The contemporary Ludovico Ariosto mentioned it already inOrlando Furioso, modern astronomers have dedicated a crater on Mercury to him: a genius of the Venetian Renaissance and beyond, Titian left behind a long trail of wonder and influenced artists of all ages, from Velàsquez to Manet. Almost five centuries after his death, masterpieces such as Sacred love and profane love, Danaethe Venus of Urbino are icons known all over the world. But who really was the Cadore painter? A docufilm is ready to tell it in all its complexity, with contributions from creatives, scholars, museum directors and with the extraordinary participation of a contemporary star like Jeff Koons.

Directed by Laura Chiossone and Giulio Boato, written by Lucia Toso and Marco Panichella under the supervision of Donato Dellavalle and produced by Sky, Kublai Film, Zetagroup, Gebrueder Beetz and Arte ZDF, Titian. The empire of color will be in cinemas all over Italy from 3 to 5 October, the first autumn appointment of the review “La Grande Arte al Cinema”. Images and testimonies will outline the portrait of Giorgione’s brilliant pupil between artistic achievements and affections, relationships with powerful and bitter rivalries, retracing 88 years of intuitions and successes.

Tiziano Vecellio, Flora. From the docufilm “Titian. The empire of color” I Courtesy Nexo Digital

“Art is more powerful than nature”, the Venetian master used to say, remembered as “the most excellent of those who have painted”. Very precocious talent, he left Cadore for Venice in a few years Tiziano became the official painter of the Serenissima and an artist sought after by the most prestigious European courts. From Ferrara to Urbino, from Mantua to Rome to the Spain of Charles V and Philip II, he dominated his century, obscuring his contemporaries, as innovative in creating a work as in knowing how to sell it.

An image from “Tiziano. The empire of color” I Courtesy Nexo Digital

The film invites us to get to the heart of his research and ties with the great characters of the time, also illuminating the human dimension of the artist: from affection for his daughter Lavinia to friendship with the poet Pietro Aretino, up to rivalry. with the young colleague Tintoretto and relations with patrons such as the marquise of Mantua Isabella d’Este and the emperor Carlo V. Experts such as the art historian Bernard Aikema, Sylvia Ferino-Pagden, former director of the art gallery of the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna , and Miguel Falomir, director of the Museo Nacional del Prado in Madrid, will accompany the spectators on a stimulating journey of research, together with creatives such as the stylist Mario Cucinelli and Jeff Koons, struck by the pictorial gesture and the personality of Titian.

Tiziano Vecellio, Sacred Love and Profane Love. From the docufilm “Titian. The empire of color” I Courtesy Nexo Digital