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 Dürer, 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. The recently restored Flight into Egypt (now in the State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg)―probably painted when Titian was still a teenager―is vivid proof of his interest in the depiction of animals, plants, and figures in the landscape.

The author shows how Titian's contemporaries Bellini, Giorgione, and del Piombo also influenced his unique and innovative approach to painting nature.