United States or Bahamas ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
But none other than Titian himself could have painted the superb head, which he himself has hardly surpassed. It is curious and instructive to find the artist, in a letter addressed to Philip on the 2nd of December 1567, announcing the despatch, together with the just now described altar-piece, The Martyrdom of St. Lawrence, of "una pittura d'una Venere ignuda" the painting of a nude Venus.
In his first edition, Vasari tells us that, after his death, his memory was honoured by many epitaphs, among which he quotes the following: "Pianga Cortona omai, vestasi oscura, Che estinti son' del Signorello i lumi; Et tu, Pittura, fa de gli occhi fiumi, Chè resti senza lui debili e scura."
Dolce, apparently better instructed, gives, in his Dialogo della Pittura, Zuccato, best known as a mosaic worker, as his first master; next makes him pass into the studio of Gentile Bellini, and thence into that of the caposcuola Giovanni Bellini; to take, however, the last and by far the most important step of his early career when he becomes the pupil and partner, or assistant, of Giorgione.
Many of his writings are in the libraries of Europe in manuscript form: his best known work is the "Trattato della Pittura," and has been translated into English.
In his "Storia della Pittura Veneziana," Zanetti writes of her at this time: "Much of interest may be written of this celebrated and highly gifted woman, whose spirit, in the midst of her triumphs and the brightest visions of happiness, was weighed down by the anticipation of a heavy calamity. On one occasion she painted a portrait of herself, the brow wreathed with leaves which symbolized death.
Hence Giordano was also called, Il proteo della pittura, and Il Falmine della pittura the Proteus, and the Lightning of painting. As an instance of the latter, it is recorded that he painted a picture while his guests were waiting for dinner.
I propose to take the evidence in strictly chronological order. The oldest contemporary account of Titian's career is furnished by Lodovico Dolce in his L'Aretino, o dialogo della pittura, which was published at Venice in 1557. Dolce knew Titian personally, and wrote his treatise just at the time when the painter was at the zenith of his fame.
The other offspring of the marriage with Lucia were Francesco, supposed, though without substantial proof, to have been older than his brother, Caterina, and Orsa. At the age of nine, according to Dolce in the Dialogo della Pittura, or of ten, according to Tizianello's Anonimo, Titian was taken from Cadore to Venice, there to enter upon the serious study of painting.
La mia pittura morta Difendi orma', Giovanni, e 'l mio onore, Non sendo in loco bon, nè io pittore. According to the first plan, Michael Angelo bargained with the Pope for twelve Apostles in the lunettes, and another part to be filled with ornament in the usual manner "dodici Apostoli nelle lunette, e 'l resto un certo partimento ripieno d' adornamenti come si usa."
After describing Arnolfo's building of the Florentine Duomo, he proceeds: "In questo Architetto si vide qualche leggiero barlume di buona Architettura, come di Pittura in Cimabue suo contemporaneo. Ma in tutte le cose e fisiche e morali i passaggi si fanno per insensibili gradagioni; onde per lungo tempo ancora si mantenne il corrotto gusto, che si può chiamare Arabo-Tedesco."
Word Of The Day