Titian: The Last Days [Hardcover]

Mark Hudson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 8, 2009

A compelling portrait of the life, work, and meaning of one of the greatest artists of all time.

Toward the end of his long life, Tiziano Vecelli—known to the world ever since as Titian (circa 1488– 1576)—was at work on a number of paintings that he kept in his studio, never quite completing them, as though wanting to endlessly postpone the moment of closure. Produced with his fingers as much as with the brush, Titian’s last paintings are imbued with a unique rawness and immediacy without precedent in the history of Western art. As if to further cloud their meaning, after the outbreak of plague that took his life, Titian’s studio was looted and many canvases were taken; what happened to them is not known.

But what did Titian, who had experienced as much in the way of material success and critical acclaim as any artist before or since, mean by these works? Titian: The Last Days is a quest through the great artist’s life and work toward the physical and spiritual landscape of his last paintings. Vividly re-creating the atmosphere of sixteenth-century Venice and Europe, Mark Hudson chronicles Titian’s relationships with his own mentors (Bellini and Giorgione), rivals, and patrons—among them popes, kings, and emperors— as well as his troubled dealings with his own family. Paralleling this narrative is Hudson’s personal journey through Titian’s life and career, exploring the relentless formal development that led to the breakthroughs of his last days, and the mystery behind his missing paintings.

Moving from Titian’s hometown in the Dolomites to the greatest churches and palaces of the age, to Venice then and now, Titian: The Last Days is an original and compelling study of one of Europe’s greatest artists.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

After years of gazing at Titian’s masterpieces and studying his world, British writer Hudson became intensely curious about the exceptionally long-lived painter’s revolutionary last paintings and the final days before his death during a plague epidemic in 1576. To understand the end, one must start at the beginning, and with wit, irreverence, a keen eye, and a shrewd imagination, Hudson recounts his fumbling search for fresh perspectives on Titian and shares his provocative discoveries. His entertaining analyses of the master’s erotic, startlingly brushy, and expansive style support his assertions that because Titian reveled in the “painterliness of paint,” he was a proto-impressionist and that Titian’s radical innovations equate with those of Picasso. Hudson has similarly vivid things to say about Titian’s temperament; the ambiance of his busy studio; his rivalry with his mentors, Bellini and Giorgione; his estrangement from his eldest son; his negotiations with his patrons, including Emperor Charles V; and his relationships with women. Like a regal figure on an old, newly restored canvas, Titian, “a figure of almost limitless creativity,” emerges resplendent from these lively pages. --Donna Seaman

Review

“Hudson employs a variety of strategies and tones in this remarkably engaging story. He is at times the pedagogue, the dazzled fan, the nervous tourist, the frustrated scholar, the disgusted critic (especially with verbose and pretentious art historians)…. Hudson does not neglect the artist’s personal life, filling us in on what’s known about his love life and his children. Most captivating, however, is the author’s own journey, from Venice to Spain to Czechoslovakia and elsewhere to follow the story of the great Italian painter. Intense passion and humble scholarship infuse this personal odyssey of discovery with arresting power.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

“With wit, irreverence, a keen eye, and a shrewd imagination, Hudson recounts his fumbling search for fresh perspectives on Titian and shares his provocative discoveries.... Like a regal figure on an old, newly restored canvas, Titian, ‘a figure of almost limitless creativity,’ emerges resplendent from these lively pages.”—Booklist

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Walker & Company; 1 edition (December 8, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 080271076X
• ISBN-13: 978-0802710765
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.2 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #711,779 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Highs and Lows, March 17, 2011

By 

JAB - See all my reviews

This review is from: Titian: The Last Days (Hardcover)

This book could have started half way through, or changed the title from something other than "Titian: The Last Days," since the book's scope is considerably wider than just when Titian died of the plague in 1576. I sincerely enjoyed the last three chapters, and appreciated the analysis provided in these pages. However I felt that the first half of the book was not nearly as strong, and readers would be better served by reading another source if you want to learn about Titian's life.

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Should have been better . . . ., March 19, 2010

By 

Waldo Lydecker "Critic in exile" (Malibu, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Titian: The Last Days (Hardcover)

Not an art history or even a history book, but rather a travelogue on Hudson's mostly failed attempt to track down facts and place to illuminate a story on Titian's last days during the Venetian plague.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A biography of Titan's life and times, re-creating 16th century Venice for any who would study his life and works, April 19, 2010

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Titian: The Last Days (Hardcover)

Titan: The Last Days offers art libraries a survey of one Tiziano Vecillio, also known as Titan, who worked on a number of paintings that vanished when his studio was looted after his death. This considers his relationships with his mentors, rivals and patrons and offers a biography of Titan's life and times, re-creating 16th century Venice for any who would study his life and works.