Although he travelled widely to fulfil his portrait commissions, Titian kept his studio and home in his beloved Venice, where he lived with his family - he was married twice and had four children, one of whom, Orazio, was his studio assistant until Titian's death. Titian died in 1576, closely followed by Orazio, probably of the plague that decimated the population of Venice that year.

After Titian's death, his paintings and influence were scattered around the continent of Europe, as the art collections of Titian's royal and imperial patrons were broken up in the political turmoil of the late sixteenth century. Many of Titian's paintings went to Spain, the major political power in late sixteenth century Europe. There the great painters of the seventeenth century, Rubens and Velasquez, revered and copied Titian's work. Titian's intense interest in the expressive application of paint and colour can be seen in Rubens' exuberant nude studies and Velazquez' deep feeling for humanity. The English eighteenth century artist Sir Joshua Reynolds became so fascinated by Titian's technique that he bought one of Titian's paintings and scraped it down, layer by layer, to see how the great master had achieved his effects. Cezanne must have been thinking of Titian when he said "Where colour is at its richest, form is at its fullest," and Titian's example of letting colour speak for itself made the development of twentieth century abstract art possible.