The Golden Age of Venetian Painting 1475–1576 / The Rise of Titian

The century between the advent of Antonello da Messina in 1475 and the death of Titian in 1576 is considered the Golden Age of Venetian painting. What had been a minor regional school achieved international prominence and influenced the future of European art in general for centuries. Central to this achievement was the genius of a succession of painters from Giovanni Bellini and his brother Gentile, Carpaccio, Giorgione, to the great Titian and his younger contemporaries Tintoretto and Veronese. These painters worked in a city undergoing crisis and change: the decline of its maritime empire, the reduction of its monopoly of trade with the East, its near destruction as a state in the early sixteenth century, and the religious turmoil engendered by the Reformation and the reaction of the Roman Church to it. Governed by an oligarchy of merchant nobles who elected a Doge, Venice remained politically stable throughout this turbulent period and continued to flourish economically. The state, the lay confraternities (called scuole) and private individuals provided sufficient patronage and support for a brilliant school of painting to develop in both secular and religious art. The cultural context and history of this school will be studied in eight lectures, followed by a full-day visit to the National Gallery to consider first-hand its outstanding collection of Venetian renaissance paintings.

Titian emerged from the circle of Giorgione to become the dominant figure in Venetian painting for most of the sixteenth century. From around 1510 he worked in every genre including the altarpiece, the portrait, the narrative cycle, the secular, Giorgionesque allegory and even the burgeoning medium of print. His rise to fame was meteoric within Venice and at the death of Giovanni Bellini in 1516 he succeeded him as state painter. His great 'Assumption of the Virgin Mary' in the Franciscan church of the Frari was seen by contemporaries as a turning-point in the establishment of the new grand manner now called by art historians the 'High Renaissance' style.

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