Titian: His Life
*Starred Review* In her excellent biography, Hale charts Titian’s stylistic development through the story of his life and of the century in which he became the most famous artist in Europe. The book includes interesting chapters on the principal characters and historical events. Only half of Titian’s 500–600 precious paintings survive; the rest were destroyed by vandalism, theft, fire, flood, shipwreck, earthquake, and war. Titian had intelligence, poise, and wit, and he displayed a forceful, self-assured, shrewd and charismatic personality. His art revealed genius for drama and mystery, a balance of dramatic force and deep feeling, and penetrating understanding of human nature. He had an unrivaled mastery of using blacks, whites, and flesh tones; modeling with light and shade; and creating exquisitely painted hands, and an interest in the personality and status of his sitters. Hale’s thorough research, judicious examination of evidence, lucid narrative style, and perceptive and illuminating interpretations of the major works are worthy of her great subject. Her detailed descriptions effectively evoke the paintings’ iconographic meaning. She writes of The Assumption, Titian’s Virgin is propelled upward to heaven as though by her own spiraling momentum and is surrounded by a swarm of cavorting baby angels. And she concludes, If the Venus of Urbino is about flirtation and the Farnese Danaë is about the moment of penetration, the Danaë Titian, painted for King Philip, is about the climax of passion. --Jeffrey Meyers