Saint John the Evangelist on Patmos by Titian, ca. 1553/1555 (The National Gallery of Art)
The art of painting in 16th-century Venice was largely transformed by four great artists whose innovative approaches would shape the art of both their contemporaries and generations to come. In this lavishly illustrated seminar, art historian Sophia D’Addio of Columbia University explores the works of Giorgione, Titian, Tintoretto, and Veronese, highlighting their unique stylistic and compositional approaches, as well as the critical reception of their works.
10–11 a.m. Giorgione
Born in Castelfranco, a small town in the Venetian terraferma, Giorgione was one of the rising stars of painting in Venice during the first decade of the 16th century. Renowned for his skillful handling of color and his innovative approach to both technique and subject matter, Giorgione produced religious paintings, portraits, and far more enigmatic works, such as his famed Tempest. Given his premature death due to the plague, comparably few works by the master survive.
11:15 a.m.–12:15 p.m. Titian
Tiziano Vecellio was born in Pieve di Cadore, in the foothills of the Dolomites, and arrived in Venice around the age of 10 to undertake his artistic training, working in the workshop of Gentile Bellini and later his brother Giovanni Bellini. He was even more deeply influenced by the style of Giorgione, alongside whom he worked on a series of fresco decorations. Titian would grow to become the most famed painter of the Venetian school in the sixteenth century, producing works for the most prestigious of patrons, local and foreign alike. His innovative approach to the genre of the altarpiece—particularly evident in his Assumption of the Virgin for the church of Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari—revolutionized painting in and beyond Venice.
12:45–1:45 p.m. Tintoretto
A Venetian native, Jacopo Tintoretto may have trained in the workshop of Titian in his youth, according to his biographers, and was said to have adopted as his motto “the color of Titian and the draftsmanship of Michelangelo.” His painterly style is characterized by a dramatic use of chiaroscuro (light-dark contrast), daring compositional choices, and energetic, gestural brushwork, as seen in his many paintings for the Scuola Grande di San Rocco, among others.
2–3 p.m. Veronese
Paolo Caliari, nicknamed Veronese after the city of his birth, arrived in Venice after receiving his training with local painters in his native Verona. Once in Venice he looked to the work of Titian for inspiration, and soon became highly sought after among the city’s elite for both sacred and secular commissions. His highly theatrical, sumptuous works are characterized by an extraordinary treatment of light and shimmering color, as seen in his banquet paintings such as the Wedding Feast at Cana for the Refectory of San Giorgio Maggiore.
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