"..I glanced at a sky [aboven the Grand Canal in Venice where a boat-race was going on] which since the days of the creation was never more splendidly graced with lights and shadows. The air was such as an artist would like to depict who grieved that he was not Titian. The stonework of the houses, though solid, seemed artificial, the atmosphere varied from clean to leaden. The clouds above the roofs [of Venice] merged into a distance of smokey gray, the nearest blazing like suns, more distant ones glowing as molten lead dissolving at least into horizontal streaks, now greenish blue, now bluish green.. ..And as I watched the scene I exclaimed more than once, 'Oh Titian, where art thou, and why not here to realize this scene?'"
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Pietro Aretino, in a letter to Ottavio Farnese, Venice, May 1544, in Lettere di M.P. Aretino iii, p. 48
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Titian
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Titian
Tiziano Vecelli or Vecellio (c. 1488-90 – 27 August 1576), better known as Titian, was the leader of the 16th-century Venetian school of the Italian Renaissance. He was born in Pieve di Cadore, in the Cadore territory, near Belluno (Veneto), in Italy, and died in Venice. Many official letters of Titian were written by Aretino, between 1527-1556. From 1556 it was Verdizotti (one of his pupils) who did many secretarial services for Titian.
71 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Titian →
Related Quotes
"Your Excellency, I went without delay to the well of which Y. E. had written, and made a sketch of it, from which Y. …"
"Most serene and Powerful King [Ferdinand], most Clement Lord,.. .The portraits of the serene daughters of your Majest…"
"Most Illustrious Lord and My Lord, I received the other day, with due reverence your Lordship's letter, together with…"
"Excellent Lord: —Knowing your Excellency's love for painting and your passion for protecting it as shown in the patro…"
"I have been expecting the bull of the benefice of Medole which your Excellency gave me for my son Pomponio last year,…"
"Illustrious Lord, hearing that your Excellency has gone to the court of his Imperial Majesty [Charles V], I abstain f…"
"..I kissed the hand of Don Alvise Davila, who said he was your friend, and begged me to tell you he would soon prove …"
"Most Illustrious, &c,— It was not necessary for your Excellency to remind me by letter or the gift of a rich cassock …"
"Your Ceasarean Majesty, I consigned to senõr Don Diego di Mendoza, the two portraits of the most serene Empress [ Isa…"
"I, Titian of Cadore, having studied painting from childhood upwards, and desirous of fame rather than profit, wish to…"