Titian
56 quotes
Biography
"Your Excellency, I went without delay to the well of which Y. E. had written, and made a sketch of it, from which Y. E. will see how the matter stands; but I wish that sketch not to go alone, so send another with it of a well after the fashion of this country. Should these drawings appear to have been done in a manner not agreeable to the greatness of your illustrious Signorina, or in accordance with my humble desire to serve Y. E., I hope to be excused; and that Y. E. will ascribe, the cause to an earnest longing that the work should be done rapidly. I am entirely at command should the drawings be considered unsatisfactory, and am ready to furnish others.."
"Most Illustrious Lord and My Lord, I received the other day, with due reverence your Lordship's letter, together with the canvas and framing. Having read and noted the contents, I considered them so pretty and ingenious as to require no improvement of any kind; and the more I thought over it the more I became convinced that the greatness of art amongst the ancients was due to the assistance they received from great princes content to leave to the painters the credit and renown derived from their own ingenuity in bespeaking pictures. Can I therefore doubt that, if God enables me to satisfy in any part the wishes of Your Lordship, I shall have all credit for my labour? Yet I shall, after all have done no more than give shape to that which received its spirit — the most essential part — from Your Excellency."
"Excellent Lord: —Knowing your Excellency's love for painting and your passion for protecting it as shown in the patronage of Ginlio Eomano; —being further desirous of pleasing your Excellency, —I have taken the opportunity of Messer Pietro Aretino's arrival [in Venice] to paint his likeness, and as he comes — a second St. Paul —to preach the virtues of your Excellency, and I likewise know that you are fond of so faithful a servant because of his many virtues, I make you herewith a present of his portrait. But I also bear in remembrance the Signor Girolamo Adorno who adored the Marquis of Mantua, and as he was a qualified gentleman, I send your Excellency a present of him also. These may not be gifts worthy of so great a person as your Excellency.. ..Most devoted servant, Titiano Vecellio."
"I have been expecting the bull of the benefice of Medole which your Excellency gave me for my son Pomponio last year, and seeing that the matter is delayed beyond measure, and what is worse, that I have not received the income of the benefice — I find myself in a state of great discontent. It would be greatly to my dishonour and infamy, if my boy should be forced to change the priest's dress, which he wears with so much pleasure, after all Venice has been made acquainted with the gift made to him of this benefice by your Excellency."
"..I kissed the hand of Don Alvise Davila, who said he was your friend, and begged me to tell you he would soon prove it. I would have done the same by Signor Antonio da Leva, but that there was no time. He came to see the Emperor [Charles V], and only staid half a day, and there were so many visitors that I could not kiss his hand. But should we meet I shall do my duty, and attend to your interests without regard to the consequences. No more on this head. Here nothing is heard but the roll of drums, and everyone is starting for France. I hope soon to be with you, when we shall have much to say to each other. Bas las manos a vuestra merced and also those of Alvise Anichini."
"Most Illustrious, &c,— It was not necessary for your Excellency to remind me by letter or the gift of a rich cassock of the pictures, which I have altogether at heart, knowing as I do under what obligation I am for many kindnesses.. ..Many days have passed since I gave one of the pictures to the ambassador to send to your Excellency. Five others are in a fair way, which I shall finish on hearing that the first was satisfactory, or the reverse, regulating my work accordingly. And so I shall proceed by degrees to the end, when I shall hope to have well served your Excellency. In the meantime, it would be a great favour to me if your Excellency would liberate my benefice from the pension payable upon it, which, besides causing me a loss in money which I pay out yearly, creates not a little trouble and disturbance because of the persons with whom I am pestered, out of whose hands your Excellency alone can save me. I beg, I supplicate your Excellency to do this.. ..which alone would suffice to make me your Excellency's perpetual slave."
"Your Ceasarean Majesty, I consigned to senõr Don Diego di Mendoza, the two portraits of the most serene Empress [ Isabella ] , in which I have used all the diligence of which I was capable. I should have liked to take them to your Majesty in person, but that my age and the length of the journey forbade such a course. I beg your Majesty to send me words of the faults or failings which I may have made, and return the pictures that I may correct them. Your Majesty may not permit anyone else to lay hand on them.. ..Your Majesty’s most humble and constant servant, Titiano."
"I have an action pending before the Legate [Titian's friend, Giovanni della Casa ] here against the brothers of [the church] San Spirito of whom I hear they mean to tire me out by delays. Their purpose is to obtain a commission or brief, by which my cause shall be transferred to another judge, who is their friend. I beg your Reverend Lordship, in remembrance of my services and in view of the importance of the case to give Monsignor Guiddicioni to understand that he may not pass anything contrary to me, but trust to the goodness and sufficiency of Monsignor the Legate [Titian's friend] so that the brothers shall not have it in their power to ill-use me and create delays contrary to duty and justice; the matter being public at Venice where everyone knows that these brethren are old and certain debtors to me for my works."
"[I] purposely avoided the styles of Raphael and Michaelangelo because I was ambitious of higher distinction than that of a clever imitator."
"I should be acting the part of an ungrateful servant, unworthy of the favours which unite my duty to your great kindness, if I were not to say that his Majesty [ Charles V ] forced me to go to him and pays the expenses of my journey, I start discontented because I have not fulfilled your wish and my obligation in presenting myself to my Lord [ Pope Paul III ] and yours, and working in obedience to his intentions [to paint the Pope's portrait].. ..But I promise as a true servant to pay interest on my return with a new picture in addition to the first.. ..So with your license, Padron mio unico, I shall go, whither I am called, and returning with the grace of God, I shall serve you with all the strength of the talents which I got from my cradle.."
"Most serene and Powerful King [Ferdinand], most Clement Lord,.. .The portraits of the serene daughters of your Majesty will be done in two days, and I shall take them to Venice, whence – having finished them with all diligence – I shall send them quickly to your Majesty. As soon as your Majesty has seen them, I am convinced I shall receive much greater favours than those which have been previously done me, and so I recommend myself humbly to your Majesty. – Your Majesty's faithful servant, Titiano."
"[I wish]to engrave and distribute [the prints] for the benefit and knowledge and use of painters and sculptors and other knowledge-able persons."
"He who improvises can never make a perfect line of poetry."
"It is not bright colors but good drawing that makes figures beautiful."
"Not every painter has a gift for painting, in fact, many painters are disappointed when they meet with difficulties in art. Painting done under pressure by artists without the necessary talent can only give rise to formlessness, as painting is a profession that requires peace of mind. The painter must always seek the essence of things, always represent the essential characteristics and emotions of the person he is painting.."
"He once remarked, as Pietro Aretino reported to Vasari, "that he never saw a maiden without discovering in her features a touch of sensuality" ("lascivia")"
"He [Titian] told me he remembered that there were [already] three pictures in the fazata (wall facing the light ?) in Your Excellency's Studio; and that your Excellency had arranged that this one should be hung on the same fazata. He wishes to know whether the new canvas is to be in the middle of the others, or at one side, either towards the chapel or towards the Castello; and he promised to begin work this morning, proceeding without interruption to the close."
"We thought, that Titian, the painter, would some day finish our picture; but he seems to take no account of us whatever. We therefore instruct you to tell him instantly, that we are surprised that he should not have finished our picture; that he must finish it under all circumstances or incur our great displeasure; and he may be made to feel that he is doing an ill turn to one who can resent it. We are determined that he shall complete the work he promised : if he does not, we shall see to his doing it, and you are to advise us instantly of his resolution."
"Most Illustrious and best Lord Uncle, — Having asked Titian, the bearer of these presents, to execute certain work for me, he declared himself unable to serve me at present, because of a promise to do certain things for your Excellency which require time. For this reason I send him to attend your Excellency. But I beg he may be sent back at once to expedite the work I have on hand for him, which will take but a few days. As soon as he shall have done he can return to the service of your Excellency, and in this your Excellency will do me a singular pleasure to whom I stand greatly recommended."
"The canvas of the naked Venus sleeping in a landscape with a small Cupid, was by the hand of Zorzo da Castelfranco, but the landscape and the Cupid were finished by Titian."
"M. Tuciano [Titian] — I received the two beautiful pictures which you were pleased to send as a present to me, and am very grateful for them, not only because I was most desirous of possessing works from such skillful hands as yours, knowing as I do how clever you are in the art of painting, but because you send me portraits of two persons who were always and still are dear to me; —so like too that nature itself could not have made them more so; I therefore thank you, and shall hold these pictures dear for your sake; and you may be assured that nothing you could have done would have been more agreeable to me, or make me feel myself more under obligation. When I can I shall ever be ready to do you a pleasure, and always be disposed and inclined to consult your wishes."
"Our master Titian is quite disconsolate at the loss of his wife, who was buried yesterday. He told me that in the troubled time of her sickness he was unable to work at the portrait of the lady Cornelia or at the picture of the 'i Nude' which he is doing for our most illustrious Lord; but he thinks the latter will be a fine thing, and he hopes to finish it before the month is out. Meanwhile he desires to know how his Lordship likes the 'St. Sebastian' lately sent to him, which he admits is but an ordinary performance as compared with the nudes, and one which he only produced as an entertainment in token of the devotion which he feels for his Excellency."
"If I were a painter I should die of despair.. ..but certain it is that Titian's pencil has waited on Titian's old age to perform its miracles."
"..I glanced at a sky [aboven the Grand Canal in Venice where a boat-race was going on] which since the days of the creation was never more splendidly graced with lights and shadows. The air was such as an artist would like to depict who grieved that he was not Titian. The stonework of the houses, though solid, seemed artificial, the atmosphere varied from clean to leaden. The clouds above the roofs [of Venice] merged into a distance of smokey gray, the nearest blazing like suns, more distant ones glowing as molten lead dissolving at least into horizontal streaks, now greenish blue, now bluish green.. ..And as I watched the scene I exclaimed more than once, 'Oh Titian, where art thou, and why not here to realize this scene?'"
"Your Titian, or rather our Titian is here [from Venice to Rome] and he tells me that he is under great obligation to you for having been the main cause of his coming hither.. ..he has already seen so many fine antiques [of Rome] that he is filled with wonder, and glad that he came."