| Titian , the greatest 16th-century Venetian painter was born in Pieve di Cadore, north of Venice, by his own account in
1477; many modern scholars prefer to advance the date to about 1487. He studied with Gentile Bellini and then with
Giovanni Bellini. His greatness as an artist, it appears, was not matched by his character, for he was notoriously avaricious.
In spite of his wealth and status, he claimed he was impoverished, and his exaggerations about his age are one of the
sources of confusion about his birthdate. Jacopo Bassano caricatured him as a moneylender in his Purification of the Temple.
Titian, however, was lavish in his hospitality towards his friends, who included the poet Pietro Aretino and the sculptor
and architect Jacopo Sansovino. These three were so close that they were known in Venice as the triumvirate, and they
used their influence with their respective patrons to further each other's careers. |
