Titian. The life of Titian is the longest in the biographies of artists, and it was also one of the most productive, as he worked quickly and energetically, enjoyed almost perfectly regular health, and produced regularly, except when his labours were occasionally interrupted by festivities or by travel. The consequence is that the biography of Titian is one of the most difficult to write laconically. If too much compressed, it would become a mere list of dates. In this brief notice there must be many omissions. It will be divided into three parts, treating separately of the artist's life, his patrons, and his works.
The Anglicised form of the name is obtained by dropping the final o from Titiano, which was the artist's most common signature, though he some- times wrote Tiziano, occasionally Ticiano, and rarely Tician. The English form, therefore, is nearer to the most frequent signature than the French Titien. The modern Italians have preferred Tiziano. The painter's contemporaries gave various forms to his name from uncertainty or carelessness, as for instance Tuciano.
Titiano Vecellio was descended from a respectable but not wealthy family. The surname Vecellio or Vecelli appears to have been originally a Christian name, Guecello, but at the time of the painter's birth it was fixed as a surname, and Tiziano afterwards became common in the family. The date of the painter's birth is not quite positively fixed, except that the year is indicated by his own statement on August 1, 1571, that he was then an old man of ninety-five, so he cannot have been born later than 1477. His birthplace was close to the castle of Cadore, in a very mountainous region, and his continued attachment to the country of his birth is proved by his frequent visits to it, and by his numerous sketches of its scenery. Titian's father, Gregorio Vecellio, was a brave officer who filled various important civil functions in his native place, and was greatly respected both for wisdom and valour, but he was a poor gentleman. Gregorio sent his little son to Venice at the age of ten, to the house of an uncle, who saw that he had a turn for art, and sent him to Zuccato, a mosaicist, and afterwards to Gentile Bellini. That painter disapproved of his pupil's rapidity, so the boy (who seems to have enjoyed a good deal of independence for his years) first went to Giovanni Bellini, and afterwards to Giorgione. This is evidence that as a quick and intelligent little boy and an observant youth Titian actually saw the transition from comparatively primitive to advanced art at the moment when it took place, and that he adopted without hesitation for himself what were then the most modern and advanced principles.
The rapidity with which Titian absorbed all that was known at Venice about the art of painting is proved by the simple fact that he produced a masterpiece at twenty-three, and very soon had plenty of employment, both in fresco on public edifices and in oil. In 1511 he was painting fresco at Padua, and in 1516 he made his first visit to Ferrara. There are no events in his life outside of his work till 1524, when he had a fever that prostrated him and threatened to become chronic. The date of Titian's marriage is unknown, but the birth of his eldest son, Pomponio, is believed to have occurred in 1525. All we know is that he had a wife whose name was Cecilia. He contrived, by influence, to obtain ecclesiastical preferment for Pomponio though a mere child, the work being done by a curate. Afterwards he had two other children, Orazio and Lavinia. Pomponio turned out badly; Orazio, a painter, survived Titian a few months; and Lavinia married. Titian's wife died in 1530, to his intense grief. In the year following he went to live in the fields to the north-east of Venice, where he had a large house with a fine garden, probably going down to the water's edge, and a view of the lagoon. The year 1532 is of importance, as Titian became acquainted with the Emperor Charles V., who made him a count palatine, with other titles, a rank which empowered him to appoint notaries and judges, and legitimise the illegitimate offspring of persons beneath baronial rank. He was also made a Knight of the Golden Spur, with insignia, and the entrée at court, and his children were all ennobled. In 1536 he went with the Duke of Mantua to greet Charles V. at Asti. In 1543 Titian met Pope Paul III. and Charles V. at Busseto, where he was the guest of Cardinal Farnese. Two years afterwards he visited Rome, where he was welcomed by Paul III., and in 1546 he returned to Venice. His vigour at the age of seventy was proved by a winter journey across the Alps to Augsburg, where he joined the court of Charles V. He returned to the court at Augsburg in 1550, and probably followed it to Innsbruck in 1551. In 1554 the troubles with his son Pomponio reached a climax, and Titian asked to substitute a nephew for him in the sinecure canonry of Medole. An interesting example of the protection of copyright is a patent granted in 1566 by the Council of Ten, recognising Titian's copyright in prints from his own works. The later part of his life was chiefly occupied in working at Venice for Philip II. of Spain. He still retained energy for work, as is proved by his undertaking in 1576 a large picture for the Franciscans. In the same year he died of the plague, at the age of ninety-nine, and was buried with much public honour, and by daylight, in the chapel of the Crucified Saviour at Frari, a striking exception to the usual practice with regard to persons dead of the plague. Titian's son, Orazio, died of the same disease a few months later in a hospital.
Titian was extremely fortunate in his patrons. The Venetian government acted generously towards him, and on the whole with great indulgence, considering his negligence and delays. He had a great love of pensions, privileges, and sinecures, and was always trying to get them for himself or his relations. He was perpetually begging, and his access to great people gave him excellent opportunities. He was patronised by people of the highest rank, including Doges of Venice, reigning Dukes of Ferrara and Mantua, several cardinals, princes, kings, Pope Paul III., and the great Emperor Charles V. All these personages treated Titian with the greatest kindness and consideration, but although a gentleman in his manners, and a courtier in his correspondence, he sometimes, by negligence, tested their patience very severely. His friendship with Charles V. was intimate, and lasted, in spite of distance, until the emperor's death. Titian's character was not comparable in dignity to that of Michaelangelo; it was the nature of a polished self-seeking courtier; but he was an affectionate husband and father, an amiable and sociable companion, and a warm friend. There is no evidence that Titian had much learning—his art would not leave time for that; but he had derived a rare and valuable culture from his immense experience of the world.
Titian's works are so numerous that it is impossible to catalogue them here. He was much in request as portrait-painter, and painted most of the great people he knew, several of them repeatedly. His religious pictures are numerous and magnificent, some of them on a large scale, and like other artists of the Renaissance he frequently chose mythological subjects. Some of his finest works are poetical or allegorical. The supreme rank amongst painters is sometimes assigned to Raphael and sometimes to Titian. Raphael's claim to it is in the extreme grace and refinement of his mental conceptions and in the beauty of his style as a draughtsman; Titian's claim is founded more essentially on the pictorial qualities, and especially on the technical excellence of his painting, which combines in a most extraordinary degree the richest surface with the most magnificent colour. These technical qualities were accompanied by much grandeur of conception and nobility of style. The following is a chronological list of some of Titian's most important works.
'Sacred and Profane Love' (the title 'Artless and Sated Love' has been proposed by Messrs Crowe and Cavalcaselle), about 1500; the 'Pesaro
Altarpiece,' at Antwerp, about 1503; 'Doge Marcello,' at the Vatican, 1508; 'Christ of the Tribute-money,' Dresden, 1508; 'The Three Ages,' Ellesmere Collection, 1518; 'Noli Me Tangere,' National Gallery, 1518; 'Bacchus and Ariadne,' National Gallery, 1520; 'Titian and his Mistress' (so called), 1513; 'Altarpiece of St Peter Martyr,' 1530, destroyed by fire at Venice in 1867; 'The Rest in Egypt,' Louvre, 1530; 'A Summer Storm,' Buckingham Palace, 1534; 'The Battle of Cadore,' for the council-chamber at Venice, 1537, destroyed by fire in 1577; 'The Farnese Family Picture,' 1545; 'The Danae of Naples,' 1545; 'The Farnese Venus and Adonis,' 1547; portraits of Philip of Spain, 1550; 'Venus and Adonis,' National Gallery, 1554; 'Martyrdom of St Lawrence,' Gesuiti, Venice, 1558; 'Jupiter and Antiope,' Louvre, 1561; a second 'Peter Martyr,' 1567.
Titian is well but not extensively represented in the National Gallery by five pictures, and in the Louvre by twenty-two. Other public collections are rich in Titians. At Dresden there are twelve, at Vienna thirty, and at Madrid forty in the Museum, with many others at the Escorial. His drawings are interesting, especially his numerous pen-sketches, executed in a bold and simple but very expressive style of his own. They afford strong evidence that his lines, which were intended to be vertical, inclined very much to the right. In all his finished works he corrected this tendency with the plummet.
Many biographies of Titian have been written, from that by Vasari to the French one by Charles Blanc; but although the materials were in reality abundant, they were scattered till Crowe and Cavalcaselle brought them together for their invaluable work, the Life and Times of Titian (London: Murray, 2d ed. 1881). Between Vasari and Crowe we have a biography by Ridolfi, condensed by Sir A. Hume in an English edition, published in 1829. The most important step towards a life of Titian was taken by Taddeo Jacobi early in the 19th century. As a descendant of the Vecelli family he was interested in his ancestors, and collected materials for their history, but not having a literary turn he transferred them to Stefano Ticozzi, who published his book in 1817. That of Northcote is founded upon it.