TITIAN, tish'un (It. Tiziano Vceelli or Vecellio) (1477-1576). The most celebrated and important painter of the Renaissance in Venice. Ile was born at Pieve di Cadore, a small town in the Alps of Friuli. The year of his birth has been variously given, the most probable as sumption (1477) being based upon his own statement in a letter to Philip II. of Spain. llis family, the Veeelli, belonged to the petty nobility, and had long been identified with the public service in Pieve, Titian's father, Ore gomio, being honorably known as a magistrate and military commander. At nine the lad was sent to Venice to be educated. He was first apprenticed to the mosaicist Sebastiano Zuecato, then to Gentile and Giovanni Bellini, having Giorgione and Palma Vecchio as fellow pupils. Titian was slow to develop. While Giorgione lived, lie was content to follow in his footsteps. His work also had much in common with that of Palma Vecchio, hut in this ease Titian was prob ably the controlling influence.
During the first part of Titian's early period. lasting till 1512, his style resembles that of Giorgione; but Titian is a more rugged in dividuality, and his lines and colors are not so soft and melting. Among his earliest surviving paintings are a "Madonna with Saints" (Liech tenstein Collection, Vienna) ; a "Holy Family" (National Gallery, London) ; and the so-called "Gypsy Madonna" ( imperial Gallery, Vienna). They show uncertainty of drawing, but high charm of color. The first of his pictures that can with surety be dated is "Pope Alexander Vl. Commending Jacopo Pesaro to the Madonna" (1502-03, Antwerp). A higher phase of tech nical development is shown by the "Madonna with the Cherries" (Imperial Gallery, Vienna ), and the Madonnas with Saints at Dresden, Paris, Florence (Uffizi), and London (National Gallery). The "Concert" in the Uffizi has been attributed to him and the "Tribute-Money" (Dresden), representing the well-known incident between Christ and the Pharisee (see GIORGIONE). is the most carefully finished of his pictures. Only Leonardo has created a Christ type that can vie with this in gentleness, intellect, and majesty, and the contrast between it and the cunning coarseness of the Pharisee is especially striking.
The Uffizi also possesses his "Daughter of He rodias." for whom Titian's daughter sat as model. Other celebrated works are the beautiful allegory of the "Three Ages" (Bridgewater (tallery, Lon don), and at the end of the period, summing up its best qualities, is "Sacred and Profane Love," perhaps more prpperly called "Medea and Vemts." In the midst of a beautiful landscape two maidens of similar mien sit at a sculptured antique fountain, while a Cupid plays in the wa ter. One maiden is clothed. the other is nude, and the picture gives fine opportunity for the con trast in the play of light upon the two figures.
The facade frescoes of the Fondaco dei Tedeschi (1507-08), which Titian executed as an assistant of Giorgione, have perished. but of those in Padua several survive, though not well preserved. One is in the Scuola del Carmine, and in the Scuola del Santo he depicted three miracles from the life of Saint Anthony (1511). It was probably after his return to Venice in 1512 that be painted the well-known altar-piece of Santa Maria della Salute, representing "Saint Mark Enthroned" with four other saints.
In 1513 Titian was summoned to Rome by Pope Leo X., but, preferring to remain at Venice, he pe titioned the Senate to grant him a position like that of Giovanni Bellini, who was official painter to the State, and a commission to paint a large battle-piece in the Hall of the Grand Council. This petition was granted, but when, upon the death of Bellini, Titian was named his succes sor, with a yearly pension of 300 crowns, he neg lected the promised battle-piece. He did, how ever, complete Itellini's picture, the "Submis sion of Barbarossa," in 1522, and executed a series of frescoes in the Chapel of the Ducal Palace—both of which were destroyed in the great fire of 1577, but his fresco of "Saint Christopher" (1523) still survives.