Tiziano Vecellio (Pieve di Cadore 1488-90 - Venice 1576) is one of the artists who have left their mark in the history of painting, with an heritage that goes from Velazquez to Cezanne. The top painter in High Renaissance Venice, Titian goes from monumental works such as the Frari altarpiece (over 22 feet high) to the psychological dimension of portraiture and to elegiac or dyonisiac treatment of mythological themes. Titian was formed by Giorgione and Giovanni Bellini, went on to develop his own chromatic classicism until the mannerist crisis , followed by the incorporation of a sculptural quality in his later art.Throughout his extremely productive and long life, marked by international fame and exceptional friendships (from Ariosto to Aretino), long trips and homage from powerful rulers (he was made count by the Emperor Charles V), Titian pursued the sense and matter of colour, up to the point where, an old man and almost blind, he painted with his fingers and regretted the inevitable end when he was finally starting to understand what painting truly is.