PORTRAIT OF A MAN IN A RED CAP
by Titian
1487?-1576
Tiziano Vecellio whom we know as Titian (TISH an) was born in the Alpine
district of Italy. His birthdate has been set as early as 1477 and as late as
1495. We are really not sure when he was born. He studied with the famous
painters Giovanni Bellini and his brother Gentile Bellini(jen TEE lay bel LEE
nee) and also with Giorgione (johr JYOHN ay).
He married a woman named Cecilia and they had three children. She died when the
last child,
Lavinia, was born and Titian's sister came to help him with the family.
He became most famous for the portraits he painted. He had some
important friends who helped him. He was honored by Emperor Charles V (the
Fifth) who named him Count Palatine of the empire and a knight of the Golden
Spur. These were great honors for him to have. He painted a
picture of the Emperor on horseback. Titian became a wealthy man and
invited other artists to visit him in his home in Venice.
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 Titian |
During the last twenty years of his life he began to paint bolder and bolder
strokes and even sometimes used his fingers to put the paint on the canvas.
Canvas and board were very expensive and sometimes painters would reuse a canvas
by painting over a picture they had already completed. X-ray has revealed some
of this repainting in some of Titian's work.
Titian died of the plague in 1576. He was somewhere in his 80's or 90's.
Ordinarily if someone died of the plague they could not be buried in the church,
but they made an exception for this great man and buried him in the Church of
the Frari where two of his famous paintings hung; the
"Assumption" and his altarpiece
"Madonna dei Casa Pesaro".
