Description:
Manner of Titian (Tiziano Vecelli - Italian, 1485-1576) An Oil on Canvas "Sleeping Cupid" within a gilt and black decorated gesso frame. A label on reverse reads "Hon. Acad. of Arts - L. No. Lynde", circa: 1700s.
Provenance:
Private collection, Vienna, Austria, circa 1750-1949;
Private American collection, 1949 to present.
Canvas Height: 25 inches (63.5 cm)
Canvas Width: 30 inches (76.2 cm)
Frame Height: 34 5/8 inches (88 cm)
Frame Width: 39 7/8 inches (101.3 cm)
Frame Depth: 3 3/4 inches (9.5 cm)
Ref.: A2677 - Lot 11152
Tiziano Vecelli or Vecellio (c.?1488/90 – 27 August 1576), known in English as Titian was an Italian (Venetian) painter of the Renaissance, considered the most important member of the 16th century Venetian School. He was born in Pieve di Cadore, near Belluno. During his lifetime he was often called da Cadore, 'from Cadore', taken from his native region.
Recognized by his contemporaries as "The Sun Amidst Small Stars" (recalling the final line of Dante's Paradiso), Titian was one of the most versatile of Italian painters, equally adept with portraits, landscape backgrounds, and mythological and religious subjects. His painting methods, particularly in the application and use of colour, exercised a profound influence not only on painters of the late Italian Renaissance, but on future generations of Western artists.
His career was successful from the start, and he became sought after by patrons, initially from Venice and its possessions, then joined by the north Italian princes, and finally the Habsburgs and papacy. Along with Giorgione, he is considered a founder of the Venetian School of Italian Renaissance painting.
During the course of his long life, Titian's artistic manner changed drastically, but he retained a lifelong interest in color. Although his mature works may not contain the vivid, luminous tints of his early pieces, their loose brushwork and subtlety of tone were without precedent in the history of Western painting.
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