Titian

Titian

The Renaissance 1 artists in 16th century Florence, the shift in creative power moved to Venice and into the hands of a supreme 2 master of color, light and sensuality who pioneered new techniques in oil painting, his name, Titian.

Tiziano Vecellio, known as Titian in the English-speaking world was born in Pieve di Cadore, a small mountain town in northern Italy into a family of lawyers and administrators 3.

So to the young Titian arriving here around 1500, it was a wealthy beautiful and sophisticated city offering highly 1)lucrative 4 possibilities. Titian, clearly something of a 2)prodigy 5 worked in a few minor 6 painting workshops in the city before finding a place with the elderly 3)Giovanni Bellini, then the leading artist of Venice.

By the beginning of the 16th century, Venetian painting was beginning to display its own characteristics, different from the central Italian artistic 7 concern with design and draftsmanship. Venetian art displayed a mastery of color and an obsession 8 with the effects of light. The light reflected from the canals and 4)lagoons prompted painters to try and capture its qualities. The color 5)emulated the rich and dazzling fabrics 11 and jewels imported from far off lands.

Venice's damp climate made 6)fresco 12 painting, a method of painting water-based 7)pigments on freshly 8)plastered walls, rather difficult. They led artists to favor oil painting as a medium. As a result Venetians experimented further with oil paints than other Italian painters and popularized the use of oil on canvas rather than on wooden 9)panel, an innovation that Titian developed more than any other artist of his time.

Still in his teens Titian went to work with 10)Giorgione, the rising star of the Venetian art world, from whom Titian learnt a good deal. This is evident in early works like the Gypsy Madonna, painted around 1510, which shows a considerable mastery of working in oil, harmony of complementary colors and a great emphasis in landscape in composition. Titian had painted a number of commissions in churches but in 1516 he got a big commission, which established his reputation throughout Venice and beyond. It was here in the Ferrara church and it was this work which is the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin 14 Mary.

In 1530 Titian went to Bologna to attend the 11)coronation of Charles V and he was introduced to the new Holy Roman Emperor who at that time was the most powerful man in the world. As Holy Roman Emperor he effectively ruled throughout central Europe and as king of Spain he ruled territories in the Spanish Netherlands as well as numerous places in the new world. He commissioned Titian to paint a portrait immediately and that's now lost but three years later Titian began a succession of royal portraits of which this is the most impressive and important. Unusually it's a full-length image of the Emperor who stands before us with a suggestion of calm, strong authority. When you get close up the brush strokes are feathery, move away though and the image crystallizes. Likewise Charles emerges out of the darkness behind into the light. The painting was a great success for Titian, he was immediately invited to become a court painter and join the order of the 12)golden spur which gave him 13)rites as a 14)courtier.

The elderly Titian's final years saw him continue to paint 15)prolifically 16 with works defined by a dramatic 16)intensity 17 in an increasingly loose and liberated 18 style. An acute awareness 19 of impending 20 death seems 17)blatant 21 in the last painting Piata in which Titian was working in 1576, when Venice was 18)ravaged by yet another 19)gruesome plague. Titian died on the 22nd of August of that year although not actually of the plague but it got his some soon afterwards along with nearly 70,000 Venetians. And so Titian was buried in the splendid Ferrara church surrounded by two of his most accomplished 23 masterpieces. Titian was the brightest star in the dazzling firmament 24 of 16th century Venice, whose use of color and light transformed European art and whose physical expressiveness 25 began a revolution in painting. His work was sought and owned by many of the most powerful people in his world making him perhaps the first truly international artist.

注释:
1) lucrative [5lju:krEtiv] a. 有利可图的
2) prodigy [5prCdidVi] n. 神童
3) Giovanni Bellini 乔凡尼·贝利尼（约1429-1516）是威尼斯15世纪最杰出的画家。威尼斯画派可以说就是由他开始的。
4) lagoon 9 [lE5^u:n] n. 泻湖
5) emulate 10 [5emju7leit] v. 模仿
6) fresco [5freskEu] n. 湿壁画技法
7) pigment 13 [5pi^mEnt] n. 颜料
8) plaster [5plB:stE] n. 灰泥，石膏粉
9) panel [5pAnEl] n. 油画板
10) Giorgione 乔尔乔内(1478-1510)是文艺复兴盛期威尼斯第一位大画家，也曾在乔凡尼·贝利尼门下学习过
11) coronation [kR:rE5neiFEn] n. 加冕
12) golden spur 金马刺，这里指代皇室
13) rite 15 [rait] n. 仪式，典礼
14) courtier [5kC:tjE] n. 廷臣
15) prolifically [prEu5lifikli] ad. 多产的
16) intensity [in5tensiti] n. 专心致志
17) blatant [5bleitEnt] a. 极明显的
18) ravage 22 [5rAvidV] v. 蹂躏
19) gruesome [5^ru:sEm] a. 可怕的

提香

    他是十六世纪佛罗伦萨文艺复兴时期的艺术家，极富创造力，后移居威尼斯，擅长色彩、光线和感能的描绘，他是油画届的先驱，他的名字就是提香。
    提香本名蒂齐亚诺·维塞利奥，说英语的人都叫他“提香”。他出生于意大利北部一个小山镇皮耶夫·迪·卡多雷，一个律师和教员的家庭。
    年幼的提香大约在1500年来到威尼斯，这个美丽富有、历经沧桑而又商机丛生的城市。天分颇高的提香首先在几个小画坊里打工，后来又成了年老的乔凡尼·贝利尼的学徒，乔凡尼是当时威尼斯首屈一指的艺术家。在16世纪初期，威尼斯的画作开始显示自己独特的个性，与意大利中部设计和工艺的艺术理念有所区别。威尼斯画作展示了画家对色彩和光线效果运用的娴熟手法。从河渠及湖水中反射出来的光促使画家抓住它们的特征。远涉重洋进口而来的珠宝和令人眼花缭乱的华贵的织物则通过色彩来还原其特征。
    威尼斯潮湿的气候使湿壁画--用一种以水为基础的颜料在新刷的墙壁上作画的方法--更难以实现。他们引导艺术家转向油画。结果，威尼斯的艺术家们的油画实验比意大利其他画家的将更进一步，他们用帆布取代木板作画，并将之普及。在那个年代，提香为将这项革新发扬光大所作出的努力是任何其他艺术家都多。
    在提香还是个少年的时候，他曾和威尼斯艺术界的新星乔尔乔内一起工作过，并从他那儿学到了很多。这一点在他早期的作品中可以很明显地看出来，例如这幅《Gypsy Madonna》，大约在1510年完成，显示了画家对油画和补充着色的协调感的技巧已是炉火纯青，并着重突出了风景的描绘。提香受委托为教堂画了许多画，到1516年，他接到了一项重要的任务，并使他名扬四海，就是现在费拉拉教堂里的这幅《圣母升天》。
    1530年，提香来到博洛尼亚参加查尔斯五世的加冕典礼，他被引见给新神圣罗马帝国的皇帝，也是当时世界上最有权力的人。这位神圣罗马帝国的皇帝统治着整个中欧，作为西班牙国王，他不仅统治着西班牙和荷兰，还管辖着新疆域里的许多土地。他命令提香立即为他画一幅肖像画，这幅画现在已遗失，但三年后，提香接任宫廷画师，这是令人印象最深刻的，也是最重要的。与通常的画像不同的是，我们眼前的这幅皇帝画像是站立的全身像，给人一种沉着、威严的感觉。当你走近这幅画的时候，画像的笔触变得柔软如羽毛，走开一些画像会变得更加清晰，好像查尔斯从后面的暗处浮现出来，笼罩在光亮中。这幅画是提香最成功的画作之一，他立即被邀请成为宫廷画师，效命于皇室，并举行了仪式成为一名朝臣。
    提香临终前的最后几年里，他继续用极大的热情和益发自由的风格来作画，创作出了大量作品。1576年，提香在创作《Piata》的时候，他清楚地感受到了死亡迫近时的喧嚣，而此时威尼斯正遭受另一场可怕的瘟疫的蹂躏。同年的8月22日，提香去世了，尽管实际上死因并不是那场瘟疫，但最终瘟疫还是夺走了七万威尼斯人的生命。于是提香被安葬在华美的费拉拉教堂，旁边安放着两幅他最著名的杰作。提香是十六世纪的威尼斯璀璨夜空上最闪亮的那颗星，他使用色彩和光线的手法改写了欧洲艺术史，他的自然表现法引起了绘画界的一场革命。许多最有权势的人都寻求及拥有他的画作，这也许使得他成为世界上第一个国际艺术家。