It has been said that Titian's "Assunta," which adorns the high altar, and "Pesaro" (on the left aisle of the chapel of the Immaculate Conception) stand mid-way between the past and the future of Venetian painting. This infers that Titian drew on established traditions learned from his masters Bellini and Giorgione, and imbued his works with a freshness and inspiration not seen before. Furthermore, it becomes apparent that his sensitive construction of the works – considering the authority of his patrons facilitates a depth of interpretation that highlights both the sacred and civic concerns of the time.
             To illustrate Titian's progressive role in Venetian art history, I will draw on Renaissance documentation and contemporary research that notes the stylistic and iconographic elements of these altarpieces. In 1568 the Florentine chronicler Vasari wrote of Titian, "Titian...who has adorned with great pictures the City of Venice...deserves the love and respect of all craftsmen, who ought to admire and imitate him in many things. For he is a painter who has produced...work which...will live as long as the memory of illustrious men endures." This is a useful starting point for such an investigation: this representation is valid, since Vasari had met and spoken to him while writing the book, and being a Florentine he wasn't so susceptible to employing the Venetian rhetoric which could tend to be biased
             The contemporary chronicler Ludovico Dolce recorded the shock and criticism the Assunta attracted when it was first unveiled. Such controversy points to its radicalism and supports assertions that it was influential for developing artists: "For all [the panel's grandeur and awesomeness], the oafish painters and the foolish masses, who until then had seen nothing but the dead and cold works of Giovanni Bellini, of Gentile, and of Vivarino..., which were without movement and modeling, grossly defamed the picture. Then, as envy cooled and...