The undisputed master of Venetian Renaissance painting for the last sixty years of his life, Titian (1477–1576) counted Europe’s aristocracy and the pope among his patrons. One of the most versatile of all the Italian painters, Titian was equally adept with portraits as with mythological and religious subjects. He was the first of the Venetian painters to reveal the hand of the painter by the development of his own individual brushstroke. Titian’s work stood out among so many talented artists of his day because of his diverse brushwork, use of color and his application of a wide variety of paint, from thin to thick impasto. These innovations had a profound influence on generations of Western artists to come. In 1487, at around the age of ten, Titian began working in the studio of the elderly Gentile Bellini (1429-1507), then transferred to the studio of the more famous Giovanni Bellini (1430-1516), Gentile’s brother.
