Problems in Titian, Mostly Iconographic

"Titian's fame as the greatest colorist in the history of painting has led students of his art to concentrate on problems of style and authenticity rather than on problems of content and meaning. Dr. Panofsky treats this neglected aspect of the Venetian master's work with a wealth of humanistic scholarship, exploring such varied topics as Titian's relationship to the philosophy and literature of his time, his attitude toward the antique, and the reasons behind his unrivaled acclaim as a portraitist. These studies show Titian to have been a man of far richer and more complex culture than hitherto assumed, possessed not only of the supremely gifted hand but of a subtle and poetic mind. Dr. Panofsky thus deepens our insight into the workings of a great artist's imagination and guides us to a fuller understanding of his genius. At the time Dr. Panofsky was preparing this book for publication, he wrote: "The illustrations were made from the best available originals and are all in black-and-white not in spite of but because of the fact that Titian was the greatest colorist that ever lived."--Book jacket.