Thames & Hudson, 1969); Carlo Ridolfi, The Life of Tin-
toretto and of His Children Domenico and Marietta
(Philadelphia, Pa: Pennsylvania State University Press,
new ed. 1984).
Tirso de Molina (Gabriel Téllez) (1583–1648) Spanish
playwright
Very little is known for certain of Tirso’s early life. It has
been argued that he was the illegitimate son of the duke of
Osuna but there are serious objections to the theory. He
studied at Alcalá, became a Mercedarian friar (1601) and
probably lived in Toledo (1605–15), where he may have
written the first of some 400 plays, about 86 of which
(some of doubtful ascription) are extant. He traveled ex-
tensively and after 1625, when he was reprimanded by the
council of Castile for too frankly portraying vice on stage,
abandoned the theater. He became official chronicler of
his order in 1637, producing a recently discovered Histo-
ria general de la orden de Nuestra Señora de las Mercedes,
and died as a prior of a Mercedarian monastery.
Five collections of his plays were published during
his lifetime, as well as two miscellanies (1621, 1635) of
tales, plays, and poems set in Decameron-like frameworks.
The most distinguished disciple of Lope de VEGA, Tirso
wrote comedies of intrigue and plays on historical and re-
ligious themes. A number of these are notable for the
prominent roles given to women. His most popular in-
trigue comedy was El vergonzoso en palacio (The shy man
in the palace; 1611); but he is now best known for two
plays on theological issues of faith, the acceptance or re-
fusal of grace, and salvation: El condenado por desconfiado
and El burlador de Sevilla (both 1620s). The last intro-
duced one of the most memorable of Spanish fictions, the
story of the heartless seducer Don Juan Tenorio.
Tisi, Benvenuto See GAROFALO, IL
Titian (Tiziano Vecellio) (c. 1490–1576) Italian painter
The old tradition that Titian attained the age of 99 is very
doubtful, and his birth date is plausibly given by VASARIas
around 1490. Titian was born in Pieve di Cadore and
moved south to Venice at age nine to train as a painter.
There he was taught by Gentile and Giovanni BELLINIand
assisted GIORGIONE, by whom his early work was strongly
influenced, with frescoes commissioned for the German
merchants’ warehouse. He visited Padua in 1511 to paint
frescoes in the Scuola del Santo and then returned to
Venice where he executed a number of works that show
him gradually moving beyond the Giorgionesque idiom.
These include some celebrated half-lengths of beautiful
women (the so-called Vanity in Munich and the Uffizi
Flora among them), some accomplished portraits, the al-
legories of The Three Ages of Man (Edinburgh, Sutherland
loan) and Sacred and Profane Love (Galleria Borghese,
Rome), and the first of his great mythological pieces, The
Worship of Venus (Prado, Madrid) and Bacchus and Ariadne
(National Gallery, London). Also in this period he re-
ceived his first major public commission: an Assumption of
the Virgin for the high altar of Sta. Maria dei Frari, Venice
(1516–18), a masterpiece of dramatic animation and vivid
coloring. He also painted the Madonna di Ca’ Pésaro
(1523) for the same church. Another early altarpiece
(1522) is the Resurrection triptych, with its notable figure
of St. Sebastian, in SS. Nazaro e Celso, Brescia.
In 1516 Titian had obtained the post of official painter
to the Venetian Republic but that did not stop him from
accepting commissions from Duke Alfonso d’Este of Fer-
rara (1516), the Gonzagas in Mantua (1523), and the
DELLA ROVERE FAMILYin Urbino (1532). He painted fine
portraits for all of these, and his portrait (1535–38; Kress
Collection, National Gallery, Washington) of Doge Andrea
Gritti exemplifies Titian’s extraordinary ability to capture
both the dignity and pathos of the old age of the powerful.
In 1530 Titian was introduced to Emperor CHARLES Vat
Bologna, and his full-length portrait of the emperor with
his hound (1532; Prado) ensured his appointment as
court painter, with the title of count palatine (1533). Tit-
ian also painted several other portraits of Charles that are
now lost, but two that have survived are those painted in
Augsburg in 1548: an equestrian portrait commemorating
Charles’s victory at MÜHLBERG(Prado) and a full-length
seated figure in black (Alte Pinakothek, Munich). On a
second visit to Augsburg (1550–51), Titian was probably
entrusted with the commission for the great devotional
picture known as the Gloria or Trinity (1551–54; Prado),
in which the emperor, wrapped in his winding sheet,
kneels in adoration. The emperor’s sister, MARY OF HUN-
GARY, regent of the Netherlands, was also an enthusiastic
collector of Titian’s work.
PHILIP IIof Spain continued his father’s patronage of
Titian. At the end of 1548 the artist traveled to Milan to
meet the prince; one fruit of this first encounter may have
been the Venus with Cupid and an Organist (Berlin), in
which the organist appears to be a portrait of Philip. The
famous series of erotic poesies (see POESY) for Philip was
begun in the early 1550s with Danaë (Prado). Titian was
also invited to paint a Martyrdom of St. Laurence
(1564–67) for the central altar of the church of the ESCO-
RIAL. The Allegory of the Battle of Lepanto (1571–75;
Prado) was the last of Titian’s works to be sent to Spain
and shows how heavily the aged artist was by then relying
upon his assistants.
Besides the pictures painted for his Hapsburg patrons
and the ducal families of Italy, Titian continued to execute
commissions for the Venetian Republic, including the lost
Battle of Cadoro, completed in 1538, for the Sala del Gran
Consiglio. Another of Titian’s patrons was Pope PAUL III,
the first portrait of whom was painted in Bologna in 1543.
In 1545 Titian traveled to Rome, where he met Michelan-
gelo and painted another portrait of the pope, this timeTTiittiiaann 4 46655