Tiziano Vecellio, Latinized as Titianus, hence known in English as Titian, was an Italian Renaissance painter, the most important artist of Renaissance Venetian painting. 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.
An altarpiece is an work of art in painting, sculpture or relief representing a religious subject made for placing at the back of or behind the altar of a Christian church. Though most commonly used for a single work of art such as a painting or sculpture, or a set of them, the word can also be used of the whole ensemble behind an altar, otherwise known as a reredos, including what is often an elaborate frame for the central image or images. Altarpieces were one of the most important products of Christian art especially from the late Middle Ages to the era of Baroque painting.
Giovanni Bellini was an Italian Renaissance painter, probably the best known of the Bellini family of Venetian painters. He was raised in the household of Jacopo Bellini, formerly thought to have been his father, but now that familial generational relationship is questioned. An older brother, Gentile Bellini was more highly regarded than Giovanni during his lifetime, but the reverse is true today. His brother-in-law was Andrea Mantegna.
An ex-voto is a votive offering to a saint or a divinity, given in fulfillment of a vow or in gratitude or devotion. The term is usually restricted to Christian examples.
The Basilica di Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari, commonly abbreviated to the Frari, is a church located in the Campo dei Frari at the heart of the San Polo district of Venice, Italy. It is the largest church in the city and it has the status of a minor basilica. The church is dedicated to the Assumption of Mary.
Alessandro Bonvicino, more commonly known as Moretto, or in Italian Il Moretto da Brescia, was an Italian Renaissance painter from Brescia, where he also mostly worked. His dated works span the period from 1524 to 1554, but he was already described as a master in 1516. He was mainly a painter of altarpieces that tend towards sedateness, mostly for churches in and around Brescia, but also in Bergamo, Milan, Verona, and Asola; many remain in the churches they were painted for. The majority of these are on canvas, but a considerable number, including some large pieces, are created on wood panels. There are only a few surviving drawings from the artist.
In art, a sacra conversazione, meaning "holy conversation", is a genre developed in Italian Renaissance painting, with a depiction of the Virgin and Child amidst a group of saints in a relatively informal grouping, as opposed to the more rigid and hierarchical compositions of earlier periods. Donor portraits may also be included, generally kneeling, often their patron saint is presenting them to the Virgin, and angels are frequently in attendance.
The Pietà is one of the last paintings by the Italian master-painter Titian, and in its final, extended state it was left incomplete at his death in 1576, to be completed by Palma Giovane. Titian had intended it to hang over his grave, and the two stages of painting were to make it fit in two different churches. It is now in the Gallerie dell'Accademia in Venice.
The Assumption of the Virgin or Frari Assumption, popularly known as the Assunta, is a large altarpiece panel painting in oils by the Italian Renaissance artist Titian, painted in 1515–1518. It remains in the position it was designed for, on the high altar of the Basilica di Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari or Frari church in Venice. It is the largest altarpiece in the city, with the figures well over life-size, necessitated by the large church, with a considerable distance between the altar and the congregation. The images above and below are not Titian's work, they are by Palma Vecchio. It marked a new direction in Titian's style, that reflected his awareness of the developments in High Renaissance painting further south, in Florence and Rome, by artists including Raphael and Michelangelo. The agitated figures of the Apostles marked a break with the usual meditative stillness of saints in Venetian painting, in the tradition of Giovanni Bellini and others.
Italian Renaissance painting is the painting of the period beginning in the late 13th century and flourishing from the early 15th to late 16th centuries, occurring in the Italian Peninsula, which was at that time divided into many political states, some independent but others controlled by external powers. The painters of Renaissance Italy, although often attached to particular courts and with loyalties to particular towns, nonetheless wandered the length and breadth of Italy, often occupying a diplomatic status and disseminating artistic and philosophical ideas.
San Francesco della Vigna is a Roman Catholic church in the Sestiere of Castello in Venice, northern Italy.
Palma Vecchio, born Jacopo Palma, also known as Jacopo Negretti, was a Venetian painter of the Italian High Renaissance. He is called Palma Vecchio in English and Palma il Vecchio in Italian to distinguish him from Palma il Giovane, his great-nephew, who was also a painter.
The San Zaccaria Altarpiece is a painting by the Italian Renaissance painter Giovanni Bellini, executed in 1505 and located in the church of San Zaccaria, Venice.
The San Giobbe Altarpiece is a c. 1487 altarpiece in oils on panel by the Venetian Renaissance painter Giovanni Bellini. Inspired by a plague outbreak in 1485, this sacra conversazione painting is unique in that it was designed in situ with the surrounding architecture of the church, and was one of the largest sacra conversazione paintings at the time. Although it was originally located in the Church of San Giobbe, Venice, it is now in the Gallerie dell'Accademia in Venice after having been stolen by Napoleon Bonaparte.
Jacopo Pesaro being presented by Pope Alexander VI to Saint Peter is an oil painting on canvas by Titian, now in the Royal Museum of Fine Arts in Antwerp.
Santa Sofia is a church located in the sestiere (neighborhood) of Cannaregio in Venice, Italy. It should be distinguished from the palazzo Ca' d'Oro on the Grand Canal is also called the Palazzo Santa Sofia.
The Frari Triptych or Pesaro Triptych is a 1488 oil-on-panel triptych painting by the Italian Renaissance master Giovanni Bellini. It is signed and dated 1488 on the centre of the Virgin Mary's throne, though it may have taken several years to produce, meaning he started it in 1485. On the reverse is a label dating its completion more precisely, to 15 February 1488. It is in the basilica di Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari in Venice.
The San Domenico di Pesaro Altarpiece is an oil-on-panel painting created ca. 1524–1526 by the Italian Renaissance artist Giovanni Girolamo Savoldo, now in the Pinacoteca di Brera, in Milan. The work dates to the same period as Savoldo's Rest on the Flight into Egypt, also produced for San Domenico. It shows the Madonna and Child seated between two angel musicians, while in the lower register it shows Saint Peter, Saint Dominic, Saint Paul and Saint Jerome.
The Mystic Marriage of Saint Catherine is a c.1575 oil-on-canvas painting by Paolo Veronese, produced as the high altarpiece for Santa Caterina church in Venice. It remained there until the First World War, during which it was moved to its present home in the city's Gallerie dell'Accademia
