Titian: His Life
by Sheila Hale
Buy on AmazonAn "excellent" biography of the Renaissance artist, drawing on contemporary accounts and recent art historical research & scholarship ( Booklist). Born in the mountains above Venice in the late fifteenth century, Tiziano Vecellio—or Titian—was the greatest painter of the Venetian High Renaissance. A poetic visionary and a technical master of oils, he painted everything, from frescoes and grand altarpieces to mythological stories and portraits—works described by his contemporaries as "mirrors of nature." Sheila Hale's rich biography is the first since 1877 to examine all contemporary accounts of Titian's life and work as well as recent art historical scholarship, some of it previously unpublished.…
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"What I especially like about the book is that it is also a dense history of Venice in the 16th century: kings, doges, emperors, popes, Ottoman invasions."
By the Book: Alan Furst · nytimes.com