The greatest of all Venetian painters, Titian achieved a worldly success and an artistic influence unsurpassed in his own lifetime and later equalled only by Rubens. His matchless technique and brilliant use of colour won him the patronage of the most powerful men in Christendom, and led to the acceptance of a revolutionary change in the role of the painter the consequences of which are still felt today. In freeing the art of painting from its traditional subservience to drawing, he emphasised the importance of colour and brushwork as means of self-expression, establishing a tradition that can be traced through the work of countless artists from Velazquez to the Impressionists and beyond. In this major and scholarly study, Charles Hope presents an authoritative account of Titian's remarkable rise to fame and sustained pre-eminence, basing his arguments extensively on unpublished information and convincingly challenging many accepted ideas about the painter's career and development.

Amanda Bradley is Supervisor and Guest Lecturer in the Department of History of Art, University of Cambridge.