Titian: His Life and Works in 500 Images

Art historian Hodge (Elements of Art) delivers a comprehensive survey of the life, art, and cultural milieu of Italian Renaissance painter Titian. Born Tiziano Vecellio around 1488, the painter moved to Venice with his family when he was nine and apprenticed as a mosaic maker. Learning from such well-known artists as Giorgione, he used the “intense pigments” available in Venice in paintings notable for their lush color and “freedom of style and approach” (for example, he often animated religious iconography with a sense of movement, portraying the Madonna in a “contrapposto,” or twisted, position). After establishing his subject’s biographical information, historical context, and artistic influences in the book’s first half, Hodge examines Titian’s paintings in roughly chronological order, unpacking the themes, style, and significance of famous works (Flora, The Venus of Urbino) and lesser-known pieces (Portrait of a Young Woman). While some of the background—including information on Venice’s system of constitutional monarchy—can feel like filler, Hodge’s stylistic analyses are cogent, and welcome context is provided via reproductions of paintings by Titian’s instructors, Gentile and Giovanni Bellini; his rival, Sebastiano del Piombo; and his admirers, including Tintoretti and Manet. Art students will especially appreciate this primer on a key Renaissance artist. (Oct.)