Titian

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Italian painter. He was one of the greatest artists of the High Renaissance. During his long career he was court painter to Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, and to his son, Philip II of Spain. He produced a vast number of portraits, religious paintings, and mythological scenes, including Bacchus and Ariadne (1520–23; National Gallery, London) and Venus and Adonis (1554; Prado, Madrid).

The most famous of his early works are Flora (c. 1515; Uffizi, Florence), the so-called Sacred and Profane Love (c. 1516; Borghese, Rome), Man with a Glove (c. 1520; Louvre, Paris), and Christ and the Tribute Money (Gemäldegalerie Alter Meister, Dresden). After about 1518 his reputation rose rapidly, and the great religious works The Assumption of the Virgin (Church of the Frari, Venice) and The Entombment (Louvre, Paris) belong to this period. In 1533 he was introduced to the Emperor Charles V, who sat for his portrait. The admiration of Charles V and his successor, Philip II, for Titian accounts for the presence of so many of his masterpieces in the imperial collections and the Prado, Madrid. Titian was now internationally famous, and European rulers competed for his ‘poetical compositions’ or poesie (as he termed his mythological scenes with their sumptuous nude figures) and for his portraits.

He worked in a number of centres: in Venice, where in 1537 he painted his Battle of Cadore (destroyed by fire in 1577); in Milan, where in 1541 he was with the emperor; in Rome, in 1545, at the invitation of the pope; and in Augsburg, in 1548, where he painted Philip of Spain. From this time onwards he painted mainly in Venice, producing late works profound in feeling and characterized by remarkable developments in technique. He died of the plague; his son and assistant Orazio died in the same epidemic. Velázquez, Rubens, and Poussin are among the many great artists inspired by Titian's achievement.

The black fimbriation (narrow border) expresses endurance. White stands for Guyana's rivers. Effective date: 26 May 1966. >>