Book description
The first biography of Venice's greatest artist since 1877 - a towering
work which captures the genius of Titian - and the extraordinary times
in which he lived - the apogee of Venice's power and influence.
Born in the mountains above Venice in the late fifteenth-century,
Tiziano Vecellio - or Titian - was the greatest painter of the Italian
High Renaissance, an artist whose poetic vision and mastery of oil
pigments made him into an international celebrity and continues to
inspire working painters to this day. He lived in a Venice that was the
most populous, celebrated, and visited city in Europe, painting
everything from frescos, grand altarpieces, mythological stories, and
portraits that were described by his contemporaries as “mirrors of nature”.
Sheila Hale's rich and monumental biography of Titian is the first
since 1877 to examine all contemporary accounts of Titian's life and
work, and to take into account recent art historical research and
scholarship. Her book charts the extraordinary transformation of
Titian's style from the radiant minutely realised masterpieces of his
youth, to the more freely painted work of his middle years, to the dark,
tragic, sometimes terrifying visions of his old age. Since no one person
can do justice to an artist as great, protean and complex as Titian,
many different voices - both contemporary and later - have been allowed
free reign to explore, praise and sometimes doubt his genius.
When Titian died in Venice in 1576 he was in his late eighties, and had
spent the whole of his working life there, travelling as little as
possible despite the clamour for his presence at the great courts of Europe.
Sheila Hale's masterly biography presents Titian through the story of
the turbulent century in which he lived, and gives a vivid portrait of
how this innovative 16th-century master conveyed in his paintings a kind
of truth that few other artists have been able to communicate and which
has fascinated Titian's admirers and followers for centuries. 'Crammed
with new or expanded or re-thought information about this stubbornly
mysterious giant. Impressive…She shines a light on the mysterious
conflict of energies that makes his genius so difficult to encapsulate.
Hale is also an enthusiastic collector of characters and her
descriptions of the band of Renaissance crackpots who constituted
Titian's employers result in some of the book's most entertaining
stretches' Sunday Times
'Evokes the sensuality of Titian's working methods and provides subtle
insights into his enigmatic last paintings…a scrupulous and exhaustive
account that is informed by the latest scholarship, but admirably free
of academic cant…her book provides by far the richest account yet of
Titian's interactions with the city's labyrinthine social fabric' Daily Telegraph
'Magnificent…the elegance and energy of her narrative…a born
biographer's eye for detail. This is the first serious attempt for 100
years at encompassing Titian's life. Its combination of the eminently
readable and the profoundly authentic is remarkable' Literary Review
'A huge and exceptional new study of the painter…a superb portrait of
the artist - an example of measured scholarship, judicious opinion, and
telling framing detail' Guardian
'The depth of her research is both impressive and astonishing…enriched
by vivid anecdotes and gossipy snippets. [I]t all makes for compelling
reading' Independent
'Scholarly, erudite, endlessly inquisitive and as clear as can be…many
of the bit-part players in the book are brilliantly vivid' Mail on Sunday
'Magisterial… a poised and sincere account of Titian's life and art. A
truly triumphal undertaking and a prodigious monument to one of the
giants of Western art' The Art Newspaper Sheila Hale is the author of
many books including a guidebook to Venice which prompted Eric Newby to
declare she 'deserves a Nobel Prize' and by David Lodge as 'the best
guidebook I have ever used'. Venice went into four editions and was
translated into seven languages. She has written an architectural
history of Verona and has written extensively about Venice and the
Veneto for a number of magazines and articles, including the New York
Times. She is the widow of the late, great John Hale with whom she
worked on Renaissance Venice and the classic The Civilisation of Europe
in the Renaissance. She is a trustee of Venice in Peril and her last
book, The Man Who Lost His Language was one of the most widely reviewed
and highly praised books of 2002. She lives in London.
