Titian

Art historian Hodge 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. PUBLISHERS WEEKLY (US) JULY 2024 I’ve enthused before about this really rather excellent series, which gives you more bangs for your buck than you honestly have any right to expect. Here, Susie Hodge provides a concise but thorough account of Titian’s life and the progress of his work before moving on to a gallery of specific works, each accompanied by a short descriptive caption. As ever, the quality of the reproduction is more than enough to see what you’re looking at and for, enhanced by a decently heavy paper stock that doesn’t swallow the colour or simply feel cheap in the hand. I honestly don’t know how they do it – I really thought the cover price might have hit the £20 mark by now, but it’s well off that. Henry Malt, ArtBookReview January 2025