasari's death, it was completed by Federico Zuccari . Aside from his career as a painter, Vasari was successful as an architect. His loggia of the Palazzo degli Uffizi by the Arno opens up

16851-546: Was afterwards doubled) from Charles V from the treasury of Milan . Another source of profit, for he was always aware of money, was a contract obtained in 1542 for supplying grain to Cadore, where he visited almost every year and where he was both generous and influential. Titian had a favourite villa on the neighboring Manza Hill (in front of the church of Castello Roganzuolo ) from which (it may be inferred) he made his chief observations of landscape form and effect. The so-called Titian's mill, constantly discernible in his studies,

16988-407: Was an Italian Renaissance painter , architect, art historian and biographer, who is best known for his work Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects , considered the ideological foundation of all art-historical writing, and still much cited in modern biographies of the many Italian Renaissance artists he covers, including Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo , although he

17125-595: Was at the Council of Trent towards 1555, of which there is a finished sketch in the Louvre. His friend Aretino died suddenly in 1556, and another close intimate, the sculptor and architect Jacopo Sansovino , in 1570. In September 1565 Titian went to Cadore and designed the decorations for the church at Pieve, partly executed by his pupils. One of these is a Transfiguration, another an Annunciation (now in San Salvatore, Venice), inscribed Titianus fecit , by way of protest (it

17262-578: Was continued by Botticelli, who produced a series of Madonnas over a period of twenty years for the Medici ; Perugino , whose Madonnas and saints are known for their sweetness and Leonardo da Vinci , for whom a number of small attributed Madonnas such as the Benois Madonna have survived. Even Michelangelo , who was primarily a sculptor, was persuaded to paint the Doni Tondo , while for Raphael , they are among his most popular and numerous works. One of

17399-476: Was destroyed by fire, but replaced with a new image in the 1330s by Bernardo Daddi , set in an elaborately designed and lavishly wrought canopy by Orcagna . The open lower storey of the building was enclosed and dedicated as Orsanmichele . Depictions of the Madonna and Child were a very popular art form in Florence. They took every shape from small mass-produced terracotta plaques to magnificent altarpieces such as those by Cimabue , Giotto and Masaccio . In

17536-549: Was long regarded as by Giorgione. The two young masters were likewise recognized as the leaders of their new school of arte moderna , which is characterized by paintings made more flexible, freed from symmetry and the remnants of hieratic conventions still found in the works of Giovanni Bellini. In 1507–1508, Giorgione was commissioned by the state to create frescoes on the re-erected Fondaco dei Tedeschi. Titian and Morto da Feltre worked along with him, and some fragments of paintings remain, probably by Giorgione. Some of their work

17673-677: Was lost—with many other major works by Venetian artists—in the 1577 fire that destroyed all the old pictures in the great chambers of the Doge's Palace. It depicted in life-size the moment when the Venetian general d'Alviano attacked the enemy, with horses and men crashing down into a stream. It was Titian's most important attempt at a tumultuous and heroic scene of movement to rival Raphael 's Battle of Constantine , Michelangelo's equally ill-fated Battle of Cascina , and Leonardo da Vinci 's The Battle of Anghiari (these last two unfinished). There remains only

17810-551: Was made Knight of the Golden Spur by the Pope. He was elected to the municipal council of his native town and finally, rose to the supreme office of gonfaloniere . He built a fine house in Arezzo in 1547 and decorated its walls and vaults with paintings. It is now a museum in his honour named the Casa Vasari , whilst his residence in Florence is also preserved. In 1563, he helped found

17947-430: Was often called da Cadore , 'from Cadore ', taken from his native region. Recognized by his contemporaries as "The Sun Amidst Small Stars" (recalling the final line of Dante's Paradiso ), Titian was one of the most versatile of Italian painters, equally adept with portraits, landscape backgrounds, and mythological and religious subjects. His painting methods, particularly in the application and use of colour, exerted

18084-476: Was one of the earliest authors to use the term "competition" (or "concorrenza" in Italian) in its economic sense. He used it repeatedly, and stressed the concept in his introduction to the life of Pietro Perugino , in explaining the reasons for Florentine artistic preeminence. In Vasari's view, Florentine artists excelled because they were hungry, and they were hungry because their fierce competition amongst themselves for commissions kept them so. Competition, he said,

18221-417: Was so successful in extracting from each physiognomy so many traits at once characteristic and beautiful". Among portrait-painters Titian is compared to Rembrandt and Velázquez , with the interior life of the former, and the clearness, certainty, and obviousness of the latter. These qualities show in the Portrait of Pope Paul III of Naples , or the sketch of the same Pope Paul III and his Grandsons ,

18358-671: Was the new Eve , symbol of innocent love, or even, by extension, a symbol of the Virgin Mary herself. We see Venus in both these roles in the two famous tempera paintings that Botticelli did in the 1480s for Cosimo's nephew, Pierfrancesco de' Medici , the Primavera and the Birth of Venus . Meanwhile, Domenico Ghirlandaio , a meticulous and accurate draughtsman and one of the finest portrait painters of his age, executed two cycles of frescoes for Medici associates in two of Florence's larger churches,

18495-822: Was there again in 1550, and executed the portrait of Philip II , which was sent to England and was useful in Philip's suit for the hand of Queen Mary . During the last twenty-six years of his life (1550–1576), Titian worked mainly for Philip II and as a portrait-painter. He became more self-critical, an insatiable perfectionist, keeping some pictures in his studio for ten years—returning to them and retouching them, constantly adding new expressions at once more refined, concise, and subtle. He also finished many copies that his pupils made of his earlier works. This caused problems of attribution and priority among versions of his works—which were also widely copied and faked outside his studio during his lifetime and afterwards. For Philip II, he painted

18632-550: Was to carry forward Piero's work on light. The Virgin Mary , revered by the Catholic Church worldwide, was particularly evoked in Florence, where there was a miraculous image of her on a column in the corn market and where both the Cathedral of "Our Lady of the Flowers" and the large Dominican church of Santa Maria Novella were named in her honour. The miraculous image in the corn market

18769-543: Was understood and regularly employed, such as by Perugino in his Christ Giving the Keys to St. Peter (1481–82) in the Sistine Chapel . Giotto used tonality to create form. Taddeo Gaddi in his nocturnal scene in the Baroncelli Chapel demonstrated how light could be used to create drama. Paolo Uccello , a hundred years later, experimented with the dramatic effect of light in some of his almost monochrome frescoes. He did

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