Last night, the west wind withered the green trees, and I went up to the tall building alone, looking at the end of the world.
When Titian's time came, he was called the sun among the many stars of that era. He went up to the tall building alone and watched Mantegna, Jantier Bellini, Giorgione and Giovanni Bellini leave.
This high-rise building, built two hundred years ago, was laid by Chimabue, Giotto and others, and a hundred years later, Brunelleschi, Masaccio, Donatello and others built the first floor;
Verrocchio, Botticelli, Kierlandayo and Perugino built the second floor;
Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo and Raphael built the third floor, and the Venetian predecessors who were most closely related to him and the painters of the North built the fourth floor.
Portrait of Governor Andrei Gritty, 133x103 cm, 1545, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C
We can imagine that Titian, standing on top of a tall building, when he holds a paintbrush in his hand, already has all the necessary skills, he can draw the right perspective, precise proportions, perfect anatomy, reasonable composition, elegant narrative, bright colors, subtle light.
In terms of subject matter, he can not only create large-scale altarpieces for God, but also create vivid and realistic portraits for secular imperial relatives, interpret ancient mythological stories with a mixture of eroticism and grandeur, and also match the unique, sunny and colorful landscapes of Venice.
Except for Michelangelo, who could break his wrist with him, he could see almost everything.
He can paint all the advantages of his predecessors, while leaving his descendants with almost nothing to draw.
A more daring and sparse figure painting
Titian, who received honors in the custom altarpieces and religious paintings introduced above, gradually became the most well-known and successful painter in all of Europe in terms of figure painting.
Let's take a look back at his teacher Bellini for the 65-year-old Doge Leonardo of Venice. Leonardo Loredano, the portrait left in 1501.
By that time Bellini had fully demonstrated his mastery of oil painting techniques, and he meticulously depicted Leonardo. Loredanno's face, the sumptuous silk coat he wore.
Governor Leonardo. Loredano Bellini 1501
The reason why this painting impresses us is not only his realistic portrayal of the characters, but also because he uses the oil painting technique to deal with the light, this light source that is close to outdoor light, so that the faces of the characters are clearly visible, delicately shrouded in the silk coat, setting off the noble and resolute heart of the characters.
45 years later, the Doge of Venice was also replaced, one of them had made outstanding diplomatic and military contributions to Venice, and Titian left a portrait of the Doge named Andrea Gritti (1455–December 1538) in 1545.
Portrait of Governor Andrei Griti Partial
In the previous section on Titian's achievements in large altarpieces, I mentioned one of his employers, the Pope's Navy Commander Jacob Pesaro, and also talked about a historical background at that time, when Venice had inevitably clashed with the rising Ottoman Empire in the east since half a century ago, and the two of them began to fight continuously.
This series of wars began in 1463 and lasted until 1718, with a total of seven major battles before and after, known in history as the Seven Turkish Wars.
These wars affected trade routes between East and West, and inspired the ambitions of Western European countries to embark on geographical discoveries and then colonize overseas. When the two countries in the east had finished fighting, they looked back and saw that the countries in the west had already set sail to sea and left them far away.
As a long regional hegemony, the strength of the two sides is asymmetrical, the Ottoman Turks are of course strong, but the small country of Venice has also won many tactical victories, and they have adopted a number of flexible diplomatic strategies, maintaining a noble figure between various powers, which is to a large extent, to package and export their ideology.
Titian's teacher, Jantiel Bellini, for example, was sent to the Istanbul court in 1479 as a cultural emissary. (See the seventy-third article "The Pioneers of Venice: The Bellini Family Between East and West, a Century of Change and Refinement")
Titian's experience of the Venetian Doge
The Andrei Gliti was once in Business in Istanbul when he was young, but he also had another hidden identity: a spy.
Andrei Greti was arrested and imprisoned for stealing classified information from the Ottoman Navy because of his close relationship with an Ottoman minister.
In 1523 he was elected the 77th Doge of Venice until his death at the end of 1538. In the last two years of Andrei Greti's tenure, a third war broke out between Venice and Turkey, which lasted until 1540, with the result that the Turkish army occupied many of the islands.
André Gritty's exploits were mainly to maintain a balance of power with the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, King François I of France, and the Pope, and to keep Venice as peaceful as possible.
On the west balcony of the Governor's Mansion on Piazza San Marco in Venice today, there is also a statue of Gliti, who bowed to Venice, facing the two-winged Golden Lion of San Marco (originally destroyed by Napoleon in 1797, now a 19th-century replica).
If you're visiting Venice, you might also want to pay attention to a luxury hotel called The Gritti Palace, a Luxury Collection Hotel at Griti Palace, currently part of the Starwood Hotels & Resorts International Group, which was renovated at a cost of $55 million a few years ago.
Exterior view of The Gritti Palace
The building, as early as 1525, was the private residence of the aforementioned governor André Gritty. Since it was turned into a hotel in the last century, many celebrities in the near and modern era have stayed at the hotel, including Hemingway, Maugham, Peggy Guggenheim, Vivien Leigh, Elvis Presley, Margaret Thatcher, Kate Winslet and many others.
After introducing the legendary governor, let's look at this portrait of Titian for him in 1545.
Portrait of Governor Andrei Gritty Detail 1
Portrait of Governor Andrei Gritty Detail 2
Portrait of Governor Andrei Gritty Detail 3
Compared to Bellini's elaborate, rigorous (dull) portrait of his predecessor, Titian's old man appears dashing and calm. Titian filled the elderly governor's body with as much canvas as possible, making him look like a golden lion.
His eyes and hands are expressing his firm and powerful side. Especially in the treatment of the opponent, his pen is firm and decisive, although it does not carefully whitewash or disguise the brushstrokes, but it better conveys the sense of strength of the hand.
Depicting the characters with loose, bold and wavy brushstrokes to convey their inner mental state to the viewer was a technique commonly used by Titian during this period. If you remember the previous introduction to Raphael, you will think that in the same period, Titian also left us a portrait of the scholar who wrote the epitaph for Raphael, Cardinal Benbo, getting rid of the shackles of the previous painter on color, so that the color itself was largely involved in the modeling, at this time Titian has pushed the use of color, shape and brushstrokes in oil painting to a new stage.
Portrait of Cardinal Benbo Titian 1545-46 Oil on canvas Size: 58cm × 46cm Budapest Museum of Fine Arts Hungary
After 10 years, he continued to leave a portrait of another Venetian doge, Marcantonio Trevisani, and another 10 years later he went on to leave a portrait of another doge, Francisco Viñel.
Enjoying titian's longevity, painting portraits of these doges was naturally his inherent job as the chief painter of Venice, but the reason why he gained a reputation in Europe was that he also needed to get out of Venice.
Portrait of Viceroy Marcantonio Trevisani in 1554
Portrait of Viceroy Francisco Viñel 1564
Hold the thicker thighs: the Habsburgs
Since the beginning of the Renaissance, the status of painters has been continuously improved, especially in Florence, where the Medici family gave talented artists the special respect that they no longer regarded as craftsmen who did rough work, but had the same status and treatment as humanistic scholars and courtiers.
In the north, the rising star Titian also reached the princes because of his painting fame, and even won the favor of the pope and the emperor. Of particular mention is his relationship with Charles V ,24 February 1500 – 21 September 1558), who is said to have personally picked up a paintbrush that had fallen to the ground for him, a story that Titian and his descendants bragged about for several lifetimes.
In the previous introduction of the two popes produced by the Medici family, it has been introduced that between the terms of Leo X and Clement VII, there was an excessive pope of less than two years, Adrian VI (reigned January 9, 1522 – September 14, 1523), a non-Italian Germanic, the first Dutch (then known as the Netherlands) pope in history.
Mausoleum of Pope Adrian VI
The Pope was elected because he was the emperor of Charles V, and it was this background that added leverage to his election.
As the most prominent emperor of the Habsburg dynasty, the birth of Charles V was itself the product of the marriage of european royal families (the following two paragraphs describing his family are somewhat chaotic, and you can skip it directly, just remember that he is the ruler of Thera and Spain, the largest landlord in Europe).
Charles V was the son of Archduke Philip I of Austria and Juana, Queen of Castile ( Madwoman ) , grandson of Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile , grandson of Maximilian the Divine Emperor and Marie , Duchess of Burgundy.
He was born in Ghent, belgium, where he was raised and taught by Adrian as a child. As he grew, he continued to inherit lands from various places, inheriting the Netherlands and Francheconte after the death of his father at the age of 6, and after the death of his maternal grandfather Ferdinand II at the age of 16, he inherited more territories, including Aragon, Navarre, Granada, Naples, Sicily, Sardinia, and the entire Spanish Americas. He continued to succeed his grandfather Maximilian I in Austria, eventually electing him Holy Roman Emperor in 1519.
At the same time, he was the first king of the Habsburg dynasty of Spain (called Carlos I, reigned 1516–1556), and two years after serving as King of Spain, he financed Magellan's circumnavigation of the globe in 1518, laying the foundation for Spain's emergence as a maritime hegemon.
Portrait of Charles V with a Dog Part 1533 Titian
Charles V's first meeting with Titian was probably in 1530, when he met pope Clement VII of the Medici family in Bologna and invited Titian to paint a portrait of him.
Two years later, in the autumn, Charles V was crowned by Clement VII in Bologna, officially becoming Holy Roman Emperor, when Titian continued to be invited.
After the second meeting, Titian completed a portrait for the emperor. In May 1533, Titian was awarded the title of Knight of the Golden Spear by Charles V, Count of the Court of Ratlian and Count of the Royal See, and not only that, titian's son also received the title of nobility. Thereafter, Titian officially became the court painter of the Austrian-Spanish Habsburg monarchy, and the Habsburg monarchy became Titian's most important patron.
Portrait of Philip II, son of Charles V, by Titian 1550-51
After becoming an aristocrat, Titian, of course, also repaid the favor, and in January 1548 he crossed the Alps and completed the most classic horseback statue for Charles V.
Equestrian statue of Charles V, 1548, 335 cm x 283 cm Prado Museum in Madrid
In April of the previous year, Charles V defeated the Elector of Saxony at Muhlberg. Friedrich (reigned 1532-1547), who was a devout believer and protector of Martin Luther's Protestantism, actively promoted the Protestant Reformation in Saxony.
In Titian's paintings, I am presented with this charles V, who has just suppressed the Protestants, like a knight of medieval Christianity, shrouded in armor, and the overall appearance is gloomy and arrogant, which makes people shudder. Only the sunset in the west brings a touch of warmth to the audience.
Detail 1
Detail 2
Detail 3
Detail 4
Detail 5
In addition to serving the Habsburgs, Titian also had close relations with the Holy See. In the next section, we will continue to look at Titian's relationship with the Popes of the South, and what masterpieces have been left behind for this purpose.
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