"Tiziano Vecellio, or Titian (c. 1488/90-1576), was one of the greatest and most influential painters not merely of the Italian Renaissance, but of the entire history of western art. His exceptionally long career was spent entirely in Venice, where he had established himself as leader of the local school by about 1516. But Titian's career was also remarkable for its international dimension, and his work for an array of Italian princes in the 1520s and '30s led in the 1540s to major commissions from the Emperor Charles V and Pope Paul III, and from their relatives and courtiers. In the last two decades of his life he worked chiefly for King Philip II of Spain. Titian was admired for the vividness of his numerous portraits and the dramatic power of his altarpieces and mythologies, but above all for his spectacular mastery of the medium of oil painting, evident in the sensuous richness of his palette and the poetic expressiveness of his brushstroke." "The present volume consists essentially of a catalogue containing some three hundred entries. Here basic factual information on each of Titian's works and summaries of the current state of scholarship are complemented by illustrations in colour. The catalogue is preceded by an introduction surveying the painter's life and career, tracing his stylistic development, and considering his legacy in the seventeenth century and beyond. Also included in the volume is the account of Titian's life by his first biographer, Giorgio Vasari, who accurately predicted his importance for future generations."--Jacket.