Titian was sent to an uncle in Venice at around eleven years of age to establish an apprenticeship with an artist. Sebastian Zuccato organized for Titian and his brother to attend Gentile Bellini’s workshop.
During the era from 1516 to 1530, considering his period of mastery and maturation, the artist progressed from his initial Giorgione-esque manner to larger, more complicated themes.
Giorgione perished in 1510, and Bellini died in 1516, leaving Titian as the unmatched master of the Venetian School. He was the unquestioned maestro of Venetian paintings for 60 years.
Titian’s mastery of color is demonstrated by Danaë, one of numerous mythical works or “poems” as the artist referred to them. This picture was created for Alessandro Farnese.
Titian is likened to Velázquez and Rembrandt among portraiture artists, with the latter’s internal life and the former’s clarity, surety, and definiteness.
Titian succumbed to a fatal fever on the 27th of August, 1576, as the plague was raging in Venice. Depending on his birthday, he might have been in his late 80s or closer to 100 years old.
Titian is credited with over 400 works, around 300 of which remain. In 2008, two Titian paintings in private ownership were put up for auction. Diana and Actaeon, one of them, was acquired for 50 million pounds by London’s National Gallery.
Tintoretto, the famous Italian artist, was introduced to Titian’s workshop by his father when he was a child. This was apparently about 1533, when Titian was around 40 years old.
Titian’s spouse, Cecilia, was the child of a barber in Titian’s birthplace of Cadore. She had been his domestic and lover for five years as a young woman. Cecilia had already given birth to Titian’s two magnificent boys.