Biography

Titian was one of the greatest Renaissance painters, combining High Renaissance and Mannerist ideas to develop a style which was well ahead of his time. He dominated Venetian art with a creativity that allowed the city to rival the previously acknowledged artistic centers of Florence and Rome and he painted some of the most important and eminent personalities of the time including Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, Pope Paul III, Philip II of Spain, and Henry III of France. As well as portraiture, he also painted a range of religious and mythological subjects, sometimes on a vast scale. During a long and prolific career his work developed from traditional Renaissance imagery to increasingly energetic canvases which rejected balanced compositions and replaced them with asymmetry and dynamic subjects. Towards the end of his life, his work became darker and more impressionistic. He had a huge impact on his contemporaries and his canvases can be seen as forerunners of the emotional drama of Baroque art as well as influencing later innovators.