Titian (c. 1488-1576) was recognized very early on asthe leading painter of his generation in Venice. Startingin the studio of the aged Giovanni Bellini, Titian, withhis contemporary Giorgione, almost immediately startedto expand the range of what was possible in painting,converting Bellini's statuesque style into something far moreimpressionistic and romantic.
This restless spirit of innovationand improvisation never left him, and during his long lifehe experimented with a number of different styles, thebrushwork of his last great paintings showing a mysteriouspoetry that has never been equaled. This volume in the series Lives of the Artists collects themajor writings about Titian by his contemporaries and nearcontemporaries. The centerpiece is the biography by Vasari,who as a Florentine found Titian's very Venetian sense ofcolour and transient forms a challenge to his concept ofart as design.
The poet Ariosto and sparkling letter writerAretino had a more nuanced view of their friend's work, andPriscianese's account of a dinner party with Titian, and thecontributions by Speroni and Dolce, and the slightly laterTuscan critic Borghini, round out the picture of this hugelythoughtful, intellectual artist, whose paintings remain some ofthe most sensual and affecting in all of Western art. Mostly unavailable in any form for many years, these writingshave been newly edited for this edition. They are introducedby the scholar Carlo Corsato, who places each in its artisticand literary context.
Approximately 50 pages of colourillustrations cover the full range of Titian's great oeuvre.
