Thematic Essays

By Category

• Recent Additions
• All Thematic Essays
• Artists
• Rulers
• African Art
• Central Africa
• Eastern Africa
• Southern Africa
• Western Africa
• American Art
• Colonial Art
• Nineteenth Century
• Twentieth Century
• Ancient Near Eastern Art
• Art of the Americas
• Asian Art
• China
• Japan
• Korea
• South & Southeast Asia
• Byzantine Art
• Egyptian Art
• European Art
• Renaissance
• Seventeenth & Eighteenth Centuries
• Nineteenth Century
• Twentieth Century
• Greek and Roman Art
• Islamic Art
• Early Period
• Medieval Period
• Later Period
• Medieval Art
• Modern and Contemporary Art
• Oceanic/Pacific Art
• Prehistory

By Geographical Region & Time Period

• 
  Landscape with Goat, ca. 1485?/90–1576
  Titian (Tiziano Vecellio) (Italian, Venetian, ca. 1488–1576)
  Italian
  Pen and brown ink

  3 7/8 x 6 in. (9.7 x 15.3 cm)
  Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Paul L. Herring and John D. Herring, 1991 (1991.462)

• 
  Two Satyrs in a Landscape, ca. 1509–15
  Titian (Tiziano Vecellio) (Italian, Venetian, ca. 1485–1576)
  Pen and brown ink, white gouache, on fine off-white laid paper

  8 1/2 x 5 15/16 in. (21.6 x 15.1 cm)
  Rogers Fund, 1999 (1999.28)

• 
  Venus and Adonis
  Titian (Tiziano Vecellio) (Italian, Venetian, born ca. 1488, died 1576)
  Oil on canvas

  42 x 52 1/2 in. (106.7 x 133.4 cm)
  The Jules Bache Collection, 1949 (49.7.16)

• 
  Portrait of a Man, ca. 1515
  Titian (Tiziano Vecellio) (Italian, Venetian, born ca. 1488, died 1576)
  Oil on canvas

  19 3/4 x 17 3/4 in. (50.2 x 45.1 cm)
  Bequest of Benjamin Altman, 1913 (14.40.640)

• 
  Saint Jerome in the Wilderness, ca. 1525–30
  Italian School, after Titian (Tiziano Vecellio) (Italian, Venetian, ca. 1488–1576)
  Woodcut

  15 1/8 x 21 1/4 in. (38.5 x 52.5 cm)
  Rogers Fund, 1922 (22.73.119)

• 
  Filippo Archinto (born ca. 1500, died 1558), Archbishop of Milan, mid-1550s
  Titian (Tiziano Vecellio) (Italian, Venetian, born ca. 1488, died 1576)
  Oil on canvas

  46 1/2 x 37 in. (118.1 x 94 cm)
  Bequest of Benjamin Altman, 1913 (14.40.650)

• 
  Venus and the Lute Player, ca. 1565–70
  Titian and Workshop (Italian, Venetian, born ca. 1488, died 1576)
  Oil on canvas

  65 x 82 1/2 in. (165.1 x 209.6 cm)
  Munsey Fund, 1936 (36.29)

• 
  The Martyrdom of Saint Lawrence, 1571
  Cornelis Cort (Flemish, ca. 1533–1578), after Titian (Tiziano Vecellio) (Italian, Venetian, ca. 1488–1576)
  Engraving

  19 13/16 x 13 3/14 in. (50.3 x 33.6 cm)
  The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1949 (49.97.537)

Tiziano Vecellio (ca. 1488–1576), known as Titian, was the greatest Venetian artist of the sixteenth century, eventually gaining international fame. Titian is known above all for his remarkable use of color; his painterly approach was highly influential well into the seventeenth century. Titian contributed to all of the major areas of Renaissance art, painting altarpieces, portraits, mythologies, and pastoral landscapes with figures.

Early Works
Titian trained under two other seminal Venetian artists, Giovanni Bellini (active by 1459, died 1516) and Giorgione (ca. 1477/8–1510). The latter, with whom Titian also collaborated, was influential for his tonal approach to painting and for his landscape style, which was atmospheric and evocative. The two artists worked in such a similar manner that the line between them has been hard to fix: this is true especially for some pastoral landscapes, in which the beauty of nature is celebrated alongside love and music. Titian's drawings of this period, such as Landscape with Goat (1991.462) and Two Satyrs in a Landscape (1999.28), are such pastoral landscapes, the latter with mythological figures in a lush landscape whose untamed beauty contrasts with a carefully balanced arrangement.

Titian and Altarpiece Painting
Titian's first major public commission in Venice, the Assumption of the Virgin for the high altar of Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari (1516–18), established his place as the leading painter of the city. Contemporaries noted that some viewers were uneasy with its novel portrayal of the dynamically twisting Virgin and the gesticulating apostles below. It broke with tradition as well in the heroic scale of the figures and the use of bold color. The Assumption can be seen from the far end of the church, drawing the eye to the sacred space of the altar. Titian went on to paint other influential altarpieces, above all the Death of Saint Peter Martyr for the Church of SS. Giovanni e Paolo (1526–30, destroyed by fire in the nineteenth century), which Vasari thought the artist's greatest work.

Titian and Portraiture
Titian achieved international fame through his numerous portraits, including those of Emperor Charles V, who wished to be painted by no other artist, and Pope Paul III. Titian's portraits are remarkable for the way in which they seem to express a psychological dimension while also suggesting something of the sitter's status and importance. His earliest portraits (Portrait of a Man, 14.40.640) follow Giorgione in the melancholy or dreamy mood portrayed. In the portrait of Filippo Archinto (14.40.650), the gravity and importance of this archbishop of Milan is suggested by the monumentality of his presence and the subdued palette, while our attention is drawn to the sensitively portrayed hands and face.

Mythology and Poesia
Titian also painted works with mythological subjects for domestic settings; he often called these "poesie," likening them to visual poetry. Of these, some of the most beautiful were painted as a series of Bacchanals for Duke Alfonso I of Ferrara from around 1518. In Bacchus and Ariadne (London, National Gallery), Bacchus is shown leaping from his chariot, startling the lovely Ariadne. Titian derived the subject matter from literary descriptions of classical works of art.

Venus, the mythological goddess of love, is the protagonist of a number of works by Titian, the best known probably being the so-called Venus of Urbino (Florence, Galleria degli Uffizi). Painted for Francesco Maria I della Rovere's private chambers, this reclining nude is at once idealized and erotic. Later in his career, Titian turned to the theme in paintings for his most important patrons, such as Philip II of Spain. As often happened in his workshop, variants would then be carried out for others. This is the case in both Venus and the Lute Player (36.29) and Venus and Adonis (49.7.16).

Citation Department of European Paintings. "Titian (ca. 1488–1576)". In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/tita/hd_tita.htm (October 2003) Further Reading Brown, David Alan, et al. Bellini, Giorgione, Titian, and the Renaissance of Venetian Painting. Exhibition catalogue. Washington, D.C.: National Gallery of Art, 2006. Meilman, Patricia, ed. The Cambridge Companion to Titian. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2003. Related exhibitions and online features Special Exhibitions (including upcoming, current, and past exhibitions) Antonello da Messina: Sicily's Renaissance Master Bellini, Titian, and Lotto: North Italian Paintings from the Accademia Carrara, Bergamo The Philippe de Montebello Years: Curators Celebrate Three Decades of Acquisitions The Renaissance Portrait from Donatello to Bellini Tiepolo Drawings from the Robert Lehman Collection Venice and the Islamic World, 828–1797 Other Online Features The Art of Renaissance Europe: A Resource for Educators

These related Museum Bulletin or Journal articles may or may not represent the most current scholarship. Bayer, Andrea. "North of the Apennines: Sixteenth-Century Italian Painting in Venice and the Veneto." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, v. 63, no. 1 (Summer, 2005). JSTOR | PDFs "Beyond the Triumvirate: The Genius of Venice" PDF "Director's Note" PDF "Introduction" PDF "The Triumvirate: Titian, Veronese, and Tintoretto" PDF Haskell, Francis. "The Benjamin Altman Bequest." Metropolitan Museum Journal, Vol. 3 (1970). JSTOR | PDF