Giant squeezing head of Italian painter (6)
I believe the answer is:
titian
'painter' is the definition.
(Titian is an example)
'giant squeezing head of italian' is the wordplay.
'giant' becomes 'titan' (synonyms).
'squeezing' means one lot of letters goes inside another (squeeze can mean hug or embrace).
'head of' indicates taking the first letters.
The first letter of 'italian' is 'i'.
'titan' placed around 'i' is 'TITIAN'.
(Other definitions for titian that I've seen before include "painting" , "Venetian artist" , "Italian painter of the Venetian school, patronised by Philip II of Spain" , "artist from Venice" , "Italian Old Master and colour" .)