450th Anniversary of the Death of Titian

At centre, the allegorical depiction of Wisdom from a ceiling painting by Titian (1564), held in the Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana in Venice. Along the upper left edge: the commemorative inscription "TIZIANO" and the issuing state "SAN MARINO"; to the right: the "R" of the Rome mint; lower right: the dates "1576 ● 2025". The initials "SC" of designer Silvia Ciucci along the lower edge complete the design.

Tiziano Vecellio, known as Titian, was born around 1488/90 in Pieve di Cadore in northern Italy and is one of the most important painters of the Venetian Renaissance. Over several decades he shaped the artistic life of the lagoon city of Venice, worked for Europe's most important courts — including the Habsburgs Charles V and Philip II — and created a body of work of extraordinary range: religious paintings, mythological scenes, portraits, and allegorical depictions. Stylistically, he is known for his masterful handling of color and light, which lastingly influenced Western painting into the modern era.

Titian died in Venice in August 1576, likely of the plague then afflicting the city, at well over eighty years of age and still active as a painter until the very end. One of his late works, an allegorical depiction of Wisdom that he created in 1564 for the ceiling of the Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana in Venice, testifies to his continuing creative power and the trust the Venetian Republic placed in him. San Marino, a microstate with close historical and cultural ties to the northern Italian artistic tradition, honors the painter's 450th anniversary of death with its 2026 2-euro commemorative coin.