Titian

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Titians Altarpieces Color, innovation, and
invention

• Katherine Arens

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• 1300s Medieval altarpieces were more like icons
  than they were an imitation of nature. Figures
  were flat and the use of gold leaf and jewel
  toned colors predominated. They were often
  polyptychs.
• 1500s Venetians, by the Cinquecento, preferred
  the pala, a single picture plane. The sacra
  conversazione was a common convention which
  placed the Madonna and Child, with a group of
  saints, in a unified space.
• 1430-1516 Giovanni Bellini, one of Titians
  masters, brought increased naturalism to
• painting in the Cinquecento. His mastery of
  perspective enabled him to
• create realistic space in his paintings.
• 1477-1510 Giorgione and Titian embraced the
  Venetian emphasis on colorito and pushed
  naturalism further. Dolce stated that Titian
  "moves in step with nature, so that every one of
  his figures has life, movement and flesh which
  palpitates,"
• In Florentine painters, Raphael and Michelangelo
  focused on disegno, or drawing, as
• being the foundation of all great painting.
  Carefully detailed cartoons were
• completed before transferring the design to
  canvas to be painted.

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• Paolo da Venezia, Coronation of Mary, mid 1300s

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Domenico Veneziano , St. Lucy Altarpiece, 1455
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• Giovanni Bellini, Holy Conversation, 1505

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• Giorgione Barbarelli da Castelfranco,
  Castelfranco Altarpiece, 1505

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• Raphael, Transfiguration, cartoon and painting,
  1516-1520

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• Raphael, School of Athens, cartoon and detail,
  1505

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• Titian could draw he saw it differently than
  Florentine artists did. He preferred charcoal
  over pencil or fine point it was more painterly.
• Colorito was used by Venetians as a verb the act
  of coloring or using color. It was the process
  that captured the imagination of Venetian
  painters.
• Drawing was ancillary to painting in Venice it
  wasnt necessary to painstakingly pre-draw a
  cartoon. Color and form imitated nature contour
  edges did not imitate nature and so had no place
  in a painting.
• Titians Assumption 1516-1518
• The Assunta was painted for the Frari,
  commissioned by the prior, Fra Germano da Casale.
• Titian considered the placement of the painting,
  over the high altar in the Gothic basilica, when
  planning the composition.
• Many of the innovations were driven by the space.
  
• Monumental scale its 22 feet high, due to
  viewers distance from painting.
• Bold geometric composition a direct contrast to
  the space and tracery windows.
• Iconography, triumph of life over death in
  reference to the choir screen sculptural details.

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• Assunta (Assumption)1516-1518

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• Madonna di Ca Pesaro (1519-1526)

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Pesaro Altarpiece and presumed original state