Titian (c. 1485-1576) is best known for his portraits and mythological and religious works. Yet his first great achievement was to refashion the portrayal of nature in his own distinctive style. He did this by studying the work of Albrecht Durer, whose naturalistic paintings of plants, animals, and landscape had caused a sensation in Venice in the first decade of the 16th century.

In this beautifully illustrated book, Antonio Mazzotta presents this experience, together with Titian's native landscape of Pieve di Cadore, as crucial influences in the artist's early representation of nature....