Titian or Tiziano Vecellio was a prolific artist who ruled Venice as its master painter for sixty years after the death of Giorgione in 1510. Everyone who was anyone wanted to have their portrait painted by Titian. Over 100 of his portraits are still extant today, and they serve as invaluable historical documents to the times and people of his day. "Behind his extraordinary gift as historian (as a witness and interpreter of the reality of his time, through the vehicle of his portraiture) lies Titian's sublime ability to penetrate to the real character of his models, which was perhaps his greatest gift" - Antonio Paolucci, "Titian: Prince of Painters".
            His birth-place was a small village in the Italian Alps, and his parents were respectable people of modest means. At about the age of ten, Titian and his elder brother Francesco went to Venice to start their training as painters. His main early influence was under Giovanni Bellini and his earliest surviving work Pope Alexander VI Presenting Jacopo Pesaro to Saint Peter (1502-1512) is believed to reflect Bellini's style. In 1507 Titian joined the workshop of Giorgione as his assistant and the three years which he spent with this outstanding master had such a lasting impact on the young Titian that some works which are now thought to have been painted by Titian used to be attributed to Giorgione, and vice versa. Among these disputed paintings are Nativity , Concert Champêtre and The Gypsy Madonna, but after recent research the latter two are now generally attributed to Titian, although the Concert painting could be a collaboration between the two.  

           In 1513 Titian opened his own workshop.In 1516 he was commissioned to paint a new altarpiece for the Franciscan church of Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari in Venice, The Assumption of the Virgin (Assunta) (1516-1518). His innovative use of strong vibrant colours, golden light, and massive figures full of movement and emotion , (designed to be seen from afar), caused a sensation. This early masterpiece cemented Titian's growing reputation as the foremost painter in Venice and drew him to the attention of some of Bellini's old patrons in northern Italy's aristocracy. He was commissioned by the Alfonso d'Este, Duke of Ferrara, to produce three large mythological paintings: The Worship of Venus (1518), Bacchus and Ariadne (1520-1522) and Bacchanal of the Andrians (1523-1525).
             The 1520s - 1540s were years when Titian's work was dominated by portraits, largely thanks to his court connections. In 1523 Titian met Federico II Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua, who became one of his clients and later introduced him to the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. About 1530-3, Titian was named Official Painter to the Venetian State and traveled to Bologna to paint Emperor Charles V and Pope Paul III. He also went to live at the royal palace in Augsburg with King Charles and in 1533 was made Count Palatine and Knight of the Golden Spur. Titian painted several portraits of Charles V, and members of his family: Isabella Queen of Portugal, and his son Philip, the future King of Spain.

            By the end of the 1550s, Titian's style and technique had evolved to a much bolder, almost impressionistic style. Apparently one of his students from this time has noted that heused this thumbs and fingers more than his brush. "In a series of superb mythological paintings for Philip II of Spain, beginning with the Danaë (circa 1553, Prado) and including the Rape of Europa (circa 1559-62), forms gradually lose their solidity, partially dissolving into hazy paint textures and vibrant brushstrokes, while color becomes more intense, so that a universe seems to be on the verge of disintegrating into flame". ("Titian"- MS Encarta). Titian died in August 1576, in his own home in Venice. He was buried in Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari for which he created several of his best works. His Pietà, left unfinished by his death and intended for his own tomb, is now in the Accademia in Venice.