In his work, Tiziano Vecellio (ca. 1489-1576) combined and concentrated the entire force of Venetian Renaissance painting. He succeeded like no other translating the splendor and power of his important clients - the state, Church and aristocracy - into paintings.

Titian was a painter " par excellence," whose skill changed color into form, mass, and matter. With his conception of painting and masterly use of color, he countered Michelangelo's view that painting should be based on drawing.

The most important stages in Titian's long artistic life create the impression of an uninterrupted succession of brilliant triumphs and honor. Nonetheless, this was an exemplary artistic career in which an incessant search for new challenges and the merciless questioning of his own abilities were inherent, as was the continuing competition with artistic methods and Nature.