Excerpt from The Work of Titian: Reproduced in Over Two Hundred Illustrations<br><br>Titian was born in the little town of Pieve di Cadore in the mountains of Cadore where the road leads by the green cliffs of the Dolomites past the foaming Pieve, from Italy to the Tyrol. The valley and the village are both commanded by a fortress. Mountains and forests, green slopes and ancient castles, were thus the first impressions of the outer world made on the young painter, and they remained with him, with the other associations of his birthplace, throughout his life.<br><br>Among the hardy people of the village who left their mountain homes to cut timber in the woods, the Vecellio family had been prominent for many generations. Gregorio Vecellio, the father of Titian, had for half his life served the republic of Venice as a soldier. When his son was born to him in 1476 or 1477, Vecellio stood at the head of the little community of Pieve di Cadore. Honors rather than wealth were thus the traditional possession of the family; so that it probably was nothing strange to the father when he found his son had elected to become an artist.<br><br>About the Publisher<br><br>Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com<br><br>This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.