Titian

Titian ran the most successful painting business in sixteenth century Europe and lived long enough to change style completely twice. The early work is clear, bright and sharply drawn. The late work is built from broken, dragged paint that barely resolves close up, and he is said to have finished pictures with his fingers.

Charles V and Philip II of Spain both employed him, and the mythological paintings made for Philip, the poesie, took Ovid as a starting point and did what they liked with him. Diana and Actaeon is the high point.

He painted in Venice for roughly seventy years, absorbed Giorgione early, then absorbed everything else. Rubens, Velazquez and Rembrandt all studied him closely. The very late Pietà, left unfinished at his death during the plague of 1576, is nearly monochrome and looks two centuries ahead of itself.