CORNE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME OF THE SAGE ENDOWMENT FUND GIVEN IN 1891 BY HENRY WILLIAMS SAGE Cornell University Library The original of tiiis book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924016774352 Cornell University Library ND 623.T54R53 Titian, 3 1924 016 774 352 14 PRINTCOINU.S.A. ■^ yj.M^Cy«€3;^«^' TITIAN TITIAN By CHARLES RICKETTS WITH i8i PLATES METHUEN & GO. LTD. 36 ESSEX STREET W. G. LONDON 'JlHi^r y ^ r -■ to •3> i^zVi* Published in igto DEDICATION TO ROBERT ROSS My dear Ross, Knowing that you share the opinion of the late Dr. Lippmann, that English books on art are read only by the compositors, I have dedicated this work to you, hoping, thereby, to secure one reader in ' Little London.' CHARLES RICKETTS PREFACE MY aim in this book is not to give an account of Titian's life but of his pictures, having no qualifications as a biographer, or indeed as a writer. Where I have touched upon history I have relied mainly upon Crowe and Cavalcaselle's admirable Life and Times of Titian ; where I have disagreed with their conclusions or those of other more recent writers concerning Titian's paintings, I have striven to give technical reasons for my difference of opinion. In advocating the closest possible study of Titian's methods in design, technique, and colouring in order to establish an approximate chrono- logy in the painter's work, I have not departed from the method employed by other writers, many of Crowe and Cavalcaselle's technical descriptions being quite admirable. An attempt has been made to record the different degree of ' authentic ' preservation of each work, and to distinguish between small harmless mendings and partial or total repainting, since many excellent writers, notably the great Giovanni Morelli, do not always use the term • repainted ' with sufficient care, whilst there are others to whom the total destruction of a work by drastic repainting presents no bar to enjoyment. To some this book will say too little, to others it may seem confused and obscure. I have avoided descriptions of the pictures, since these are represented by good illustrations. The paintings have been placed in their approximate order as illustratuig the artist's develop- ment during different decades : the dates given to the pictures must in most cases be accepted as a symbol of their relation to each other, as vii TITIAN I would be the last to imagine that the exact year or month has been revealed to me by some divine inspiration ; to me the dates stand for periods in which we shall find a common group of characteristics. If the probable sequence of Titian's paintings has been made a little more explicit than heretofore, and the technical conditions of his pictures brought home to the student of painting, the aim of the author will have been achieved. CONTENTS INTRODUCTION: THE TENDENCY OF THE VENETIAN SCHOOL AND TITIAN'S INFLUENCE, ...... ^ CHAP. I. VENETIAN ART DURING THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY, ^h.^ 9' II. TITIAN'S BIRTH AND PARENTAGE, . '^^. ... 14 III. GIORGIONE, 19 IV. EARLY WORKS DONE BEFORE 1511, .... 28 V. TITIAN'S BROTHER FRANCESCO VECELLIO, . . . . SS VI. PADUA. THE 'ST, MARK ENTHRONED,' .... 34 VII. CONVERSATION PIECES— PALMA— IDYLLS, .... 38 VIII. TITIAN PETITIONS FOR A BROKER'S PATENT, ... 47 IX. 'MADONNA WITH THE CHERRIES'— 'CRISTO DELLA MONETA' — 'VANITAS,' ........ 49 X. TITIAN'S RELATIONS WITH THE COURT OF FERRARA— THE 'BACCHANAL'— THE 'ASSUNTA,' ..... 55 XI. THE 'BACCHUS AND ARIADNE,' 66 \ XII. THE 'MADONNA AND SIX SAINTS' — THE 'CASA PESARO MADONNA'— 'THE ENTOMBMENT,' .... 71 XIII. THE 'ST. PETER MARTYR,' ...... 74^ XIV. THE DEVELOPMENT AND CHANGE OF TITIAN'S MANNER, V . 78' XV. ARETINO: RELATIONS WITH THE HOUSE OF URBINO, , . 81 XVI. 'THE EMPEROR CHARLES V. WITH A DOG'— 'THE YOUNG ENGLISHMAN'— 'ST. JOHN THE ALMSGIVER'— 'LA BELLA,' 85 ix CHAP. XVII. xvni. XIX. XX. XXI. "XXII. XXIII. XXIV. XXV. XXVI. XXVII. XXVIII. XXIX. TITIAN 'THE BfVTTLE OF CADORE'— 'THE PRESENTATION OF MARY IN THE temple; 'TOBIAS AND THE ANGEL'— 'THE ASSUMPTION' (VERONA), THE CEILINGS IN THE SALUTE— 'ECCE HOMO,' . POPE PAUL III.— VISIT TO ROME— ' DANAfi '—MICHELANGELO — ORAZIO VECELLI, 'THE SUPPER AT EMMAUS —TITIAN GOES TO AUGSBURG, ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF TITIAN— THE COLOURIST AND THE HARMONIST TENDENCIES IN PAINTING, ./ THE PICTURES EXECUTED FOR PHILIP II., PORTRAITS OF LAVINIA— PORTRAITS OF THE MASTER, DEATH OF ARETINO, ...... DEATH OF CHARLES V.— LEO LEONI ATTEMPTS TO MURDER ORAZIO— 'MARTYRDOM OF ST. LAWRENCE '—' DIANA AND CALISTO '—VISIT OF VASARI— LATE WORKS, 'PIETA'— DEATH OF TITIAN, . TITIAN'S DRAWINGS AND TECHNIQUE, CONCLUSION, ..... INDEX, 95 99 102 107 115 123 128 133 136 138 154 157 168 189 LIST OF PLATES Bacchus and Ariadne. London, National Gallery, . . . Frontispiece AT THE END OF THE BOOK PLATE I. The Man of Sorrows. Venice, Scuola di S. Rocco. II. The Gipsy Madonna (La Zingarella). Vienna, Imperial Gallery. III. Madonna and Child. London, Collection of R. H. Benson, Esq. IV. The Little Tambourine Player. Vienna, Imperial Gallery. V. Pope Alexander vi. presenting Jacopo Pesaro. Antwerp, Gallery. {Caterina Cornaro (.?) (La Schiavona). Milan, Crespi Collection. The Cobham ' Ariosto.' London, National Gallery. VII. Doge Niccolo Marcello, Rome, Vatican Gallery. VIII. The Meeting of Joachim and Anna. Padua, Scuola del Carmine. IX. St. Anthony Granting Speech to an Infant. Padua, Scuola del Santo. J St. Anthony Curing a Youth. Padua, Scuola del Santc. "\The Jealous Husband. Padua, Scuola del Santo. XI. The Triumph of Faith. XII. The Triumph of Faith. XIII. The Triumph of Faith. XIV. The Triumph of Faith. XV. The Triumph of Faith. XVI. Salome. Rom,e, Doria-Pamphili Gallery. XVII. Madonna, SS. Ulphus and Bridget. Madrid, Prado. XVIII. The Concert. Florence, Pitti. XIX. St. Mark Enthroned. Venice, Sta. Maria delta Salute. XX. The Virgin, St. John the Baptist and a Donor. London, Bridgewater House. XXI. The Three Ages of Man. London, Bridgewater House. XXII. The Baptism of Christ. Rome, Capitoline Gallery. XXIII. Sacred and Profane Love (Venus and Medea). Roms, Borghese Gallery. XXIV. Tobias and the Angel. Print by Lefebre. XXV. Holy Family and Shepherd. London, National Gallery. XXVI. Noli Me Tangere. London, National Gallery. XXVII. Man in a Red Cap. London, Collection of Sir Hugh Lane. xi TITIAN PLATE XXVIII. Madonna with the Cherries. Vienna, Imperial Gallery. XXIX. The Tribute Money (Cristo della Moneta). Dresden, Royal Gallery. XXX. Madonna and Four Saints (Dresden Conversation). Dresden, Royal Gallery. XXXI. Madonna, SS. Stephen, Jerome and Maurice. Vienna, Imperial Gallery. xxxii. Madonna and Three Saints. Paris, Louvre. XXXIII. Vanitas. Munich, AUe Pinahothek. XXXIV. Laura de' Dianti (.'') Paris, Louvre. XXXV. Venus with the Shell. London, Bridgewater House. fPortrait of a Man. Munich, Alte Pindkotheh. XXXVI. -\ [Portrait of a Man (Alessandro de' Medici). Hampton Court. XXXVII. The Physician Parma. Vienna, Imperial Gallery. XXXVIII. The Annunciation. Treviso, Duomo. XXXIX. Flora. Florence, Ufflzi. XL. Madonna, St. John and Donor. Munich, Alte Pindkothek. XLI. The Garden of Loves. Madrid, Prado. XLii. Bacchanal. Madrid, Prado. XLiii. L'Assunta. Venice, Accademia. xLiv. Madonna and Child and St. Anthony Abbot. Florence, Ufflzi. xLv. Madonna and Child, SS. Francis and Blaise and Donor. Ancona, S. Domenico. XLvi. L'Homme au Gant. Paris, Louvre. ("Portrait of a Man in Black. Paris, Louvre. XLVII "I . ■ (Tommaso Mosti. Florence, Ufflzi. XLViii. The Resurrection of Christ. Brescia, SS. Nazaro e Celso. XLix. Bacchus and Ariadne. London, National Gallery. L. La Vierge au Lapin. Paris, Louvre. LI. The Entombment. Paris, Louvre. ui. Laura de' Dianti. Richmond, Collection of Sir Frederick Cook, Bart. Liii. Man in Blue. Madrid, Prado. Liv. St. Christopher. Venice, Ducal Palace Lv. The Casa Pesaro Madonna. Venice, Frari. Lvi. Madonna and Six Saints. Rome, Vatican. Lvii. St. Peter Martyr. Copy by Cigoli. Venice, SS. Giovanni e Paolo. Lviii. St. Mary Magdalen. Florence, Pitti. Lix. Madonna and Child with St. John and St. Catherine. London, National Gallery. Lx. Salvator Mundi. Florence, Pitti. Lxi. St. Jerome. Paris, Louvre. Lxii. The Adoration of the Shepherds. Florence, Pitti. xii LIST OF PLATES fLATE Lxiii. Charles v. with a Dog. Madrid, Prado. Lxiv. Portrait of a Young Englishman. Florence, Pitti. Lxv. Cardinal Ippolito de' Medici. Florence, Pitti. Lxvi. The D'Avalos Allegory. Paris, Louvre. {St. John the Almsgiver. Venice, S. Giovanni Elemosinario. Isabella d'Este. Vienna, Imperial Gallery. Lxviii. La Bella di Tiziano. Florence, Pitti. Lxix. Copy of Portrait of Alfonso i. Florence, Pitti. Lxx. Francesco Maria della Rovere. Florence, Ufflzi. Lxxi. Eleonora Gonzaga, Duchess of Urbino. Florence, Uffizi. Lxxn. Giovanni Moro. Berlin, Kaiser Friedrich Museum. Lxxiii. Battle of Cadore. Ihigraving by Giulio Fontana. Lxxrv. Copy of the Battle of Cadore. Florence, Ufflzi. Lxxv. Venus of Urbino. Florence, Uffizi. f Girl in a Fur Cloak. Vienna, Imperial Gallery. [Portrait of a Young Man. Berlin, Kaiser Friedrich Museum. Lxxvii. Man with a Hawk (Giorgio Cornaro ?). Lxxviii. Francis i. Paris, Louvre. Lxxix. Presentation of the Vii-gin in the Temple. Venice, Accademia. Lxxx. Assumption of the Virgin. Verona, Duomo. Lxxxi. Tobias and the Angel. Venice, S. Marziale. Lxxxii. The Annunciation. Venice, Scuola di S. Rocco. Lxxxiii. Doge Andrea Gritti. Vienna, Czernin Collection. Lxxxiv. Allocution of the General del Vasto. Madrid, Prado. Lxxxv. Daughter of Roberto Strozzi. Berlin, Kaiser Friedrich Museum. Lxxxvi. Giacomo Doria. London, Collection of Sir Julius Wemher, Bart. Lxxxvii. Portrait of a Man. Paris, Louvre. .xxxvm. The Last Supper. Urbino, Museo Civico. Lxxxix. The Resurrection. Urbino, Museo Civico. xc. Ecce Homo. Vienna, Imperial Gallery. f The Sacrifice of Abraham. Venice, Sta. Maria della Salute. xci.' < [Cain Slaying Abel. Venice, Sta. Maria della Salute. xoii. David and Goliath. Venice, Sta. Maria della Salute. xciii. Pharaoh Drowned in the Red Sea. Engraving by Andrea Andreani, after a design by Titian. xciv. Pope Paul m. Naples, Museo Nazionale. xcv. The Empress Isabella. Madrid, Prado. J Pope Paul in. St. Petersburg, Hermitage. \Antonio Porcia. Milan, Brera. xiii TITIAN PLATE xcvii. Pietro Aretino. Fhreiice, Pitti. xcviii. Pietro Aretino. xcix. Paul III., Ottavio and Cardinal Farnese. Naples, Museo Nazionale. c. Danae. Naples, Museo Nazionale. CI. Pier Luigi Farnese. Naples, Museo Nazionale, en. St. John the Baptist. Venice, Accademia. cm. The Supper at Emmaus. Paris, Louvre. CIV. Madonna in Glory with SS. Peter and Andrew. Serravalle, Duomo. cv. Ecce Homo. Chantilly, Musie Condi. cvi. Charles v. Munich, Alte Pindkoihelc. evil. Charles v. at the Battle of Miihlberg. Madrid, Prado. cviii. Nicholas Granvella. Besa/ngon, Mvsie, cix. Duke of Alva. Madrid, Collection of Count Huescar. ex. Mater Dolorosa. Madrid, Prado. CXI. The Elector John Frederick of Saxony. Vienna, Imperial Gallery. fPrometheus. Madrid, Prado. CXII.-( \ Sisyphus. Madrid, Prado. cxiii. Portrait of a Man. Hampton Court. cxiv. The Crowning with Thorns. Paris, Louvre. cxv. Venus of the Tribuna. Florence, Uffizi. cxvi. Philip II. Madrid, Prado. cxvii. Philip II. Munich, Collection of Franz von Lenbach. cxviii. Man with a Baton. Munich, Alte Pinakothelc. cxix. Benedetto Varchi. Vienna, Imperial Gallery. f Portrait of Beccadelli. Florence, Ufflzi. [Andrea Vesali. Florence, Ufflzi. cxxi. St. Margaret. Madrid, Prado. cxxii. Christ and Simon of Cyrene. Madrid, Prado. cxxiii. Philip II. Naples, Museo Nazionale. cxxiv. Christ appearing to the Magdalen (Fragment). Madrid, Prado. cxxv. La Gloria (The Trinity). Madrid, Prado. cxxvi. Christ appearing to His Mother. Medole, S. Maria. cxxvii. Danae. Madrid, Prado. cxxviii. Mater Dolorosa. Madrid, Prado. cxxix. Venus and Adonis. Madrid, Prado. cxxx. Giovanni Francesco Aquaviva, Duke of Atri (.?). Cassel, Royal Gallery. cxxxi. Lavinia in White. Dresden, Royal Gallery. cxxxii. Lavinia holding a Charger. Berlin, Kaiser Friedrich Museum. cxxxiii. Diana and Actaeon. London, Bridgewater House. xiv LIST OF PLATES PLATE cxxxiv. Diana and Calisto. London, Bridgewater House. cxxxv. Diana and Calisto. Vienna, Imperial Gallery. cxxxvi. Martyrdom of St. Lawrence. Venice, Gesuiti. cxxxvii. Portrait of Titian. Berlin, Kaiser Friedrich Musetimi. cxxxviii. Madonna and Child. Mmiich, Alte Pinakothek. fSt. Jerome in the Desert. Milan, Brera. cxxxix. I^j^^ Descent of the Holy Spirit. Venice, Sta. Maria della Salute. cxL. The Fall of Man. Madrid, Prado. cxLi. Jupiter and Antiope. Paris, Louvre. J A Knight of Malta. Madrid, Prado. (Lavinia. Dresden, Royal Gallery. cxLiii. The Toilet of Venus. St. Petersburg, Hermitage. cxLiv. Man with a Palm. Dresden, Royal Gallery. cxLv. St. Mary Magdalen. St. Petersburg, Hermitage. cxLvi. The Crucifixion. Ancona, Gallery. cxLvii. Wisdom (Ceiling). Venice, Palazzo Reale. cxLviii. The Rape of Europa. Boston, Collection of Mrs. Gardner. cxLix. The Last Supper. Escorial, Refectory. CL. St. Dominic. Rome, Borghese Gallery. CLi. The Adulteress before Christ. Vie7ma, Imperial Gallery. cLii. The Transfiguration. Venice, S. Salvatore. CLiii. The Annunciation. Venice, S. Salvatore. CLiv. The Doge Griraani adoring the Cross. Venice, Ducal Palace. CLv. Perseus and Andromeda. London, Wallace Collection. cLvi. The Entombment. Madrid, Prado. CLvii. Religion succoured by Spain. Madrid, Prado. CLvm. Jacopo Strada. Vierma, Imperial Gallery. CLix. The Education of Cupid. Rome, Borghese Gallery. CLX. Salvator Mundi. St. Petersburg, Hermitage. CLxi. Portrait of Titian. Madrid, Prado. CLxii. Madonna and Child. London, Collection of the late Dr. Lvdwig Mond. CLXiii. Christ bearing the Cross. Madrid, Prado. CLXiv. St. Sebastian. St. Petersburg, Hermitage. CLxv. Thanksgiving for the Victory of Lepanto. Madrid, Prado. CLXvi. Shepherd and Nymph. Vienna, Imperial Gallery. CLxvii. Christ crowned with Thorns. Munich, Alte Pinakothek. CLXViii. Pieta. Venice, Accademia. CLxix. Murder of a Woman. Drawing. Paris, J^cole des Beaux Arts. CLxx. The Judgment of Paris. Drawing. Paris, Louvre. T.— 6 XV PLATE CLXXI. CLXXII. CLXXIII. CLXXIV. CLXXV. CLXXVI. CLXXVII. CLXXVIII. CLXXIX. CLXXX. TITIAN study of a Woman. Drawing. Florence, Uffizi. St. Hubert. Drawing. London, British Museum. Sketch for the ' Assunta.' Paris, Louvre. Sketch of Four Saints, etc. Florence, Uffizi. Sketch for the ' St. Peter Martyr.' Florence, Uffizi. Sketches for the ' St. Peter Martyr.' Lille, Museum. The Infant Christ, St. Andrew, and St. Catherine, Francesco Vecellio. Venice, S. Marcuola. Madonna, St. Catherine, and St. John Baptist. Francesco Vecellio. ViennjU, Liechtenstein Gallery. Madonna, St. Joseph, and St. John. By Francesco Vecellio, Louvre. Madonna, St. Jerome, and St. Catherine. By Titian and Francesco Vecellio. Glasgow, Corporation GaMery. Madonna, St. Catherine, and St. John the Baptist. By Francesco Vecellio. Paris, Louvre. By Titian and By Titian and Pam, XVI TITIAN TITIAN INTRODUCTION THE TENDENCY OF THE VENETIAN SCHOOL AND TITIAN'S INFLUENCE THE great quality by which the Venetians charm the lover of pictures is usually described as ' colour ' ; it might more fitly be described as the rendering of the appearance of things according to a specially emotional view of them ; or as a specially tena- cious hold upon their outer aspect, by which their local characteristics of colour, rehef, and tone become intensified and heightened. The Venetian temper, in contrast with that of Florence, is less constructive than ecstatic. The insistence of the Venetians upon the quahties of vision or eyesight, more than upon those of the constructive imagination, does not debar the school of Venice from the possession of other great and stimulating qualities, such as design ; and it is an obsolete kind of criticism which imagines that, because of their supreme sense of colour, the better Venetian painters were lacking in the sense of form ; and that, owing to their worship of form, the Florentines were without colourists in their ranks. In their devotion to fact and appearance the Venetians became more susceptible to the effect of light upon colour, and devoted more searching study to the means by which this could be expressed. Venice was the first centre thoroughly to investigate and understand the resources of oil painting, by which the effects of light and air may be more readily interpreted, so that in Venetian pictures of the maturity (a portrait by Titian for instance) the eye is delighted and soothed, even in the absence of beautiful colours, by the scale of tones, the variety in the textures of the pigment, and above all by the contrast and harmony and proportion between the masses of light and shade ; in a word the major Venetians are born painters, T.-l 1 TITIAN and with them felicities of invention are outshone by fehcities of representation. The main distinction between the tendencies of the Venetian and Tuscan schools, which both had their conscious weavers of beautiful patterns in colour, hes in this intensity in rendering chance appear- ances, in this love of the momentary for its own sake ; a Venetian painter is empirical in his outlook, whilst the tendency in Florence is rather constructive and theoretic, treating each element in art as part of a great poetic language. It is thus that the great Tuscan colourists, Giotto, Angelico and Fra Filippo, who have no equals in Venice tiU the advent of Giovanni Bellini, evolve colour harmonies in which the recurrence of some colour is like the recurrence of some beautiful phrase in music, being part of a calculated and foreseen effect. With the Venetians there is no such effort till the maturity of Bellini, the ' Transfiguration ' ^ by this artist being the first Venetian picture which reveals deliberate colour-invention. In Florence we admire the conscious enthusiasm, nobility and ambition of the school in its conception of art as a force to mould the lives of men ; we note the evolution of a broad conception of its scope, with an interchange of influence between sculpture, paint- ing, architecture and the other arts that minister to life. In Venice we witness a series of lucky hits in the art of picture-making made by a few chosen individuals, — Bellini, Giorgione and Titian, — who by their personal force have transformed the literal and somewhat pedestrian outlook of the local Venetians before them, and so by their genius achieved a result which the spirit of the Renaissance yet more intensified, when man seemed boundless in his destinies, ambitions and powers of success. The isolated position of Venice, and something conservative and practical in the character of its population, had made' it the last centre to catch fire from that enthusiasm of discovery, and that new sense of power which informs what we call the Renaissance. The Venetians had never produced a great architect, poet or sculptor. Circumstances confined their efforts to picture-painting mainly; this in the hands of Giorgione and Titian led to the formation of a type of work which later centuries have striven to follow, preoccupied, as later artists have been, with the production of portraits and easel pictures. In Venice the art of painting had at first merely satisfied the limited requirements of the local churches, the local guilds ; and ' The ' Transfiguration ' in the Naples Gallery. 2 INTRODUCTION finally, with the greater masters, such as Giorgione and Titian, the personal emotions of private persons, at a period when the commonest events in life seemed still capable of inspiring a passionate regard, and when nothing was too fine or too full of genius for daily use. Xhe more limited Venetian ambition in art has reaped its reward, despite its early intellectual limitations, in the concentration and the self-possessed outlook revealed in the work of its finest painters — above all in the art of Titian, whose rich personal force has heightened the result, and remodelled and enlarged the syntax of painting. In Tuscany, even in the fourteenth century, Giotto had laid the foundations of a complete scheme of art, profoundly self-centred and balanced, and within its limits so perfect, that, for a time, it seemed almost to present a bar to further original artistic effort. But the theoretic basis of the Renaissance once established by Brunelleschi, Donatello and Masaccio, constructive eflFort in Florence became con- tinuous, and wavers or languishes in certain decades solely through the differing qualifications of its various exponents. The course of art in Venice had no such brilliant origin, and remained tentative ; neither energetic, continuous nor particularly ambitious. It was slow, derivative ; adapting this from Padua, that from Northern Europe. The Venetian pubUc was conservative, and suspicious of artistic independence or innovation ; it hugged the limitations in the programme of its school almost consciously, till the barriers broke down under the united efforts of a few men whose works have crystallised for us all we think of when we remember the art of Venice. From the first, Venetian painting was hardly distinguishable from the applied arts — almost better described as crafts — a branch of the gilder's trade. The charming encrusted works of Jacobello del Fiore, the tabernacles from the shops of Murano, show the figures of holy persons in a pattern of gilding and elaborated surfaces. This is persistent, even in the panels of that strange belated craftsman Crivelli. Even the calm, tender, and human art of Giovanni Bellini clings, or returns constantly, to rich accessories, golden domes, carved pilasters that cut against the most tender skies ever painted ; while a carpet or pavement leads the eye up to the rich folds of drapery enveloping a holy person, whose flesh glows in the sanctuary light against a background of brocade. In the more discursive work of Gentile Bellini and Carpaccio, though the hieratic formality of the religious picture has been dis- 3 TITIAN carded, and we are brought face to face with conscious and independent art, almost for the first time in Venice, — yet the old love of material objects, of costly textures and rich accessories, still obtained, speiaking of a delight in these things for their own sake. It was part of the reactionary programme of development in the art of Giorgione and Titian to dispense, in part, with rich accessories as mechanical adjuncts for colour, and, whilst developing the sense of air and hght, to rely for beautiful eJBFect on the varying intensity of tone. Where the colour of the early Tuscans had been seen upon one plane as it were (as in a Japanese print), being in fact only a beautiful arrange- ment of colour, Titian intensified the colouring quality to be found in the use of light and distance. Giorgione and Titian gave greater prominence to human flesh, the naked human body, which they were the first Venetians to study; though it had been one of the major elements of passionate, almost religious study with the Tuscans. Thus, perhaps mainly for the decorative advantages it offered to the painter, the nude found a place in Venetian art ; whereas in Florence it had been studied as a means of expressing the nobility of man. In the united efforts of a few men, whose works sum up for us what we admire in Venetian painting, we find this greater intensity of eyesight, this power to deal with fleeting appearances. In Bellini, and perhaps even in Giorgione and in Titian, we note that old underlying fund of materialism, that reliance upon fact which was part of the Venetian character; but with the two last something more central and synthetic supervenes, a greater hold upon the more poetic realities — a hold characteristic of the Renaissance as a whole : their Venetian inheritance was used to express a more conscious and intenser form of art. In Giorgione this spirit is still more instinctive than deliberate, perhaps less conscious than passionate. With him and Titian, the secular, bustling, and digressive spirit of Gentile BelUni and Carpaccio has been transformed into a more compact pictorial convention. With their sense of opportunity, and with their personal choice of the moment, we admire a definite poetic result, a record of an exquisite mood. Without these men, the remainder of the Venetian school would never have occupied the position in the world it now holds. The spell of their work has even cast itself backwards, upon their forerunners and masters; and, with Titian, we reach that which has passed for the art of picture-painting ever since. He made the 4 INTRODUCTION technical mould which Rubens and Velazquez only modified, and which not even Rembrandt has succeeded in breaking. Theart of picture-painting as distinguished from decorative and epical art, in which Venice had never been supreme, was evolved by Titian. In fact the picture, such as it has become in modern times, for better or for worse, owes its invention mainly to him, and to the Venetians who came within his influence. His forerunners may have hoarded some of the wealth he knew how to spend ; but if we cast our eyes over their achievements, they appear admirable isolated artists, but men whose originality was partly due to their personal limitations, or to the limitation of their aim. If in the art of painting pictures in oil, Giovanni Bellini inau- gurated a greater reliance upon tone and the quality of pigment to intensify the effect of colour, which characterises the greatest pictures of the Venetian school — if Carpaccio had even more obviously enlarged the facilities, but not the delicacies of the medium, trusting less to sculptural modelling, laying less stress upon mere ' static ' effects, both men were still practically tied down in their programme by old local conditions ; they painted pieces for churches and guilds, their art merely clothed the purpose in hand. We feel in them an instinctive development of the means of painting, just as in Tuscany we feel the constant research after design, form, and expressiveness; but in Venice till the advent of Giorgione, painting was still a subordinate thing ; the essential value of art had hardly dawned upon the Venetian mind. We are conscious of it in the work of Bellini and Carpaccio, but doubt if they themselves were equally conscious. In Tuscany it was otherwise. Take Fra Angelico, who does not compete in the field of independent or unattached painting ; who is a survival in the fifteenth century of an earlier spirit hardly allied to the aims of the Renaissance at all, even Fra Angelico gives us a work like the ' Noli Me Tangere ' in the Convent of San Marco, in which the spirit transcends the letter of the programme, and creates a painter's idyll ; so that if we did not associate the subject with the meeting of Christ and the Magdalene, we should still be moved by the two figures thus related to each other in an environment so delicate and strange. The whole art of Tuscany has these surprises in store for us ; it constantly produces a result beyond its ostensible aim. It was late in Bellini's life when he painted pictures whose dominant charm springs out of the suggestive elements they contain ; even in Carpaccio's work such effects, though frequent, are in a sense casual. 5 TITIAN Through greater centrality of motive and a stronger sense of expressive design, the Tuscans charm their work into a purely artistic effect; it is only by hints of a discursive imagination, as with Carpaccio, or with Bellini a haunting intensity of tone, that the Venetians before Giorgione and Titian obtain something beyond the mere fulfilment of the given programme, or the illustration of the subject to hand. It is among the works of Giorgione and Titian that we first find in Venice what the Renaissance called painted ' poesies ' and idylls ; that is, pictures of an allusive and poetic bent, in which we detect a love ofjjeauty for its own sake and an a 'priori wish to charm and fascinate. In these the human figure is related to its environment in a way that stimulates and haunts, and does not rely solely on the effect of tra- ditional gesture and associated symbol. The masses of the composition take upon themselves a charm of their own ; we catch constantly, it is true, at the thread of associated ideas, but without the emphasis necessitated by illustration and hard cut-and-dried representation. In the pictorial formula which Giorgione divined, and which Titian developed and made his own, we note the excursions of a rare fancy, the hold upon exquisite realistic incidents, the record of the pleasure of mere eyesight — the flash of light upon a tree, a nestling farm, or some delicate field-flower. The figures in these pictures are conceived as if on business of their own, within the pale of their charmed environment ; they are no longer, as in the earlier Venetian art, models or portraits of holy persons posed against a rich background. Within the composition and its music of line and mass they stand as symbols of an exquisite train of associated experiences and ideas, in which the glow or coolness of the light upon the colours by its persistence heightens the impression, thus intensifying the effect aimed at or suggested. In the technical rendering of each part, an entirely new set of delightful impressions is also in store for the lover of pictures; form and tone are now heightened or expressed by the quality of the touch, now suave, now sharp, now liquid, now defined ; in a dehcate stroke or trail of paint suggesting both form and even movement. By developing the resources of the practice of oil painting Titian has raised the effectiveness of that blend between the passionate and mobile frame of mind of the Renaissance, giving motive to his work, and that Venetian alertness in seeing things, which might seem to some to be in itself a sufficient end. Titian has achieved one of the most definite results in art. He therefore ranks amongst those inventors of a new 6 INTEODUCTION phase such as Giotto, Donatello, Michelangelo, Raphael, Rembrandt, and so above men sometimes his equals in personal or original power — by his felicity in circumscribing the possibilities of a great convention. We understand the force of this assertion when we realise what men have constituted themselves Titian's pupils ; Rubens, Velazquez, Vandyck, and Reynolds. We realise how great is the debt we owe to Titian, when we note that Watteau too, through the intermediary of Rubens, must be reckoned among his descendants : the French- man's art being doubly derived from that of Rubens, and from the Venetian Pastoral. It is only natural that pictures conceived upon such new and self- sufficing lines should not have been long in finding imitators amongst the Venetian contemporaries of Giorgione and Titian. History even relates that between the pioneers of the new school and the exponents of the older methods and aims there arose that hostility which we often find between the holders of vested interests and the newcomer. I have so far given great, almost sole preeminence to Titian in the evolution of the new characteristic of painting, and the heightening of its means of expression — this greater intentness on the momentary aspect of things, and the control implied in a new and almost arbitrary use of pigment. I imagine the lover of pictures already knows that the development of that lyrical mood which we call the Giorgionesque manner in art is best illustrated by works done by Titian, mainly after Giorgione's death, such as the ' Sacred and Profane Love ' and the ' Bacchanal.' Our estimate of Titian and his influence pre- supposes his further development of the practice of painting, with which Giorgione's name need not be associated ; and that greater breadth and range in the facing of realitities which justify the title given to Titian — ' Father of Modern Painting.' This new sense of pigment, this new use of chiaroscuro as a means of expression, developed by Titian, was destined to make possible the widening of the field of subject-matter in art ; so that Constable's axiom ' that there is nothing that light and shade may not make beautiful' is justified. Things ugly by association or from prejudice no longer present the difficulty in painting that they did before the invention of this power to reveal or to withhold, by the design in the lighting of the work, and by the 'conjuring' element in the workmanship. From the time of Titian onwards, art ceased to find beauty mainly in the quality and expressions of form — to some extent of beautiful tangible things, and began to analyse the expressive beauty of movement 7 TITIAN and recession. The sense for form became less pre-occupied with fact than with its appearances ; the illusive resources of painting gave the power to reveal or to withhold what was needed in the making of a picture. Curiosity, sincerity, and the realist's love of fact merely for its own sake, belong to the world of science, not that of art : none are sufficient in themselves without the transmuting qualities of selection, which lie behind the impulses to interpret and create. Curiosity is only curiosity, and sincerity nothing else ; — its mere statement is as unrelated to art as the statement of fact is unrelated to poetry, thus Giorgione and Titian are not realists in aim, in their ecstatic sense of appearances they are artists ; in their ecstatic use of their medium they are born painters ; yet with the development of the resources of oil painting it was possible for things evil and ugly, without losing their character, to become beautiful by mere interpretation. The great Tuscans had not confined themselves to the mere rendering of beautiful facts ; but their interpretation of ugliness was more the intensifying of certain energies ; it was, like their love of form and construction, an intellectual assertion. With the new interpretative method of Titian, it was possible to represent even a base or humble individual in the beautiful web or pattern of light and shade, and paint the artist weaves to content or delight the spectators, and so to prepare the way for work hke that of Velazquez, which is not creative, but only interpretative. The technical means, now developed as a new element of beauty in the painting of easel pictures, have generally obtained ever since as an ideal in the art of painting. The artist's partial independence of the choice of intrinsically beautiful subject-matter constitutes one of the elements of change introduced by Titian in the development of the Venetian School; though we saw that a marked insistence upon the importance of choice in this matter constituted the first step forward in the art of Giorgione and of Titian in his Giorgionesque phase ; that it was at this point that they differed fi-om their less curious and less passionate predecessors, till step by step we come to the point in Titian's life at which he becomes the father of modern interpretative painting. CHAPTER I VENETIAN ART DURING THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY BEFORE the middle of the fifteenth century there had been no continuous or really consecutive art effort in Venice. For centuries the energies of the Venetian people, strung to a pitch of material activity, had been devoted to the transaction of affairs which left no time for the love of art. The genius of the race found its outlet in business and in politics that were business. Venice had not hitherto contributed directly to the work of the Renaissance, the island-city itself being the sole great testimony to the genius of the race. For centuries Venice had been the gilded warehouse of the Mediterranean, built upon the sea, almost afloat, like some giant vessel into which all the material riches of the world were poured. The Ducal palace, the symbol of the Venetian state, towers to-day like a gorgeous factory or dep&t upon a wharf, fretted with its colonnade for the transaction of affairs. The great national shrine of St. Mark's, reputed to contain the stolen ashes of the saint, and upon which the Venetians had expended what wealth they cared to invest upon eter- nity, glows like some treasure cave, a corsair's shrine enriched by the hoarded spoil of centuries ; there morsels of the antique world and prizes from the orient stand welded together by Byzantine and eastern craftsmen. This magical building fascinates the spectator like some half organic compound of precious things, a hoard of varied treasure moulded into some composite mass, encrusted like a coral reef, and domed and elaborated like a hive. The policy of the Venetian state has shown in its working the elaborate and cunning mechanism of some huge pirate ship-board, in which there was no room for art, and Sidon had once more risen upon the waters. As the power of Venice diminished in the East, her policy encroached upon Italian ground, and gradually this great Eastern merchant city planted in the West won her share in the gifts with which Italy had enriched the world. The skilled men of Padua and Verona, and the 9 TITIAN genial sons of hardy little townships made subject to Venetian rule, brought their fresh creative faculties to this centre where all things had their price. The French have a saying that foreigners make the best Parisians ; this might be paraphrased, foreigners made the best Venetians, — that is, the best Venetian painters. It has been said that art and music are the swan-songs of nations, and Venice, with the slow imperceptible waning of her luckiness and power, turned to the arts and the humanities; she thus became the home of printing and painting : to us she is now the city of Titian. This city, which energy and perseverance had raised upon the sea, had known most luxuries, but till the fifteenth century she had remained poor in the things which nourish the spirit. Art in its humbler expressions, in the work of the weaver, the goldsmith, and the gilder was welcome enough ; this, like merchandise, could be valued. When, in the past, something more had been wanted for a church or palace, the humble painter who was also a gilder did well enough. Work which could be imported and executed by contract supplied the needs of the republic. Venice was the last centre in which the Greco- Byzantine craftsman found employment. Her palaces and shrines were decorated by contract and importation, much in the spirit in which the modern American furnishes his collections and establishes museums. About 1409 Gentile da Fabriano and Pisanello were summoned to decorate the Hall of the Great Council.^ This commission reveals the fact that no native painter was thought equal to the task, and to the impulse given by these masters we may like to trace the gradual formation of a group of craftsmen known as the school of Murano, a composite and fluctuating school or group of shops, which, during the major portion of the fifteenth century, supplied the artistic needs of the average Venetian. The obscure Johannes Alamanus, Antonio and Bartolommeo Vivarini, are the unequal protagonists of this polyglot local school. The Vivarini, even in the second generation, namely with Alvise, had satellite natures. This family constitutes on the whole the lagging or conservative element in Venetian painting during the fifteenth century; they supplied tuition to provincials attracted by their local reputation and traditional privileges. This school was destined, notably in the case of Alvise Vivarini, to be influenced or absorbed by the greater force which was at last to mould 1 Recently, during the repairs made in the Great Hall, Guariento's 'Paradise' has been un- covered ; this does not tend to make us regret the loss of his other works. 10 VENETIAN AUT the destinies of Venetian painting with Giovanni Bellini. Jacopo Bellini had been the first to bring to Venetian art that admirable and inexhaustible spirit of curiosity which has made the Renaissance, With the exception of some four paintings his work survives mainly in two collections of drawings in London and Paris, in which he proves him- self the true descendant of Pisanello, and Pisanello is one of those half-revealed or half- vanished planets in the hierarchy of Italian paint- ing, whose influence we imagine to have been one of the central forces which have moulded the destinies of Art. Gentile da Fabriano is still considered the teacher of Pisanello, and this curious and elaborate little master was also, traditionally, the teacher of Jacopo Bellini. But we must imagine a complex blend of influences to account for the force and variety in the work of the Venetian ; we must view Pisanello's influence as a designer and draughtsman as a point of departure, remember the losses in the work of Paolo Uccello, perhaps even conjure up an influence of Masolino to account for all that we find in the drawings of Jacopo Bellini. This wonderful man was the father of two wonderful sons. Gentile and Giovanni. Gentile inherited some- thing of his father's temper. Giovanni became the inventor or con- troller of the method of painting which has enabled Venetian art to win its place among the schools of Italy. The earliest works of Giovanni Bellini show traces of his father's teaching, crossed by the influence of Mantegna; but he developed later in a different direction towards a sunnier outlook upon nature, and towards the love of colour and the study of tone, which furnished at least the vocabulary in which Titian and Giorgione were to be so eloquent. Do not let us overrate or underrate Mantegna's influence upon Giovanni Bellini ; it was important, and the first was the greater man. With Mantegna the Promethean spirit in the art of Donatello breathed a second life, and to his influence we owe something of the * architectural ' sense we shall find to the last in the designs of Giovanni Bellini, whose supple and intuitive nature was destined, however, to find a course of its own, and even to take the impress of other influences. Do not let us lose time in vain surmises as to a possible reflex influence from Bellini upon Mantegna ; from the first his work was absolutely homogeneous, in its temper arrogant and self-supporting, an intellectual assertion ; whilst the art of Giovanni Bellini, tranquil and religious in its essence, realised the lovableness which is in homely things, in the beauty of light and its play upon women's faces, in the limbs of little children, and in the ardent colour of those beautiful 11 TITIAN textures with which the church then clothed its rituals. The genius of Mantegna was equal to the evocation of Caesar himself, in a recon- structed Rome. The human form and the very ground on which it moved had to undergo a ' governing ' influence. Bellini had no such aim, but the gift to touch things with a golden touch ; not to know or see by the light of an intense preconception, but to remember and record with a tranquil tenderness which is single in its kind. I repeat, from the early ancona by Mantegna in the Brera to the Trevulzi ' Madonna in Glory,' there are revealed an unbroken habit of mind and a great singleness of method. With Bellini this was never the case; we can turn from the ' Pietk ' in the Brera, which is still in a sense Mantegnesque, to the late ' Madonna ' in the same room, which looks like a Bissolo ; the sculptural method of the early work is at last dis- carded for the creamy tones and over-soft pigments which Bissolo shared with a younger generation whose activity was influenced by Giorgione. The genius of Mantegna knew no compromise, he was a continuation in the later fifteenth century of the giant generation of Tuscans, who had moulded it at its start.^ Bellini may be said to have ignored in part even the experimental efforts of his father Jacopo in his effort towards suavity and logic in the grammar of painting, which became the language of Giorgione and Titian. To his credit belongs the development of the Venetian school towards the study of light ; the Flemish method of oil painting brought to Venice by that fas- cinating little craftsman Antonello da Messina found a greater expan- sion in his hands. BelUni's influence modified the practice of Alvise Vivarini, and of Cima da Conegliano, and created about him a host of satellite painters and collaborators, who, like Basaiti, Catena, and Bissolo, were destined to reflect later the changes wrought in Venetian art by Giorgione and his circle. The last years of the fifteenth century and the early years of the sixteenth were full of eifort. The art of Venice resembled a tardy spring in which a mass of divers plants put out their flowers and leaves at once. Gentile BeUini, Jacopo de' Barbari, and Carpaccio represent a secular spirit in art which had been slow to develop out of the experimental work of Jacopo Bellini. In 1488 Giovanni BelUni had painted the Frari altar picture, the year 1505 saw the completion of the S. Zaccaria ' Madonna and Saints.' Between these two dates we 1 Of course Mantegna was not a Tuscan, but he reflects the influence of Donatello, perhaps even that of Paolo Uccello ; his master Squarcioue, who is answerable for the local accent in Mantegna's work, shows the influence of Donatello in his picture at Berlin. 12 VENETIAN ART witness in Venice one of those startling and sudden developments for which we have only a few parallels in history ; once, when the art of Giotto sprang up like a fountain in a desert, and again when Brunelleschi, Donatello and Masaccio were friends, and yet again when Leonardo returned to Florence and competed with the young Michelangelo, whilst Raphael came and watched them at work. Within a few years of Titian's arrival in Venice, when he was still a boy, the place had become full of change and the rumours of change ; Antonello had been bereft of his secret. Gentile Bellini and Carpaccio were about to do wonders, — miracles in the secular spirit. The merchant city on the lagoons had become the home of painting ; it was soon to become the place where the spirit of the Renaissance was destined to linger on and on in a long St. Martin's summer, and yield an aftermath of beauty to the world, when the rest of Italy had sunk to the level of a satellite nation, tiie home of the priest and the politician. 13 CHAPTER II TITIAN'S BIRTH AND PARENTAGE WRITERS on Titian have been unanimous in ascribing to the scenery of the place in which he first saw the light a perma- nent injfluence upon his pictures. The now lost ' Battle'of Cadore ' doubtless showed this, and the background of ' The Presenta- tion of the Virgin ' contains reminiscences of the abrupt slopes and the rugged heights of the mountain places of his birth ; his other works reveal, however, the softer lowlands lying north of Venice, where the distant peaks form but a ridge of tender blue against the sky. The family of the Vecelli had for several generations held honour- able offices in the little mountain town of Cadore. The name Titian was frequent among his relatives, who seem to have been active and energetic folk, with whom the practice of arms and the law had been almost hereditary. Conte Vecelli, Titian's grandfather, and Gregorio, the father of the famous painter, were influential men in the small hardy township, energetic and trusted, but poor, and the poverty of Gregorio may account for the readiness with which he apprenticed his two sons, Titian and Francesco, to the trade of painting, for which Titian when a child had probably shown an early aptitude. Gregorio Vecelli held the office of captain of the ' Century ' of Pieve from 1495 to 1508, overseer of the corn stores in 1518, and member of council from 1523 to 1527 ; he became inspector of mines in 1525, and super- intendent of the Castle repairs in 1526. These posts were his, how- ever, after Titian had settled in Venice. The thrift of the early home life (inevitable in the thinly-populated mountain town) may have tended to develop the business sense which we find in Titian when a man, but the sense of affairs was probably hereditary in this family of level-headed country folk, and in Venice the love of worldly things was not likely to be diminished, for the Venetian patrician was first a man of affairs and a patrician afterwards. The painter's mother, Lucia, bore to her husband two sons, Titian, 14 TITIAN'S BIRTH AND PARENTAGE and Francesco, supposed to have been the elder of the boys, though his paintings reveal him always as an imitator of his brother's work, so that we are probably safe in assuming that Francesco was Titian's junior. On this matter, however, we know next to nothing; we are not even certain about the date when Titian himself was born.^ Lucia also bore two daughters, Caterina and Orsa, the latter of whom kept house for Titian when he had lost the mother of his children. The painter throughout his life seems to have kept well in touch with his relatives, and it is to a cousin thrice removed, Tizianello, that we owe the anonymous life of his great relative, dedicated in 1622 to the Countess of Arundel. With a patient research which is likely to remain final in its results, Crowe and Cavalcaselle have given us an elaborate account of the painter's parentage, home and childhood. The boy Titian was taken to Venice probably at the age of nine or ten to be apprenticed to some art-shop, and the spirit of legend, using the Anonimo as a genial mouthpiece, ascribes to his childhood a painting of the Virgin done with the juices of flowers. This harmless and charming fiction has a symbolic interest; it remains a graceful legend concerning one who was destined to put the glow and the richness of summer into his pictures, and to give colour its claim among the finest achievements in the art of design. In the life of Titian by Crowe and Cavalcaselle we shall find also a ; spirited picture of the ardent life upon the Rialto at the end of the fifteenth century, where the neighbouring schools of painting and music had their homes. In the house of Gentile Bellini was treasured m a Venus ascribed to Praxiteles, and an antique bust of Plato, and we can - imagine the significance these vestiges of antiquity had for the younger " men in this period, when the spirit of the time had become conscious of - new powers, and was fuU of a sense of the discovery of some new-found ^ treasure or heritage. In the Piazza di Rialto, then the heart of Venice, in the Merceria, which is still its main artery, was a throng not merely given over to trade alone ; a new temper had become common to the people there, a new sense of intellectual luxury had been added to the older one, and a spiritual well-being had become necessary to these folk whom we see pictured in their holiday clothes in the canvases of Gentile Bellini and in the pageant-pictures of Carpaccio. It is perhaps difficult to us, when appraising the marvellous in- heritance bequeathed by this period, not to over-estimate its conscious-\ ' The usually accepted date is 1477. 15 TITIA]Sr ness; possibly to the young Titian, then an apprentice or painter's drudge, there was no such obvious focussing of interest, no such psychological moment in Venice ; or perhaps the sense of it seemed but the possession of a chosen few, a message cried out in what was but a wilderness after all ; for history, in her novel-making capacity, selects effective and significant facts, and overlooks the mass of dreary detail which forms in life the tyranny of the instant. Yet, to us look- ing backwards, the last twenty years of the fifteenth century in Venice are years of profound significance. In 1488 Giovanni Bellini had painted the ' Madonna ' of the Frari, one of the most perfect pictures in the history of painting, — to us his music-making children seem the equivalent of the bee and bird-like children with wings, which Greece has yielded up from the graves of Tanagra. About this period Bellini , may have painted the small cameo-like panels which in the Accademia \ are now framed with a ' Siren ' by Jacopo de' Barbari, and in the odd secular temper of Barbari we detect something of the quaint discursive spirit we shall find in the earlier works of Giorgione himself Was the period when the boy Titian came to Venice one of change and excitement ? I think after all it could have been nothing less to a lad who had left a mountain home for a town which had become one of the intellectual crucibles of Italy in the days of her extreme artistic wealth, a wealth which still enriches the world, which cannot pass away, for the art of a generation is all that endures of it ; it is the only treasure man would ' wish dug up again ' ; — aU that endures of a nation is its art. Yet how little the true significance of essential events may he present to the mind of a contemporary 1 We may possibly realise this in the fact that Titian's father apprenticed his son, not to one of the Venetian masters, but to a certain Sebastian Zuccato, a mosaicist, probably a painter also, but of whom we know nothing. "Titian is said to have passed later from the workshop of Gentile Bellini to that of Giovanni, to become the pupil and partner of Giorgione. Dolce asserts that Gentile disapproved of the tendency of his apprentice to work quickly and boldly, and prophesied failure in this new course; this criticism of the veteran may well represent the temper of the older masters towards the new fashion among the younger men, for it is almost universal among artists to remember their own early training only when it. has become their turn to teach, and in so doing to forget the changes they themselves have brought about in the arts they practise. 16 TITIAN'S BIRTH AND PARENTAGE Several years later we find Titian petitioning for the reversal of the Broker's patent held by the veteran Giovanni Bellini. This may indicate that his stay with that master had been short and casual ; it may, however, prove nothing but a mere act of common prudence which the Bellini circle viewed as an encroachment upon future vested interests. That there was a certain measure of spiritual antagonism between the old school and the new we can well imagine, though in the work of the veterans we shall find a degree of technical emancipa- tion which is not surpassed in the earliest works of Giorgione, whose revolutionary innovations were not entirely of a technical nature, so much as a change in temper. But so it is ever in artistic revolutions ! To us, the spectators, who can look back, the sudden break between the old and the new is always less significant than it seemed at the time. In art the spirit changes more rapidly than the means, it is in the first that there is usually the greater novelty. In modern times, for instance, we shall not detect the change in practice between a work by Maclise and Mr. Holman Hunt's painting of ' Bienzi ' : yet in the change of mood lay a revolution ; nor does the break between the work of Courbet and Manet appear an alteration in the direction of painting, but merely the natural course of a branch of the same river watering a neighbouring field. Are we to imagine that gradually a reflected influence was exerted by the revolutionists even upon the veterans, that the altar-piece at S. Zaccaria is tinged by the advent of Giorgione ? This is probable ! In Florence we can detect the reflex action of Leonardo upon Verrocchio. Venetian painting toward 1505 presents the gorgeous aspect of a flower-bed early in July, where we shall find survivals from the spring, the new wealth of summer, and, if we look attentively, some plant which hints at the coming autumn. There was an increase in the quality of the older work, and a blossoming out of new tenden- cies. History and legend have sought to ascribe these facts to the example and influence of a wonderful man ; in fact it is difficult to focus any new tendency in art without the use of a name. In this case that name is Giorgione. If the year 1488 be accepted as the probable date of Titian's arrival in Venice at the age of nine or ten, some seven years must be allowed to elapse for his apprenticeship, years of which we know nothing, in which there is perhaps nothing to know. Vasari ascribes to Titian at the age of eighteen a portrait of a gentleman of the house of Barbarigo which would have passed for a work of Giorgione if Titian had not inscribed T.— 2 1 7 TITIAN his name in the shadow on the background. Is this statement exact ? It was made by one who knew the number of years in which a boy in the Renaissance was able to become a trained craftsman while still in his adolescence. This picture would therefore have been painted about 1497, though I incline to think the date too early ; yet what may be inaccurate in its circumstance may be true in substance. Vasari establishes the fact that from the very first Titian's work reflected the new change in Venetian painting which had crystallised round the name of Giorgione, and as a matter of fact we have no early work of Titian's revealing any earlier influence. The frescoes at Padua, ' executed in 1511, show Titian a master, but still a debtor to Giorgione. Before this last date we are able to group tentatively a few works, and make learned guesses. What is essential in the design and purpose of these earlier pictures is in the manner of Giorgione, though from the yfirst these works reveal a more instinctive realism and plastic sense ^/Which count in the development of the future man. I might even add that they reflect the influence of Giorgione's maturity ; we have no certain work by Titian reflecting his master's early manner ; no Bellinesque work is left that we can ascribe to Titian. But before proceeding to study his earlier paintings, it might be advisable to pause and consider what was the mission, the true original message of Giorgione, who by his example and personal influence acted so power- fully as a leaven in the Venetian tradition, who furnished new patterns | of design, new types, and above all a new sense of the aims of^ painting. 18 CHAPTEE III GIORGIONE I HAVE already stated that the technical innovations inaugurated by Giorgione, notably at first, seem less revolutionary to us than to his contemporaries, that a more delicious lustre of colour, a richer sense of chiaroscuro, a more tender method of painting, had been practised by Giovanni Bellini as early as 1488 in his master- piece at the Frari. Bellini's superb picture in S. Zaccaria (finished in 1505) is, notably in the figure of St. Jerome, practically in the new fused and golden manner, and, if we turn to the St. Ursula series of Carpaccio, the painting there is free, fresh and bold ; the change was therefore not so much a technical or even visual change as a change in the temper of art, it expressed above all a new sense of design, or if you will, a partiality for a kind of art which was new in aim. The revolution tended towards a more synthetic but less formal scheme of things, and a spirit of fantasy or even caprice supplanted the older tendency to fulfil a given programme. I have hinted that the half-pagan designs of Barbari may have furnished some sort of precedent for this, and in Barbari I am disposed to think that we have not merely an influence upon Giorgione in his earliest works, such as ' The Ordeal by Fire,' but among Barbari's prints we shall find com- positions of a bas-relief type with which Giorgione's name has since become associated, designs in which a wall acts as a lateral support or buttress to the pattern of the picture, whilst a ledge or parapet does duty for a pedestal. In fact we see in a picture by Barbari, 'A Concert '^ (in the possession of Mr. Salting), despite its archaisms, the pattern of a new kind of picture of a ' conversation type ' with which the new school has since become identified. At the risk of wearying the reader by the repetition of a fact, the ' This pi cture, ascribed to Roberti, is now actually in the National Gallery. The student should note the mannered hands, and the type of woman and the singer behind the musician. 19 TITIAN secret of the new movement, its * new novelty,' was a novelty of temper, a recasting of elements sometimes current in Venetian art, a new habit in the choice of familiar things— at least so it was at &st ; it is an older generation of critics who, basing their impression of Giorgione on the immortal ' F^te champetre ' in the Louvre, see in him solely the expression of the early sixteenth century. Technically most of his pictures belong to the century out of which they emerge, to the fifteenth, namely ; but Giorgione, with the temper of a prodigal, strained the old Venetian inheritance to its utmost, putting it to new uses. That which had been held of minor significance became important. We might put it thus — the incidents in the background of a work by Bellini or Cima became sufficient in themselves, and supplanted the more formal subject-matter to which they had been accessory in the past. The people of Carpaccio, diverted from their duties and business, now loiter in groups of twos and threes, the sur- vivors of a pagan world, faun and nymph, leave cornice and bas- relief, to haunt fair luminous places in which even holy persons will no longer stand abrupt and admonitory, but move as if swayed by a new wayward and gracious mood of thought. The quaint occasional flights of fancy of the older men have ceased to be occasional. Bacchus and his rout are no longer symbols of Licence, and the very Venus herself has thrown off her old disguise as Veritas to turn her symbolic mirror into that of beauty absorbed in a mood of self- worship. With Giorgione religious painting remembered only the mansuetude of the Catholic Church, but forgot its doctrines of humility and obedience. So art became pagan in spirit, valuing beauty as a virtue ; tenderness replaced sanctity in the hierarchy of Arirtues, contemplation became self-contemplativeness, and we shall never again be able to look upon the beautiful St. Sebastian as quite a saint, while the angelic throng itself became hopelessly compromised by a swarm of cupids whose home would have been nearer Alexandria than the heavenly kingdom, where each is as a child. The older school looked askance upon a generation to whom the worship of beauty seemed without danger or secrecy, to whom ' daring ' meant the same thing as success, to whom the ' now ' was as precious as the ' past ' or the ' future.' Romance and discovery, the wish to fascinate and charm,— to fascinate and to express a sense of fascination ; to be impassioned of passion, to go beyond mere statement and assertion into a field in which these things express a marked personal choice, to escape the 20 GIOKGIONE habitual, the traditional and the foreseen, these are the secrets of Giorgio of Castelfranco. If we make a rapid survey of Giorgione's earliest works, the change of temper is always more noticeable than the technical advance towards freedom of handling, this last quahty existing, it is true, but with perhaps a lesser power of realisation than that which characterised some of the masters of the older school. ' The Ordeal by Fire ' and ' The Judgment of Solomon ' in the Uffizi are more facile in workmanship, but immeasurably less explicit and less accomplished than the masterpieces of Giovanni Bellini. The 'Adrastus and Hypsipyle' in the Giovanelli Collection is a more romantic work than any other seen hitherto in Venetian painting, though the feeble drawing and the experimental scheme of things dis- played in the accessories certainly establish no technical advance or discovery. The ' Adoration of the Magi ' in the National Gallery ^ is romantic enough in the conception of the holy persons, but it is only in the painting of the crowd that we detect the touch of ' the lion's paw.' The 'Portrait' at Berlin, and the 'Judith 'at St. Petersburg, are profoundly fascinating, not masterly works, and the same might be said of ' The Philosophers ' (Aeneas, Evander and Pallas) at Vienna, but, despite a lack of cohesion in the pictorial scheme of this work, the new pictorial formula is here conscious and explicit. This is the first great landscape in painting. Here, the old accomplishment in accessory portions has been sacrificed to intensity of effect, a revolu- tion has been accomplished between the painting of this work and the early ' Ordeal by Fire ' with its spray and plume-like trees, and marionette-like figures. The picture at Vienna is a masterpiece, despite a certain technical hesitancy or a rift in the constructive faculty which is temperamental in Giorgione. Certain pictorial elements have been established, the glowing envelope to the flesh, the sober tranquilUsing masses in the landscape will be remem- bered for centuries. This picture established a new ' convention ' in painting. When did Giorgione paint the ' Christ ' in the Gardner Collection with its great technical accomplishment applied to a traditional design ? I am unable to decide. The famous picture at Castelfranco reveals a similar blending of traditional elements (inseparable perhaps from_the conditions fulfilled by the picture itself, which are such as we might find * The present writer accepts this as a typical specimen of Giorgione's early work. It should not be confused with the painting; of Catena showing the reflex influence of Giorgione. 21 TITIAN in an altar-piece by Cima), yet it remains in many respects the master- piece of the new movement ; here the old and new elements in the Venetian tradition meet and become fused, and from this time onward a different aspect will be noticeable in the rendering of religious sub- jects even in the work of the older masters themselves. How different, how new a temper Giorgione brought to the art of Venice is shown by the enchanting 'Orpheus and Eurydice' at Bergamo ; ^ though allied to the ' Adrastus and Hypsipyle ' and the ' Judith,' this work approximates more than they do to the fantastic designs for the Fondaco de' Tedeschi, and the landscape is of a type which was still sufficient for Titian's purposes in his frescoes at Padua. In a careful print (by Hollar) we shall recognise the early tradi- tional portrait of Giorgione ; aquiline in type and with the delicate cloud of hair, he is here dressed in half armour, and rests his hand on the head of Goliath. A copy of another ' David ' at Vienna can make no claim to represent the painter ; here the model is too young. The Vienna picture, however, bears directly on a genuine Giorgione: a fragment of the original, restored as a ' Shepherd,' is now preserved at Hampton Court.^ This rapid survey, in which the reader must pardon many repeti- tions, brings us to the consideration of the decorations of the Fondaco, in which Titian worked as the partner of Giorgione. Of this signifi- cant work we are unfortunately only able to form an impression in the stufiy and niggled prints of Zanetti, and alas ! in most cases these humble records give us fragments only, and no more authoritative description as to their authorship than that which was current in the eighteenth century. In this work the name of Titian emerges into history, and legend would have it that some gentlemen praising Giorgione for certain portions of the decoration which were due to Titian, thereby estranged the friends. This legend is endorsed by Dolce, but not by the Anonimo, and I think indirect proof against it is afforded by the evidence that Titian completed some of the works left by Giorgione at his death. ' The figure of Eurydice, the dragon and the sky are modern in surface, the landscape (to right), the ground and distant figures are painted with extreme delicacy in thin warm transparent pigment. This is not a copy by Cariani, but a damaged original, the technical method is unlike Cariani, the warm liquid browns typical of Giorgione. I have examined this picture closely, having removed the heavy dust from its surface with a pocket handkerchief. ^ See The Prado and its Masterpieces by present author, pp. 123-4. 22 GIORGIONE The significance of the decorations on the Fondaco was decisive, the Bellinesque circle became affected, Catena, Bissolo, Basaiti even, each in turn painted Giorgionesque pictures, and in the next few years a new generation grouped itself round the movement, lit for a while by a reflected light caught from Giorgione, to sink into obscurity as the tradition became lost ; these men were Lotto, Piombo, Palma, Cariani, Savoldo and Dosso Dossi. The decorations of the Fondaco established the advent of a new era in Italian painting. Few chapters in Crowe and Cavalcaselle's Life of Titian exceed in interest the detailed account of the circumstances which surrounded the Fondaco and its rebuilding after the fire in 1405, and its subse- quent decoration by the finest Venetian painters. It had been decided that the new building should be erected on a nobler scale, and with greater luxury than that which had characterised the former palace, which stood merely as a warehouse, exchange, and club (for such were the conditions it fulfilled). With Giorgione and Titian, Morto da Feltre was associated as decorator, and to Morto Vasari ascribes the first deliberate study of the ancient fresco-remains then existing in the ruins of Rome and in the neighbourhood of Pozzuoli, though the neo-pagan arabesques or grotesques had been a fashion before him, and one in which Signorelli and Pinturicchio had made admirable experiments. Do not let us lose sight of the fact that in all essentials the decorations of the Fondaco were new in aim and effect. The effort counted not merely as the consecration of the Renaissance in Venice, it counts also in the history of the development of the new manner in Italy, it is one of the most significant events in art. Venice, who had been till then a laggard in conscious or in united effort towards the 'new movement,' now comes to the fore in the race, and from that time her place is secure in the lists. Of the general scheme of the Fondaco we can unfortunately form no valid impression, the fragments of designs reveal types of figures, common to the pictures of Giorgione and his circle, but a copy of the book which it has been my privilege to see, carefully coloured in the eighteenth century in map-like tints, shows us the original colour schemes, the great use of golden yellow, dull purple, green and occasional touches of bright scarlet ; in one design there are mauve clouds seen against a turquoise sky. Some of the accessory designs were done in terra-vert. In these decorations we recognise the parapet and ledges, and flat 23 TITIAN wall spaces with which Giorgione framed in his compositions. The most complete of them, an allegorical figure resting her foot on a head, is ascribed by Vasari to Giorgione, and its character justifies this ascription, though Zanetti, following some other tradition, gives it to Titian. Judging from the prints we may take for granted that something abrupt in composition and experimental in drawing characterised the decorations of the Fondaco. To the later years of Giorgione's activity belongs a series of works round which criticism has been busy, in which his art ran forward, though we may imagine that with the development or broadening of his method some initial weakness in the fibre of the man became manifest and may thus have accounted for their unfinished condition ; these works are, however, of great beauty ; there remain designs also which we divine to be his, interpreted or exploited by weaker hands. The 'Judgment of Solomon' (Bankes collection) is unfinished, with the evidence of hesitations and revisions. ' The ' Woman taken in Adultery ' in the Glasgow Museum passes as a copy or imitation by Cariani, but without sufficient reason.^ The damaged ' Knight of Malta ' in the Uffizi is accepted by common consent as a masterpiece by Giorgione ; in this noble work more than in any other his genius estabUshes a pattern picture which Titian will make his own, for in this work, which stands unrelated to anything done hitherto, Giorgione- paints the first magisterial portrait in the manner of the sixteenth Century. Among feeble old prints we catch glimpses of lost pictures possibly his ; but despite the three most beautiful works which are attributed to him by general consent, namely, the unfinished ' Madonna and Saints ' at Madrid, the ' Concert Champitre ' in the Louvre and the ' Sleeping Venus ' at Dresden, our conception of him becomes gradually less distinct ; it is as if a new influence had arisen. We have accepted the ' Knight of Malta ' almost without evidence, the Madrid picture on internal evidence, the ' Concert Champitre,' despite certain technical peculiarities (did Titian not collaborate in this picture ?) and the ' Venus ' at Dresden, though in this case, that which is not modified by the patient stippling and mending of a skilful and conscientious restorer, reveals the workmanship and amendments made * In the completely ruined picture of ' The Three Ages ' in the Pitti, sometimes ascribed to Lotto, we have the pattern picture for the conversation-pieces which culminate in the world- famous ' Concert ' by Titian in the same gallery. 24 GIOEGIONE by Titian. The technical characteristics of Giorgione become less distinct, they seem crossed by a new influence : I believe this influence to have been that of Titian. I have said nothing hitherto of the character of Giorgione which has come down to us in legend — how that he was handsome and engaging, of agreeable address and an accomplished musician, beloved by his friends and loved of women. There was a new element m the very circumstances of his life as an artist, he moved in chosen circles, was fond of pleasure and dress, he was in no sense the mere padrone of a well-ordered shop for the painting of pious pictures. In the personality of the man we can divine one of those characters which are potent as a stimulus as well as an example, and since many designs by other men bear the stamp of his temper and even of his invention, we can imagine that he was ready with advice and help to others. In his influence we catch the hint of one of those alert personalities who give warmth to natures less ardent and self-reliant, and whose character sweetens the blood of a generation. In his work the influence led towards a decorative art with a tendency to genre, but genre coloured by a sensitive and poetic cast of thought which played with realism and fact. With him realism was less naturalistic in aim than with Carpaccio or Gentile, or even at times Giovanni Bellini. Giorgione replaces the statement of facts by the rendering of their chance appearance, or, if you will, their appearance to a nature in which the bias was all for beauty — aU for beautiful emotion. In this new spirit of approach, with its wish to persuade and fascinate, lay the difference between his art and that of the earlier school of painting in which his technical practice has its root. The earlier masters were Christian in aim or at least in intentioii. Giorgione's services tend towards another bias. To those who con- fuse religion with emotion (and they are many) the painter of the Castelfranco ' Madonna ' and the ' Christ Bearing the Cross ' will seem a religious painter, to others to whom the romantic and aesthetic quality in the rendering of a given subject are all-sufficient, these works wiU merely seem to touch a deeper note in ' musical ' invention. Giorgione's confession might have been that of a Saint (how different in temper!), to whom we owe the admission, 'Amabam Amare.' The spirit in which he worked is 'all for love.' To him 25 TITIAN the world with its people seemed at some crisis. To us, the spectators, his men and women turn satiated and self-involved from the knot he leaves unravelled. They are ' faint with the whole of pleasure,' to quote the words of Rossetti, to whose influence we owe in England a similar revolution towards the expression of beauty and the service of beauty. We can realise how strong was the impulse given by Giorgione and how persuasive, in the influence he maintained upon the self- reliant temper of Titian, who till middle age showed in his painting the trace of his companionship. I would add that Giorgione's absolute value in achievement, or his claim to rank amongst the greatest masters, is hardly expressed in any single work or masterpiece which Titian cannot easily surpass, not even in the ' Concert Champitre,' yet, failing the few works of his we own, we would be conscious in the painting of Titian, Piombo, Lotto, Cariani, and Savoldo of some influence which we could not account for, and we would surmise that between Carpaccio and Titian lay some gap in the logical sequence of Venetian art, ' as if some planet had disappeared.' Giorgione was one of those revolutionists whose influence spreads like a leaven amongst the chosen few to whom art is an urgent and imperative need. His example modified the temper and altered the 'diction' of Venetian painting as profoundly as the influence of Keats has altered the poetic language and with it the intimate thought of England. We are in presence of a temperamental force whose immediate action gains significance with time, and against which the powers of ' busy common-sense ' are of no avail. We may bring against him any chance accusation we will, such as partiality of vision or incompleteness in the faculties of realisation, yet the world has need of the qualities which he possessed. Reduce his pictures to a few fragments, or even to a legend and a name, that name would still be cherished as we remember the fame of Sappho and the fame of Praxiteles whose names stand for beauty and persuasion. So it is with Giorgione ; the voluptuous spirit which once enchanted Venice haunts us still as a delicate presence, half -felt, half-divined. Were the colours to burn out of his few remaining pictures and crumble into ashes, the name and the magic of his fame would survive like the haunting quality of some music which has ceased. The world has need of passion, it will forgive failure for the sake of a legend, for man 'cannot live by bread alone.' In moments of 'return' upon ourselves we love to think of those who ignored our own limitations, 26 GIOKGIOJSTE and turned excess and languor even into beauty. So we prize the legend of this princely man, and through him our reverence of an age and nation has been increased. The name of Giorgione stands for a tendency in human thought, his place is among those few who saw in art not the shallow reflection of fact, but who found a means to add to life. 27 CHAPTER IV EARLY WORKS DONE BEFORE 1511 MR. CLAUDE PHILLIPS in his book on Titian, which remains by far the most well-considered monograph on the artist, has expressed the hope that some future student might do for the youthful work of Titian what Morelli and his school have done for Correggio, and restore to him a series of paintings earUer in date than those which criticism has up to the present time been content to accept. Our present knowledge of public galleries and private collections renders this wish daily more improbable of fulfil- ment; we have no early work reflecting in Titian the influences of Gentile or Giovanni Bellini ; the earliest picture which has been ascribed to him, more by common consent than on any internal evidence, is a small feeble Giorgionesque work representing the ' Man of Sorrows,' in the Scuola di S. Rocco. Of the detail and texture of this picture (Plate i.) it is now impos- sible to form an opinion, so damaged and blighted is it by exposure, neglect, and old crumbling restoration. It is now lustreless and hue- less, reduced, in fact, to that pitch of decay we shall find only in pictures stfll in the churches and provincial galleries of Italy. ' The Man of Sorrows ' is an insignificant work done under the influence of Gior- gione. The figure, detached in cameo on a dark ground, belongs, in the simplicity of its scheme, not to the Mantegnesque Pietks of Bellini, but to a different fashion in design. If this work can with justice be ascribed to a major man, I would urge that the small hands and the thin pencilled lips approximate more nearly to the manner of Giorgione, that the small space of flesh above the crown of thorns is a detail in his mode, but I would hasten to add that all this is conjecture ; the condition of the work is hopeless, it is moreover hung in a small room facing a window under conditions which render its examination difficult and fruitless : — personally I hope that it is not by Titian and not by Giorgione. 28 EARLY WORKS DONE BEFORE 1511 The remaining pictures which claim our attention as early paintings by Titian are mature in manner, quite accomplished in the handling of pigment, and related, in the opinion of the writer, not to the earlier and more tentative phases of Giorgione's practice, but to the broader outlook he had inaugurated with his picture at Castelfranco ; one might even allow that, if in conception they are still Giorgionesque, the character of the pigment is more solid, the touch more square, and the sense of form broader and more influenced by direct study of nature than is the case with Giorgione. This is notably the case with the famous 'Zingarella Madonna' at Vienna (Plate ii.). This picture has unfortunately suffered under restoration, the sky is damaged, and recent cleaning has revealed old mends and patches which could not be removed. In the construction of the picture, with its ripe Giorgionesque landscape and broad draperies, we are in the early sixteenth century, any trace of the quattrocento has disappeared. A striped green cloth replaces the rich brocades of the past, this striped material being one of those habits in the choice of accessories which we shall find in the Castelfranco ' Madonna,' and in Titian's ' St. Mark ' in the Salute. In many respects the ' Zingarella ' is less formal in contour than Gior- gione's ' Madonna ' at Castelfranco, and the Holy Child is mature in type, the construction of his arms and hips shows certain characteristics which Titian will retain for some twenty years. Allied in style to the ' Zingarella,' though in the opinion of the author slightly later, is a yet more Giorgionesque ' Madonna and Child' (Plate iii.), which is one of the treasures of the Benson col- lection, — that most enchanting of recently formed private collections, perhaps the only one in England devoted to the nobler schools of art. Slighter in aim and effort than the ' Zingarella,' this charming work shows a tendency in Titian's designs to make his Virgins bend diagon- ally towards the Infant;^ typical of his practice is the delicate ' crumpling ' of the folds of the linen veil, and the reddish contours of the Child. The straight-cut corsage is similar to that used in other paintings produced in the first few years of the sixteenth century ; the fall of the veil behind the profile will become a habit of design, — we shall find it in the ' Madonna with St. Bridget and St. Ulphus ' at Madrid, and so onward, in many Holy Conversations, and even in the ' Annunciation ' at Treviso. I would class tentatively among Titian's earhest pictures the little ' Tambourine Player ' at Vienna (Plate iv.) ; the flat rendering of the ^ See ' Conversation ' (Madrid), ' Virgin and Saints ' (Vienna). ^ 29 TITIAN silhouetted trees, the few sprays on the ground (rendered as Giorgione rendered them), would justify us in placing it among his earliest known canvases. The aim of the work is slight, it is lacking not in charm, but in some element of decision which would convince us as to its date and even authorship. We can enjoy, however, the cool colour scheme, the spray of yellow jasmine and the touch of scarlet on the tambourine. In classing these paintings together do not let us forget that a certain latent immaturity or abruptness of design characterises what we know of the paintings done for the Fondaco, in which Titian col- laborated with Giorgione, and that some stiffness of contour always belongs to the latter. I would wish to avoid all pedantic assertion in this matter, since the evelution of an artist may at times be sudden, he may advance or become retarded by the varying scale in which he happens to be work- ing, he may even be affected by the subject-matter on hand; our knowledge, also, is burdened at times by what is known by tradition, and decision made more difficult by evidence. Such a problem is presented by the picture of ' Pope Alexander vi. presenting Jacopo Pesaro to St. Peter,' preserved in the Gallery at Antwerp (Plate v.), in which all authorities agree to see a work painted about the year 1503, since it is supposed that after Pope Alexander's death no one would care to be associated with him, even in a picture. I think writers on art have over-estimated the likeness this work presents to the manner of earlier masters, such as Carpaccio and even Bellini. I can detect no such likeness. To me, at least, every important element in the work is Titian's own, the Pope reminds me of Titian's portrait of the Doge Niccol6 Marcello (Vatican) ; the marble pedestal is mature, not to say mannered in design, like that in the ' Sacred and Profane Love,' and where the picture shows any outside influence it is the already familiar influence of Giorgione, notably in the buttressing wall and the green curtain behind St. Peter and in the abrupt action of the saint, with his raised foot and hanging cloak. Were we without indirect evidence, valid or imaginary, I should ascribe the picture, approximately, to the year 1508 and not to an earlier date.^ There remain some quite Giorgionesque works which may be grouped between the period in which the decorations of the Fondaco were executed and the visit to Padua. The ' Caterina Cornaro ' in the Crespi collection (Plate vi.), with the exaggerated decorative ' The Borgia arms occur on the hanner in the Pesaro altar-piece finished in 1626. 30 EARLY WORKS D0:N^E BEFORE 1511 sculptured ledge, and the Cobham 'Ariosto,' now acquired by the National Gallery (Plate vi.), should be mentioned here. Con- cerning these pictures all authorities do not agree, and some would ascribe them to Giorgione. We actually have to glance at Titian's later works, then to return to them, and so recognise certain tenden- cies which belong to him and not to his master, Titian in his render- ing of eyes keeps them well open, he gives the upper lid a thicker form than is the case with most painters. I hardly know how to describe this characteristic, which was unbroken throughout his life, and which tends to give a slightly animal expression to the gaze of all his women. I am not sure that I should even describe the upper lid as thick, it were better to say it is too equal in thickness from corner to corner. We shall notice this even in portraits, it is present in the ' Zingarella,' the ' Caterina Cornaro,' in the ' Ariosto,' it is very notice- able in the young man in ' The Concert,' even ruthless restoration has not destroyed this characteristic, for the eyes of the ' Ariosto ' have been emphasised by a restorer, and in the ' The Concert,' the head of the young man has been terribly damaged. In the Cobham picture (traditionally called Ariosto,) the quilted sleeve and the delicate linen present passages which show the soft rich impasto of Titian. This portion would seem later in date to the rest of the picture by several years. Authorities are divided over the authorship of the early and now irretrievably ^ ruined 'Christ bearing the Cross,' in the Church of S. Rocco, which Vasari expressly ascribes to Titian in his life of the master, which he wrote after his life of Giorgione. The figure of the Saviour is undoubtedly reminiscent of the ' Christ ' by Giorgione now in the Gardner collection, but the action of the arm of the executioner who holds the rope at the throat of the Saviour is Titianesque in pose and shows an insistence On a large and fleshy deltoid, which is habitual with him, notably in his shepherds and fauns done later.^ According to Vasari, Titian painted the ' Tobias and Angel ' (S. Marziale) in 1507 — perhaps from some confusion in his notes or infor- mation — for this picture belongs to a totally different period in the painter's career. A Giorgionesque design of this subject however has been preserved to us in an engraving by Leffebre (Plate xxiv.), and in an old copy done later, now hung in the church of S. Caterina. This shows an affinity to the famous design of the ' Triumph of Faith,' which belongs, if not to the period immediately preceding the visit to * Above this picture is a lunette painted by Francesco Vecellio, representing God the Father. 31 TITIAN Padua as stated by Vasari, to a period very close to it. The ' Triumph of Faith' (Plates xi.-xv.) reveals not only reminiscences of Mantegna, but we shall note that the St. Lawrence reminds us forcibly of the St. Francis in the picture by Giorgione at Madrid. To a period of transition somewhere about the years 1509-1512 I would ascribe the posthumous portrait of the Doge ' Niccol6 Marcello ' (Plate vii.), in the Vatican. In its present state it is difficult to date. If we strive to realise for ourselves the characteristics of Titian's manner between the years 1508 and 1510, I think we shall notice a development on what is still known to us of the Fondaco designs. The difference between this epoch and that which followed the visit to Padua consists, not so much in a development of aU-round accomplish- ment, as a tendency to design in greater ' depth.' I shall possibly be intelligible only to myself when I describe the typical Giorgionesque plan of design, such as we find it in his authentic work, and in the early paintings of Titian, as a ' bas-relief scheme, one in which the figures are practically on one plane, viewed 'close to the frame, or behind a ledge, or closed in by some neighbouring mass, wall, or curtain, beyond which lies a distant horizon. I also think that till after the death of Giorgione the influence of actual contemporary dress is very noticeable, often influencing the cut of the more conventional garments of the Virgin.^ I incline to the belief that after the Paduan period not only is there a change in the treatment of dress accessories, due perhaps to a contemporary change, but that Titian himself, in the Palmesque period (so called) which follows, modified the con- temporary dresses of his Magdalenes and Saints. The delicate formality of the more ' static ' Giorgionesque pattern for pictures, becomes, after 1511, less and less a habit with Titian, and we lose sight of designs in which the scheme is obviously pyramidal or else developed on a line close to the spectator in a group or series of figures, express- ing, to some extent at least, a set of separate impressions, only partially related to each other by the effect of a common action. ' The corsage of the Virgin in Titian's early works is cut square, being in feet a contemporary bodice under the traditional veil or draperies. 32 CHAPTER V TITIAN'S BROTHER FRANCESCO VECELLIO IT is supposed with every probability that Titian left Venice during the troubled times following on the League of Cambray, during which the town was again afflicted by a visitation of the plague, which in 1510 numbered Giorgione among the victims. Titian's brother, Francesco Vecellio, was wounded during the campaign against Maximilian in 1509 ; he was among the Cadorines who served in the Lowlands under the Venetian flag. He was held to have been a brave soldier ' until such time as Titian, who loved him tenderly and feared for his life, persuaded him to return, and led him back by degrees to the study of the arts.' ^ To Francesco Vecellio I would attribute the major part of the early picture of ' The Infant Saviour between St. Andrew and St. Catherine,' sometimes considered a very early work by Titian, now in the church of S. Marcuola (Plate CLXxvii.). Crowe and Cavalcaselle are so far accurate in their surmise concerning Francesco Vecellio being the junior of Titian in that we pos- sess no work of his revealing the immediate influence of Giorgione, or if so, as in the case of the ' Nativity ' belonging to Sir William Farrer, the Giorgionesque influence has become modified by the developments brought about by Titian. The war affected the family of the Vecelli directly, and Titian's father distinguished himself in the campaign. Crowe and Cavalcaselle describe how the first effects of the war brought provincial craftsmen to seek refuge in Venice ; at first it narrowed the field of profit in the capital, and then drove painters away altogether. So, later, Sebastiano del Piombo withdrew to Rome, Lotto to the Romagna, and Titian to Padua and Vicenza. * Crowe and Cavalcaselle, lAfe and Times of Titian. T 3 38 CHAPTER YI PADUA WE have documentary evidence that Titian received payment for his three frescoes in the Santo at Padua, on December 2nd, 1511. We owe to Mariette the statement that on the back of a drawing by Domenico Campagnola, formerly in the Crozat Collection, was a memorandum by him, running thus : ' in 1511 I painted fresco in company with Titian in the Scuola del Carmine, and in company we entered the Scuola of Padua (Scuola del Santo) on the 24th of September of the same year.'^ These frescoes, still extant, though unfortunately in a poor condition, should form the basis of our study of Titian's style in the first decade of the sixteenth century, and I think certain lingering Giorgionesque characteristics they present should help us in ascribing to a later date many fine works of the ' conversation ' type, which it is usual to place before the execution of these frescoes. Titian's share in the 'Meeting of Joachim and Anna' (Plate viii.) in the Carmine has generally been held to be that of the designer, the execution being due to his assistant Domenico Campagnola. The restored condition of this fresco renders anything like a positive opinion extremely dangerous ; it is now mainly the work of a restorer, though I would urge that despite repainting, the draperies of the major figures show certain idiosyncrasies which we associate with Titian; the same thing can be said of the landscape, which is in better preservation, and the somewhat mannered shepherd. We are less confident about the matronly figures in the distance and the archi- tecture, but this portion of the design and the St. Anna are drastically repainted. We may grant the collaboration of Campagnola, but his own frescoes in the Scuola del Santo do not present so many elements of resemblance to Titian. It would not surprise me, if the decorations of the Fondaco were still in existence for comparison, that we should 1 Titian signed a receipt for four gold ducats on December 2, Ifill, being the remainder of a payment due to him by the Brotherhood. 34 PADUA recognise in them a certain abruptness of plane and contour, a similar lack of ' envelope ' which disconcerts us in the painting in the Carmine. For fresco painting does not allow of superimposed glazes (the secret of Venetian technique), and, deprived of this resource, a certain sharpness or abruptness might well result. Titian's three frescoes in the Scuola del Santo are much more masterly, much more significant, and, if we may make allowance for dust, decay, and repainting, they count among the most valuable survivals left to us of a golden period in Venetian art. In these decay and deterioration have started from the lower portion of the frescoes, notably in ' The Miracle of the Child ' and in the ' Healing of a Youth.' In the third composition, the damp has practically ruined the heads of the two principal figures, forming a hideous patch in a work which I am told was well preserved some thirty years ago. 'The Miracle of the Child' (Plate ix.) contains the most restora- tion, it would seem to have been the earliest of the three, and, in composition at least, it is the most Giorgionesque. The flat sharp) wall which cuts the design in the centre, the pedestal and statue,; the spraylike trees, the straight clouds in the sky, and, above all, the three gilded youths to the left of the design are still in the manner of Giorgione ; even the choice of local colours, the deep yellows and scarlets for instance, remind one of him. Unfortunately the figure in the large white cloak, and the beautiful youth behind the saint, who resembles the dandy spectator in the ' Concert,' are heavily retouched. The child is similar in type to the Holy Infant in the ' Holy Family and St. John ' at Bridgewater House, the matronly figures to the right are purely Titianesque in type. The Latin expression ' portentosa ' might be given to the impassive mother who looks like a portrait, the husband and some of the accessory figures being portraits also. I think the reproduction shows the many points of similarity in this work and in some of Titian's pictures, such as the Crespi portrait and the ' Concert,' — there is even a certain resemblance to Giorgione's ' Madonna and Saints ' at Madrid, and, dare I venture to say so, to Giorgione's design of the ' Woman taken in Adultery,' belonging to the Gallery at Glasgow. The portrait element in the frescoes at Padua is very marked ; this is typical of Titian's reliance upon nature, and we may take it that the faculty for lyrical improvisation was less urgent with him than with Giorgione. 35 TITIAN 'St. Anthony healing the leg of a youth' (Plate x.) stUl contains a marvellously designed and freshly painted landscape, and several of the minor spectators look like portraits ; these portions are fortunately among the best preserved in the fresco. The lower part of the design, on a level with the top of the shield, is a mass of restoration, and various mendings and repaintings have disfigured the principal actors in the scene. Even as it now stands this work strikes us as one of the most successful attempts at fusion and aerial painting in fresco, and when it was new we can imagine that a stUl greater mystery and fusion characterised the rendering of certain parts. Some of the types in the centre of the design are Giorgionesque, but the draperies are more ample in cast and the landscape is more real These works deserve the greatest possible study on the part of the student of Titian, for they establish certain habits in the rendering of draperies, and a predilection for certain human types which dis- appear later in the ' conversation pieces ' which critics are sometimes incUned to place before Titian's sojourn in Padua. The remaining fresco (Plate x.), in which a jealous husband murders his wife whom St. Anthony afterwards resuscitated, is not planned on the ' processional ' type of design affected in the other frescoes. We, notice in the landscape lingering survivals of the Giorgionesque tradition, but the principal figures are singularly daring in design, and show a greater plastic realism and sense of movement than any other figures invented hitherto by a Venetian artist. In the figure of the wife we recognise a new and less matronly type than that affected by Titian hitherto; she is the first of the fair florid women who figure later as saints and beauties, to whom the artist became so constant in his allegiance. I would ascribe the ' Salome ' in the Doria Gallery (Plate xvi.), the ' St. Mark and Saints ' in the Salute (Plate xix.), and the ' Sacred Conversation' at Madrid (Plate xvii.) to the year of Titian's return to Venice. All these paintings show a greater roundness in the contours of the figures and a somewhat broader and more generalised manner. In the frescoes at Padua we are struck, not by any element of immaturity, but by the survival of Giorgionesque elements in design combined with an unusual rehance upon actual portrait types and contemporary dresses.' I would suggest that after this series, 1 I have placed the 'Salome' here with some hesitation. Of the three pictures mentioned above it is the least mature in drawing. Many details of design connect it with the influence of Giorgione. It may have been painted as early as 1509. 36 PADUA the reminiscences of contemporary costume tend to become less obvious, it was a survival of the Giorgione tradition. A singular thing also in these frescoes is the absence of those broad harmonies of crimson, blue and white, which we associate with so many works by Titian. In their place we find an unusual use of russet browns, gray, purple, bright yellow, and scarlet, which are survivals from the practice of Giorgione. Did the technique of fresco painting constrain Titian? Did he revert in these designs, for a time at least and perhaps unconsciously, to earlier habits of invention ? I am disinclined to think so ; I feel that these frescoes have not always been sufficiently present to the minds of students of Titian who have written about the sequence of his works. Tradition ascribes to Titian's stay in Padua the painting of a series of decorations executed in his own house, of which the set of prints (Plates xi.-xv.), the 'Triumph of Faith,' is supposed to be a record. Vasari gives the date of this work as 1508 ; I think that we are safe in recognising in them designs done during Titian's stay in Padua. Various reminiscences of earlier works, by Mantegna even, would help to strengthen the belief that they were produced not later than the first twelve years of the century ; the type of the children, the odd conceits in the dresses of the sibyls render impro- bable a later date. I think we may safely ascribe to the engraver's clumsy workmanship the loose and late appearance of this superb and significant design. Of the other works Titian is said to have executed in Padua and Vicenza nothing now remains, and once more we have to fall back upon conjecture to establish the approximate date of several important pictures done between 1511 and 1515. 37 CHAPTER VII CONVERSATION PIECES, PALMA, IDYLLS THE 'Concert,' in the Pitti (Plate xviii.) has for years past fascinated the student and the poet aUke. Walter Pater, Gabriele d'Annunzio, each has said all that the poetic fancy can invent about this work, — which may represent, after aU, nothing niore than some trite allegory of the ages of man, which presented the painter with the opportunity of picturesque contrasts. The picture affects us deeply, though marred by restoration and neglect. Time, Youth and Regret each seem spectators and actors in this scene; Youth self-centred, outward in glance, expectant and alert, and Age self-centred also, touching Life on the shoulder. We are haunted by the passionate face of the central figure to whom experience would seem actually as manifest as his companions, present to his mind as the music which his hands press out of the instrument ; music which in itself has all the passion of life, aU the fulness of experience, and all the pathos of time ! When did Titian paint this haunting picture ? I grant the survival of Giorgione's influence in the rendering of the youth and the old man, but the central figure is Titian's own. I am reduced to the expediency of pointing out the resemblance between the youthful man in a plumed cap and one of the gUded youths in the Paduan fresco ('Miracle of the Child'), and to the fact that, if large and broad in effect, the contours are still sharp or abrupt in line, like the ' Salome,' for instance, and that the works which follow tend, notably in the ' St. Mark Enthroned,' towards a greater freedom of contour and illumination. The appearance of the ' Concert ' is falsified by dirt, retouching, and by an idiotic addition of meaningless canvas above the heads of the actors. We must reduce the proportions of the picture to those of the ' Three Ages of Man ' by Giorgione in the same gallery. In the ' Concert ' the central figure is well preserved ; that of the old man is 38 CONVERSATION PIECES fairly satisfactory. An old print establishes the fact that the youth was turned into a female figure in the seventeenth or eighteenth century, and the removal of this offence doubtless accounts for the flayed and retouched condition of this portion of the picture.^ It has been suggested that the first great work which marks Titian's return to Venice is the altar-piece ' St. Mark Enthroned ' (Plate XIX,), now preserved in the Salute, but formerly executed for the canons of San Spirito. Vasari was the first to describe the singularly Giorgionesque character of this beautiful picture ; it is doubtless for this reason that Dr. Gronau has placed it many years earlier, but Crowe and Cavalcaselle and Mr. Claude Phillips have given good reasons for ascribing it to 1512, and I think the general ripeness of the handling would justify their conclusions. The outer aspect, or the technique, of this masterpiece resembles the ' Conversation ' in the Prado. The sky in the ' St. Mark ' is no longer Giorgionesque in character. Titian retains in his rendering of SS. Cosimo and Damian that element of portraiture which we have noticed in the series at Padua ; the draperies of these two saints are also treated in large flat folds. The figure of St. Mark is partly thrown into shadow, which must have seemed an innovation of a sensational kind at the time when the picture was painted. The St. Roch resembles the St. Ulphus of the ' Conversation ' now at Madrid. I would now consider a series of Conversation pieces and Pastorals in which a new type of woman will appear, and with her a modification of Titian's habitual colour schemes, with which the name of Palma (as an influence) has been associated. I find it difficult to imagine that an artist so lacking in essential force as Palma could have exercised an influence upon a nature like Titian's, which from the first was so incomparably more richly endowed. From the first, Palma reflects, not the poetic fervour and invention of Giorgione, but certain tricks of the new school ; he appears on the scene gifted with a placid and generalising method, and that light pitch of colour which we find in the later disciples of Bellini ; from first to last Palma affected a blond female type with bovine eyes and corn-coloured hair. The popularity he enjoyed during the eighteenth century, when his expres- sionless half-lengths of idealised Venetian ladies or courtesans all passed as portraits of his daughter Violante, still lingers on, though in essential quality and personal force he was not an artist of the first rank. Unlike Titian and Piombo, he reflected the Giorgionesque movement ' The alteration may have been an ' improvement ' of the engraver's own. 39 TITIAN rather coldly, as did the Bellinesque Catena, with whose technical method the early paintings of Palma show a great affinity. I would risk correction and state outright that no work of Palma's seems to me quite Giorgionesque in spirit, or if so, only through a reflex action caught from the art of Titian.^ Did Giorgione himself inaugurate the cool pitch of colour which is latent in Titian, but which does not characterise Giorgione's earliest works? The two pictures of his which would support the theory have unfortunately suffered most from drastic cleaning, namely, the altar-piece at Castelfranco, and the ' Sleeping Venus ' at Dresden, and with this last work we are conscious of a larger share of Titian's work- manship than of Giorgione's. The fact remains, that with the broadening of style in the new school, and in its manifestations with Lotto and Palma, there is a tendency to plan out the colour, with ever-increasing breadth or even ' emptiness.' In this tendency Titian was the leader, though his richer plastic sense and more complex method of work never made him map out his colours to the extent we find in the earlier works of Palma, whose plastic faculties were timid, whose inventive faculties were slight, whose technical resources were hmited. Equal and pleasant enough, we feel Palma was a lesser personality than the irregular Lotto, and colder in temperament than the provincial painter Cariani, who has been described as his pupil, though mani- festly a younger contemporary directly influenced by Carpaccio and Giorgione. Giorgione left the ' Venus ' now at Dresden unfinished. To this picture Titian added the landscape and a cupid, which has since been removed, when the picture underwent a complete and carefiil restora- tion necessitated by its bad condition. The general aspect of the ' Venus ' is ' Palmesque,' to use a consecrated phrase; that is, it is cool in colour, and a little flat in modelling. This is doubtless due in some measure to cleaning, and to minute patches and stipples of the surface, which has also suffered from being ironed. Of Giorgione's share in the work we are unable to form an opinion ; the draperies are essentially Titianesque in character, the flowers on the ground recall Titian more than Giorgione, the distant landscape represents a farm with a tower which figures (seen from the other side) in the ' Sacred and Profane Love'; it occurs in the 'Noli Me Tangere,' and in the small damaged ' Cupid ' in the Academy at Vienna. A portion of the same building ' The 'Meeting of Jacob and Rachel' at Dresden shows the workmanship of Cariani, to whose brush I would ascribe it. 40 'THE THREE AGES OF MAN' occurred also in the original by Titian of the ' Three Ages of Man,' from which Sassoferrato made the copy now preserved in the Borghese Gallery, for I think that we are safe in assuming that more than one version of this work existed, of which we possess an early original in the famous picture at Bridgewater House. This wonderful collection is fortunate in the possession of two early pictures by Titian, the world-famous ' Three Ages of Man,' one of the most perfect of Venetian pastorals, and a ' Holy Family with St. John '; both works are in the cool manner. The Bridgewater • Holy Family ' presents points of resemblance with the ' Salome,' in the Doria collection. I think we are safe in concluding that the Bridgewater pictures were painted somewhere between the years 1511-1513; they represent a period of transition from that time when Titian was still influenced by Giorgione to the second phase of his development in which that influence is on the wane, and when Titian and Palma painted from the same models, and used draperies and dresses of a similar type. The 'Holy Family' (Plate xx.) is probably the first of the two early pictures in the Bridgewater collection ; it would seem so if we reckon with the draperies which cover the knee of the Virgin and the pose of the Child, which is similar to that of the infant who testifies to the innocence of its mother in the Scuola del Santo ; like the ' Salome ' (Rome), it may even belong to a period contemporary with the stay in Padua. Titian remembered this design in a later development of this picture, engraved by Leffebre, of which we possess a studio version at Glasgow. 'The Three Ages of Man' (Plate xxi.), however, is more Giorgionesque in temper, and even in certain details of the distance it ranks, not as an imitation of Giorgione, but as one of the climaxes in the movement inaugurated by him ; it is on the same poetic level of invention as Giorgione's ' Concert Champ#tre ' in the Louvre ; together with the ' Sacred and Profane Love ' it belongs to that golden vein of thought which reaches its climax in the ' Bacchanal ' and the •Bacchus and Ariadne,' when Titian surpassed himself, and said all that can be said in the lyrical mood. - Do not let us pause to estimate the possible influence bf Palma on the colour of the ' Three Ages.' The fact is that in its key or colour- pitch it is singular in Venetian painting ; it is unusually cool, the sky is grey, the vegetation russet ; it is painted with infinite delicacy and care ; the blond Venetian beauty who is charmed by the shepherd, as Venus was enthralled by Anchises, shows the careful rendering of 41 TITIAN some beautiful model clothed in a somewhat generalised dress,— a mere gown and shift, which we find about to become a habit with Titian ; ^ we may take it that the increasing importance of the masses of linen corresponds in his paintings to some contemporary change in fashion,^ and that the straight-cut corsage we notice in the ' Zingarella Madonna ' and even in the Bridgewater ' Holy Family ' reflected some fashion which was probably declining about 1512. The Anonimo Morelliana describes a ' Baptism of Christ ' painted by Titian, in which he had introduced the portrait of Messer Zuan Ram, and this exquisite work (Plate xxii.) exists in a good state of preservation in the Gallery of the Capitol at Rome. I think that owing to a certain slightness in the conception of this work, the majority of writers on Titian have been tempted to under-estimate an intense idyllic charm, which in a painting by Giorgione would have been praised as a virtue. As a work of art it is characterised by that singular mansuetude of conception and neo-pagan blitheness of which Titian had the secret. The entranced gesture of Giovanni Ram "aids in this impression. Surely nothing could heighten the tender gravity of this face, watching what might seem otherwise but some Theocritean idyll. Between this picture and the ' Three Ages ' is a common bond in workmanship. It has been noticed before that the shepherd in the 'Three Ages' would seem to have been the model for the shepherd-like St. John in this picture. In the landscape Titian still employs the rich map-like masses of foliage contrasted with a few bare branches and short gnarled tree-stumps which belong to his early backgrounds, but which tend to disappear in the more boldly planned distances and groves which he gives in his later pictures ; but even here the foreground is ampler in its sense of mass, the growths are more specialised, and less detached in their placing than in earlier canvases. The attendant angels drift towards the holy persons with something in their flight of the poise of large butterflies on the wing. It is now generally accepted that the 'Sacred and Profane Love' must be ascribed to the few years following on Titian's return to Venice, that together with the ' Three Ages of Man,' the ' Baptism of Christ,' and the ' Noli me Tangere,' it belongs to a group of works which are related to each other by details in the landscape, and, to ' This type of dress occurs for the first time in the fresco at Padua in the ' Murder of a Woman.' 2 See 'Fornarina' (Uffizi) and 'Dorothea' (Berlin) by Piombo. 42 THE 'SACRED AND PROFANE LOYE' some extent, in technique ; to these pictures of first-rate importance may be added the ' Holy Family with the Shepherd ' in the National Gallery, and a series of decorative conversation pieces. The ' Sacred and Profane Love' (Plate xxiii.) is still in some degree Giorgionesque in mood, but as a design it is more amply spaced, it is mainly in certain details of the landscape that it retains traces of earlier conventions. Compared to Titian's later rendering the foliage is still calligraphic in detail and feathery in its masses, in fact, mere thin spray-forms seen as lace-like silhouettes against the sky. The work is Giorgionesque also in the somewhat arbitrary division of the ground into dun coloured mounds with sweeps of soft warm green in the distance. Were the ' Sacred and Profane Love ' cleaned, the green of the mid-distance and trees would emerge from the brown varnish which now reduces them to a nondescript dark mass. We owe to Dr. Wickhoff the suggestion that this picture represents Medea listening to the persuasion of Venus, who would urge her to love Jason, and that the subject illustrates a passage from the Argonautica of Flacciis. The cupid who troubles the fountain would thus acquire a symbolic interest, and the cupids teasing a unicorn sculptured on the sides of the fountain become also associated in the scheme. This painting, to which I have for convenience so far given its old enchant- ing title, is one of the world's loveliest pictures. In no other work of art, ' Annunciation ' or ' Visitation,' shall we discover two figures so enchantingly related to each other : in no other design is the eye more charmed by perfect spacing and ordering of the composing element. Few figures in art possess to the same degree the profound and feminine graciousness which characterises the self-absorbed figure of Medea, as yet unconscious of a tragic destiny ; no figure invented by Titian or any other master surpasses in beauty of hne the sinuous and enchanting curves which express the contour of the Venus ; the invention of the crimson cloak which buttresses this figure, the extended arm against the sky, are each supreme inventions in design. There is a great ' preciousness ' of thought in the placing of Medea's gloved hand on a nest of flowers, and the rose spray and leaves on the edge of the fountain are exquisite touches of pictorial fancy. In the masses of the foreground we shall find the purple hellebore and one or two butterflies as a premonition of the exquisite and intimate flowers and details which Titian will place later in his loveliest canvases. We are able to realise the different accent Titian has brought to the drawing in his pictures when we contrast the mass of soft hair on 43 TITIAN the shoulder of Medea and the two wisps of hair over the left ear, with the more timid, formal and Giorgionesque rendering of these details in the ' Salome.' The student of pictures would probably wish to know something about the technical quality and the condition of this work. I would say at once that in both aspects he will probably be disappointed; in execution it would seem to have been a decorative piece, rapidly painted, and a little summary in effect, to this has been added a certain amount of inevitable restoration, such as large patches in the base of the picture below the jet of water, and in the dress of the Medea, and various inevitable mendings in the flesh of the Venus and the Cupid. The landscape round the Medea may have been darkened, it is now obscured by an opaque varnish. When this is illumined by a noonday sun striking on the floor, and by the brilliant reflected lights we get in Roman palaces, we detect large spaces of soft apple-green in the landscape, and careful examination of the surfaces reveals the interesting fact (to an artist at least) that Medea's lovely silver satin dress was at one time a crimson petticoat, with white sleeves, and that it became what it is by a revision of the artist.^ We are fortunate enough to possess in the National Gallery the ' Adoration of the Shepherd ' and the ' Noli Me Tangere,' which belong to this charmed period in Titian's career, and which afford a criterion of his technical progress so far achieved. The ' Holy Family with the Shepherd' (Plate xxv.) has unfortunately suffered from drastic over-cleaning or flaying in the past; it is one of the very few seriously damaged pictures in the National Gallery, which remains, on the whole, the first collection of well-preserved pictures in the world. The 'Holy Family' presents in its technical aspect a great resemblance to the ' Sacred and Profane Love ' ; both pictures are marked by a certain summary handling and broad rendering of local colour, and certain unexpected Giorgionesque survivals which surprise and perplex us in works which otherwise are so characteristic of the development of Titian. In the ' Adoration of the Shepherd ' I incline to believe in the partial collaboration of some other hand ; the distance resembles the more summary rendering of a Giorgionesque formula in the paintings of Francesco Vecellio. 1 On close examination we shall note crimson contours to the glove, the girdle, and crimson passages remaining in the darker folds of the dress. In some of the major lights also the crimson ground has worked its way through the thinner portions of the paint. 44 THE 'NOJ^I ME TANGERE' It will be remembered that Titian added the landscape to the ' Venus ' at Dresden ; it will be remembered also that the mass of buildings in the distance recurs in the ' Sacred and Profane Love ' and in the ' Cupid ' in the Vienna Academy of Arts ; it recurs in the ' Noli Me Tangere,' which we may consider the latest of a group of works between which there are points of resemblance. In the ' Noli Me Tangere ' (Plate xxvi.) we are confronted with a greater freedom of general aspect ; in the treatment of the flesh of the Saviour and the loin-cloth this work shows a degree of freedom and skill which Titian himself will not surpass. Earlier pictures may be equally beautiful, or even finer — they are somehow less Titianesque. We may prefer the ' Three Ages of Man,' we must all prefer the ' Sacred and Profane Love,' but the latter surpasses this work only in the majesty of its design, and the beauty of its invention ; in the ' Noli Me Tangere ' the art of painting has become the richer by a new aerial quality due to nimble- ness or expression in the touch itself. We realise this when we find ourselves unable to imagine another artist being capable of imitating it. We realise the foUy of any comparison with Palma when we call to mind any of his contemporary pictures which we can see at Vienna. I would not exaggerate the importance of this painting when I state that it shows the advent of the miraculous and tender pigment which other artists will strive to emulate — Vandyck for instance. This picture is not merely beautifully done — this has been the case with the bulk of the works I have dealt with — it contains a new beauty of a buoyant kind, the beauty of touch, the beauty of manner. In striving to compare these idyllic pictures I have lost sight of Titian's development in the field of portraiture, though we have noticecl^ his supreme success by the way attained in the 'Jacopo Pesaro presented to St. Peter,' the frescoes at Padua, the ' Concert,' and in the altar-piece in the Salute. The early ' Caterina Cornaro ' (so-called) can be placed with some measure of certainty between the years 1508-1510. The Giorgionesque technique of the head in the Cobham 'Ariosto,' in the National Gallery, would give it an early place in the list of Titian's works ; I, however, believe that the exquisitely painted sleeve and linen in this picture are a revision done at a much later date (somewhere about 1514). Two portraits of exceptional beauty may be ascribed to the years immediately following the stay at Padua : namely the ' Man with a Red Cap ' (Lane Collection) and the ' Man with a Glove ' at Temple Newsam ; both express something of the fervour and poetic 45 TITIAN glamour of ' The Concert. A reproduction of the ' Man with a Red Cap' will be found in this book (Plate xxvii.). It passed through Messrs. Christies' some time ago in a darkened and dirty condition. I then imagined this beautiful Giorgionesque work to be an early work of Francesco Vecellio, basing my impression on the colour and on the evidence of Francesco's knowledge of Titian's methods. The picture has since been cleaned. When I saw it again the scales fell from my eyes, to use a consecrated expression. How was it possible that I could have mistaken this masterpiece for the work of a second- rate man? How was it that the shape of the eyelids, the con- struction of the chin and the shape of the shadows had escaped me ? The brown background had become a luminous warm grey, the glove and fur, which I had thought indifferent, revealed the tender pigment of the master; the painting of the linen in pate sur pate was a practice of Titian's. The work stood out, not as a mere interesting problem like the ' Head ' at Frankfort, but a masterpiece superior in preservation to the Cobham ' Ariosto,' contemporary with, or slightly later than, the beautiful portrait at Temple Newsam. Both the picture in the Lane Collection and at Temple Newsam are earlier than the marvellous ' Portrait of a Man ' at Munich (Plate XXXVI.), in which the Giorgionesque influence maybe said to be on the wane; the three pictures prepare us for the ' Alessandro de' Medici' (so-called) at Hampton Court, and the ' Parma ' (so-called) ^ at Vienna, though these last two, despite a similarity in Ughting and arrangement, are later by a few years. 1 I agree with Dr. Gronau that the sitter of the ' Parma' figures in the fresco ' Miracle of the Child/ at Padua, but the character of the design and the perfectly mature handling of this portrait forces me to place it (Area 1614-1616. 46 CHAPTER VIII TITIAN PETITIONS FOR A BROKER'S PATENT EARLY in the year 1513 Titian had received an invitation to Rome, it is supposed from Bembo, the secretary of Pope Leo X. ; but this invitation was fruitless. The great age of the veteran Giovanni Bellini rendered it improbable that he would long retain the privileges which had belonged to him as the chief artist in Venice; this may have prompted Titian in his decision to remain. On the 31st of May 1513, Titian presented his first petition for emoluments in the shape of the first broker's patent for life ' that should be vacant in the Fondaco de' Tedeschi, irrespective of all promised reversions of such patent, and on the same conditions conceded to Missier Juan Belin — viz. : two youths as assistants, to be paid by the Salt office, and all colours and necessaries.' This offer was accepted with modifications, but revoked on March 24th, 1514, after Titian had commenced working for the Palace of the Doges. Titian, however, retained the workshop allowed to him at San Samuele, as a part of his privileges, and on November of the same year petitioned the Signori to obtain the next broker's patent which should be free. This led to a grant to Titian on the Salt office. In 1515 a report was drawn up on the expenses which the decoration of the Council Hall had so far cost ; the sensational character of this report dealt the death- blow to the old school which had hitherto enjoyed all official privileges and sinecures. In December, 1516, Titian entered into practically all the privileges he had solicited, Bellini's patent being granted to him after the death of the master. These details, which I have striven to reduce to their smallest compass, are dealt with at length by Crowe and Cavalcaselle : we gather from them that hostility began with the following of Bellini, who was not at first directly aimed at, but that the warfare was pushed into the enemies' camp, that Bellini saw Titian installed in the very Hall on which he had worked for many years. Of the pictorial results 47 TITIAN of this passage of history we now can form no opinion. The fire of 1577 swept away all traces of the earlier works which Bellini had mended, those of Bellini which Titian in turn retouched, and the wall-paintings executed there by Titian himself. While old docu- ments give us minute particulars concerning an event which remains fruitless for us, we have no exact knowledge of the date when Titian entered into relations with the court of Ferrara, probably in the year 1515, possibly even in the previous year. We know for certain that he journeyed to Ferrara in February 1516. The following year saw him in full swing of production for the Duke, and to his relation with the court of Alfonso we owe the production of his finest and most typical works. 48 CHAPTEE IX ' MADONNA WITH THE CHERRIES,' « CRISTO BELLA MONETA; 'VANITAS' ^ THIS rapid survey of Titian's dealings with the official world between the dates 1513 and 1516 has obliged me to lose sight of certain works which, like the pastorals and idylls we have discussed, help to bridge the period between Padua and the finishing of the ' Assunta.' So far his pictures might be described as the ripening, in Titian's hands, of the manner invented by Giorgione. I think I have sufficiently insisted upon the growing mastery of the painter and underlined the broadening of his method. I would beg the reader again to follow my impressions concerning a few pictures which I would group with the idylls already discussed, but in which the manner which Titian was to evolve in the next decade is in part anticipated, or in which, if you will, the Giorgionesque elements are in abeyanfce. I will turn to one of the most beautiful but perplexing paintings in Titian's career, namely, the ' Madonna with the Cherries ' at Vienna (Plate xxviii.). This exquisite and well-preserved work contains a mass of evidence which might tempt the critic to place it among Titian's earlier designs, that is about 1508 or thereabouts. The scheme harks back to an early manner, the male saints even remind one of the period when Bellini ruled supreme in Venetian painting, but not so the Virgin and children. These portions of the picture are executed with the magic which Titian had at his disposal when he painted the ' Cristo della Moneta.' Our perplexity would cease were we able to believe that the work was on hand before the visit to Padua and rehandled later ; but we owe the information to Crowe and Cavalcaselle that at the time it was transferred from its old panel it was discovered from the back that the Virgin had at one time been different in pose, and that the two saints were an afterthought. This reverses what would have been our verdict on the picture, since it is precisely in the concep- T.-4 49 TITIAN tion of the attendant saints that we recognise an earlier method of design : about the Virgin there is no cause for hesitation. She is dis- tinguished by the ampler type which one associates with Titian throughout his life ; she is in fact the sister of the Dresden Madonna (' Madonna and Four Saints '), and the draperies gathered in loose folds over the breast mark a new phase in the painter's practice. This picture should be studied in relation to the ' Conversation ' and the ' Cristo della Moneta ' at Dresden. Possibly a solution to this difficult case may be found in this suggestion, that at the time when Titian was occupied with his passage-of-arms with the BelHni faction, he consciously painted a masterpiece in emulation of the old school, just as the ' Cristo della Moneta ' is held traditionally to have been a challenge to the minute manner of Diirer. This surmise is within the range of possibility. Two works painted between the years 1514 and 1516 present other difficulties to the student, namely, the flamboyant ' Madonna and Three Saints ' in the Louvre (Plate xxxii.), and the more elaborate and earlier version of the same picture at Vienna. We are at a loss to date the former : it is a gorgeous but shallow work, which presents a few survivals of an earlier manner in design, together with a certain swagger and emptiness of execution. If we follow step by step the changes which Titian affects in the dress of the Virgin, the picture would fall somewhere between the years 1514 and 1516. It illustrates a phase of Titian's practice which may well have seemed the goal of painting to a provincial or satellite painter, such as Romanino or Cariani — it is all manner. We are more confident in dealing with the less known version at Vienna (Plate xxxi.), which unfortunately, however, has been drastically repainted ; but despite its modern surfaces the shapes of the draperies and the piece of architecture help to date the picture : it is probably a contemporary work with the dazzling ' Conversation picture at Dresden. I agree with Crowe and Cavalcaselle, who con- sidered the Vienna version the finer of the two, though I disagree with the early date to which they ascribe it ; the type of the Virgin, the arrangement of her hair over the brow belong to a later date. Flam- boyant and florid also is the ' Conversation ' at Dresden, to which I have alluded when discussing the ' Madonna with the Cherries.' It stands now one of the best preserved Titians in the world (Plate XXX.). Like most other religious pictures belonging to this period of his career, we get beautiful draperies and sunny spaces of flesh, 50 THE 'CRISTO DELLA MONETA' more than the expression of any religious aim. A certain slightness of motive and floral beauty of surface have led to the comparison with Palma. This picture is not lacking in a certain placid tenderness, as far at least as the Virgin is concerned, and like the ' Sacred and Profane Love ' it was doubtless quite decorative in aim. But the expression of a religious sense was from the first intermittent with Titian ; with him the sense of beauty counted for everything ; this was his goal, this was an end in itself, a state of grace which was sufficient. We are even surprised when, in the first flush of his power, he goes beyond this golden realism of his, and charms us in a religious work like the ' Cristo della Moneta ' by a vision at once more searching, or, shall we say, more nervous, and reverent than he has vouchsafed elsewhere, notably in some of his Madonnas, who nurse the Holy Infant with the satisfied graciousness of the wide-eyed Hera, reconciled to a new beautiful borrowed baby, some infant Heracles, to whom other placid and friendly gods are paying a kindly visit. This we may see in the picture at Dresden, where a Bacchus-like St. John helps to support the infant God that he may notice the gracious presence of an admir- ing goddess robed in the silver gown of the Medea of the Borghese Gallery, some fragile, fair-haired beauty who has forgotten the shep- herd with whom she was enthralled in the picture at Bridgewater House, to appear for this once as Mary Magdalene before her repent- ance, when she will have to dispense with silver satin. Vasari has given the date when Titian painted the ' Cristo della Moneta' as 1514, and by general consent this radiant and exquisite work (Plate XXIX.) is now assigned to the time when Titian entered into relations with the Duke of Ferrara, who owned the panel, framed, it is said, in the door of a cupboard. The text it illustrates — ' Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's' — had been adopted by Alfonso d'Este on the money issued by his mint. Between Venice and the Popes, his brothers and his ambitions, Alfonso of Ferrara was the ally of the enemies of Italy ; but a friend of the Renaissance and a lover of the arts, a votarist of that more enduring and significant freedom which Italian art has brought to the world. To his contem- poraries this scrap of perverted scripture counted as a justification. It has afforded Titian the opportunity of painting one of the most beautiful pictures in the world. We probably owe the unusual brilliancy of surface of the ' Cristo della Moneta ' in part to the fact that it was executed on panel. The Dresden ' Conversation,' the ' Madonna with the Cherries,' each in a 51 TITIAN varying degree, reveal an unusual brightness of pitch and transparent surface, in respect of which they stand out from contemporary works by the master. It will be noticed in the practice of other painters, that the best preserved and most directly painted works are executed on panel ; these paintings have also escaped that mania for enlarging old pictures which was common in the seventeenth century. A picture on panel is saved from the greatest of all dangers, namely, the damage wrought by pressure of the stretcher upon the canvas, for in nine cases out of ten the repainting of masterpieces has started with the repairs necessitated by this. The ' Cristo della Moneta ' reveals to-day, though the face of the Saviour has been slightly impoverished by cleaning, all the gloss and luminosity of which Titian was capable. The freshness of the colour scheme, the contrasted complexions, the delicate rendering of the hair, each shows a perfection of resource which no Venetian had equalled and which no master has surpassed. The ' Madonna with the Cherries,' or rather her beautiful draperies, and the flesh of the holy children, approximate to this luminosity of surface, but do not match it in reti- cence and fusion. The Dresden ' Conversation ' is equally brilUant, but as a work it is immeasurably inferior in significance and control; it counts in Titian's career mainly for its freshness of execution and a sort of florid, superficial beauty, and neither of these works shows the delicacy and mastery displayed in the ' Cristo della Moneta ' in the painting of the face of the Pharisee, and in other pieces of workman- ship, such as the neck and hair of the Saviour, and the hand of the tempter, which baffle the power of words. Did the famous ' Vanitas ' at Munich (Plate xxxiii.) reveal at some time a scheme of painting as delicate as this work? I think the slightly larger scale on which it was done excludes the supposition, though in its impoverished and overcleaned condition we are conscious of a great effort at perfection, a wish to rival nature in its subtleties of grain and substance when viewed at close quarters. This beautiful picture may be slightly earlier than the three last, it counts as the first in a list of half-lengths of beautiful women, which like the ' Flora ' in the Uffizi have acquired a world-wide popularity, though, often enough, they reveal a portion only of the great qualities for which Titian has become famous. The 'Vanitas' is at any rate the most winning in type among Titian's professional beauties, the one who reflects a more delicate, natural charm. A certain reticence of design, and the poetic invention of the mirror reflecting a heap of treasure and 52 THE 'FLORA' an old woman with a broom has tempted some writers on art to view it as a work conceived in the Giorgionesque vein. It may have been painted as early as 1514, it is certainly anterior to the ' Laura Dianti,' and considerably anterior to the 'Flora'; yet _^the technical aspect of the ' Flora ' (or what remains of it) belongs to an earlier phase of Titian's career than might be surmised from the reproduction, and the over placid and almost animal expression in this symmetrical face. But I fear we are on dangerous ground when we discuss the expression of faces, language is apt to represent so many different meanings to different minds. Perhaps we might put the case thus : there is a greater frejihness of expression in the ' Vanitas ' than in the ' Laura ' ; this expression is heightened into sweetness in the head of the Virgin in the 'Annunciation' at Treviso (Plate xxxviii.). In the 'Laura Dianti ' (so called) of the Louvre and the 'Flora,' the beauty of these fair Venetians seems less fresh ; they are posing before posterity, trans- figured by the magic of Titian ; they represent a kind of art which had all the qualifications of an ohjet de luxe ; they anticipate the series of fair women of the sun-flower type, which Titian painted for exporta- tion, or as complimentary gifts to princes and other votarists of a gilded life. In these the beautiful motives and pictorial inventions which surround the 'Vanitas,' the 'Laura,' the 'Tenus and the Shell,' and the ' Flora ' still charm the imagination. We have mirrors, hands toying with hair fine as silk or with precious scraps of brocade or nests of flowers, but a certain perfume tends abeady to evaporate. These ladies will age later into the dyed-haired Venuses and Bellas of the middle of his career who still enthral tourists and guide-book writers. The famous ' Laura . Dianti ' (so called) (Plate xxxiv.) still retains, in composition at least, §ome of the pictorial fancy which we associate with the influence of jGiorgione. A mirror reflects both the room and the Beauty. This is now blackened into an obscure mass, and the rest of the picture is tarnished and probably retouched, for the admiration of centuries has done its worst. Careful cleaning might remove both dirt and retouching, but this is pure surmise. A work allied to this last in character, the ' Venus and the Shell ' at Bridgewater House (Plate xxxv.), has fared rather better, but it is also falsified and given a later appearance by retouching and the deepening of the shadows.^ Must we class with these two works the famous ' Flora ' in the 1 Since this was written this picture has been cleaned. 53 TITIAN UfHzi ? I think on the whole it is contemporary, if slightly later, but the damage done to the surfaces of the work has deprived it of a certain fusion, and its present flat and bright appearance may have tempted students of Titian to place the picture a few years too early. Not only was the ' Flora ' painted after the ' Vanitas,' the ' Laura Dianti,' and possibly the ' Venus and the Shell'; she would be quite at home among the Nymphs of the ' Bacchanals.' The picture (Plate xxxix.) is now on canvas, it was probably once on panel. The restorations are dis- turbing and distressing : the eyes, nostril, and contour of the face have been emphasised, and the background darkened to give prominence to the hair. This, in its elaboration, shows a change in treatment ; it is unlike the hair of the .nynjphjn the ' Three Ages of. Man,' or the Medea in t15e 'Sacred and Profane Love'; in some respects Titian here anticipates the rendering of the curled tresses of ' La Bella,' done many years later. We can admire among the better-preserved portions of the ' Flora ' the fine tresses on the shoulder, the linen and hueless brocade round the right hand. I should perhaps have mentioned before one of Titian's finest por- traits which is now at Hampton Court (Plate xxxvi.), where it is still erroneously described as 'Alessandro dei Medici.' Let me confess that I am reluctant to give this work a date. It is later in many respects than the marvellous Munich portrait, and seems contemporary with the ' Parma ' at Vienna, which most writers place some ten years too ,soon. The ' Alessandro ' has few rivals among Titian's finest por- traits. Dirt and old varnish have now been removed, and saving the large patch upon the brow, it is in good condition ; few works better illustrate that magisterial quality which Reynolds praises in Titian's portraits. In the combination of dignity and simplicity, it ranks with the 'Parma' at Vienna, the 'Man in Black' (Louvre), and with ' L'Homme au Gant,' among his finest' works. Where shall we place the ' Parma ' (so called) (Plate xxxvii.) at Vienna ? The present writer is unable to decide. It is more largely spaced than any portrait mentioned hitherto. For delicacy of pigment it is beyond praise. 54 CHAPTER X TITIAN'S RELATIONS WITH THE COURT OF FERRARA— THE ' Bi^CHANAL '—THE ' ASSUNTA ' THE first record of Titian's journey to the court of Ferrara belongs to the year 1516, when he lodged at the Castello ; we even know that salt, meal, oil, salad, chestnuts, oranges, tallow candles, cheese, and five measures of wine were allowed him and his two assistants weekly from the 13th of February till March 22nd. His letter to the Duke, dated February of the following year, makes mention of a picture of ' A Bath,' which we can identify with some measure of certainty with the beautiful, but damaged, ' Venus with the Shell,' in the Bridgewater collection. I think that we may assume that the same model who does duty for the Venus figures also as a nymph in the ' Garden of Loves,' and if we can trust an old copy of the last picture made in the early seventeenth century, and once in the possession of G. F. Watts, the same model was employed for the statue of Venus in that picture, before statue and attribute had been made unrecognisable by some restorer. In the copy the statue holds a recognisable shell done from nature, at Madrid the shell has become a sort of utensil or vase which looks like a sauce- boat ; at one time the statue was a fair Venetian, both the statue and the ' Venus ' at Bridgewater House have been ' founded,' in the, pose of the torso at least, upon some Praxitelean statue of the type of the ' Venus of Ostia ' ; these details connect the two works, and they are further related to each other by a common classical origin. The ' Venus ' in the Bridgewater collection manifestly emulates the descrip- tion of the masterpiece of Apelles, while ' The Garden of Loves ' is an illustration of one of the word-pictures in the Eikonon of Philo- stratus ; these two works, the famous ' Bacchanal ' and the better known ' Bacchus and Ariadne,' form a sequence in Titian's career ; they add the evidence of richer resources and a profounder sensuousness to the secular mood which Titian had inherited from Giorgione, which he 55 TITIAN had intensified in the ' Three Ages of Man ' and in the ' Sacred and Profane Love.' These paintings form a climax ; in them the poetic im- pulse has become stronger and more conscious, the pictorial resources richer and more varied, they are the supreme expression of a tempera- ment and vision which have remained unrivalled. We owe Titian's finest and most typical works to his relations with the house of Ferrara. Nevertheless this association with the court of Alfonso d'Este would seem, at the outset, to have been casual enough, for we gather that, in a sense, Titian's pictures replaced certain works which the Duke had hoped to obtain from Raphael. Both Raphael and Michel- angelo had been besieged by solicitations and threats on the part of the Duke and his agents. A more arrogant collector than his sister Isabella d'Este, Alfonso would seem to have been perhaps over-push- ing and impatient, and to have exceeded in desire : more than his sister he seems too conscious of his importance ; but if we are surprised on looking back at the trivial circumstances attending the production of some of the most precious pictures in the world, the wish for art remains as a testimony of Alfonso's character. We can aiFord to smile at the implied threats and arrogance of words which he applied to ' men of their sort ' when these men were Raphael and Titian, when we are the richer by some masterpieces by the great Venetian. It is supposed that Titian completed the ' Garden of Loves ' earlier than the ' Bacchanal,' for which the programme had been sent by the Duke ; at that time he was at work on the ' Assunta,' and though this picture was finished before the ' Poesies ' for Alfonso of Ferrara, it illustrates a development in manner which makes us reserve it for discussion after them. The ' Assunta ' represents a stride in Titian's style, whilst many points in execution and conception still connect ' The Garden of Loves,' and, above all, the ' Bacchanal,' with the works of a slightly earlier period. When we think of them and the ' Venus with the Shell,' we remember also the ' Vanitas ' at Munich, the ' Sacred and Profane Love,' and 'The Three Ages.' With the 'Assunta' we feel already on the road towards the conception of the 'Peter Martyr.' It is uncertain at what date the master retouched the ' Bacchanal ' of Bellini (now at Alnwick), with which his pictures were to be asso- ciated in a room containing works by Garofalo and Dosso Dossi ; and in the remaining correspondence between Titian and Alfonso we are tantalised by references to many trivial matters, such as the painting of 56 THE 'GARDEN OF LOVES' a gazelle in the possession of Giovanni Cornaro ; and the ordering of pottery and glass, together with references to the works then on hand, from which we gain nothing to our purpose. Before turning to the loTely ' poesies ' I would discuss an exquisite work of Titian's which Morelli was the first to take away from the master, namely, the 'Madonna, St. John and Donor ' in the Munich Gallery (Plate xi,.). The reproduction will show the resemblance between the St. .John in this picture and the faun who fills a goblet in the foreground, in the ' Bacchanal.' Not only does the Munich picture show the indescribable delicacy of grain which is a characteristic of Titian's workmanship, but there are countless minutiae of form and rendering in hands and feet, and in the fall and character of draperies, which are Titian's own, and for the somewhat generalised treatment of the infant Saviour, we shall find several analogous instances in the more distant figures who sport in the ' Garden of Loves,' or in the wreath of children in the * Assunta.' The striking affinity between this work and the ' Bacchanal ' was forced on my notice after I had left Munich, to find myself a few days later in the Gallery of the Prado. Do not let us lose sight of the fact that no contemporary of Titian approximates to his practice. The ' Holy Family ' at Munich is one of his most delicate pictures. The ' Garden of Loves ' (Plate xli.) has been over-cleaned, the sky and statue repainted ; for the rest it is luminous and brilliant in pitch, highly wrought, and with the colour scheme and local colours well defined. Technically it continues the blond, fresh method inaugurated in the ' Three Ages of Man.' The blue of the sky is carried throughout the design in the blue wings of the cupids. The brightly coloured draperies on the ground, the baskets decked with jewels, the tiny flowers, the grass and fruit, every portion of the work reveals the highest and most delicate finish, the most tender care.^ This master- piece would seem to have established the canon of proportion for all artists who have studied children ; it has been copied and imitated by Rubens, Poussin, and il Fiammingo. Though it is assured that this work was the first of the series, many details of invention in the ' Bacchanal ' (Plate xlii. ) strike me, at least, as even earlier in temper, and it may well have been on hand before the ' Garden of Loves ' was completed. The darkening and patching of the base of this masterpiece, finished some two years later, have obscured the beautiful motive, the river of wine, which was the principal item Titian had to illustrate. ' The statue and the major part of the sky have been altered by repainting. 57 TITIAN Pressed from heaped-up grapes by the Polyphemus-like figure upon the heights, the wine, trickling among the hollows of the hill, flows past the sleeping figure in the foreground, who still holds a cup, whikt ' her hair pours over a gilded jar with which she had come to gather ^ wine ; near her, a glass, half submerged by the rush of the current, sinks ' into the brook which flows past the revellers gathered at its brink to form into a pool from which a Satyr and a Silenus gather it in flasks ^and goblets. One of the revellers holds a crystal jar against the light ; in the bay beyond a large foolish ship basks and lingers in / the sun. Titian is here a prodigal of details so delicate and at times so homely that we are plunged into a feeling of amazed delight. On a few yards of painted cloth Titian has condensed all the inimitable magic of some other ' Midsummer Night's Dream.' These Dryads and Nymphs are at truce with Oberon and his fairy court, the most beautiful imaginings and recollections, — thoughts full of voluptuous melancholy, half thoughts, implied silences and visible sounds, each follows each, pauses and passes like the movement of some silent music played in the secret places of the mind. Titian has painted the very hum of the revel, he evokes in us a strange blend of emotions, and a sense of something which is fugitive in its essence, as time or pleasure, caught for this once and made perpetual. Such is the magic of this work, that we hesitate to admit to our- selves that time and neglect have after all had their say, and that it has suffered from rehandling and restoration. The picture has been flayed, and the left-hand portion of the design badly damaged ; patches of repainting have marred the horizon and sky, the reveller who lifts the jar of wine against the light, the singers beyond the bending faun, and the nearest woman who holds the flute. Damaged portions alternate with exquisite passages of well-preserved painting; the restorations seem for some reason or other to have been very drastic where they have occurred, and the last connecting glazes have been removed ; it might therefore be described as ' flayed ' like the National Gallery 'Madonna and Shepherd,' and also badly damaged in part. I do not ascribe to over-cleaning the bright contrasts in the local colours which these two works display, this was a practice of Titian before the early twenties, yet such contrasts exist in better preserved works with an added fusion, which these pictures have lost. Titian had received the commission for the ' Assunta ' in 1516, for the ' Casa Pesaro Madonna ' in 1519. The superb altar-piece at Ancona, dated 1520, would seem to have been designed earher. For 58 THE 'ASSUNTA' a space of some seven years Titian's powers not only had reached their height, but were employed on nothing but the noblest tasks. To the period of superb activity between the years of 1514 and 1525 belong also such admirable portraits as the ' Parma ' at Vienna, ' L'Homme au Gant,' and, what is perhaps Titian's masterpiece in portraiture, ' The Man in Black ' (Plate xlvii.) in the Louvre. The portrait of Alfonso of Ferrara, leaning on a cannon (now lost) was reckoned amongst his finest works ; this has survived only in a copy after a later replica preserved in the Pitti, where it is badly placed. The ' Entombment,' the famous altar-piece at Brescia, the unmatchable ' Bacchus and Ariadne,' and ' La Vierge au Lapin ' belong to this charmed period. While we know the dates of some of these works, the student must bear in mind that their completion does not always coincide with their conception. The ' Assunta,' for instance, strikes one as a much later work than the ' Bacchanal ' and the altar-piece at Ancona, though it was finished before them ; the ' Entombment ' seems contemporary with the altar-piece at Brescia; all these works, including even the ' Bacchus- and -Ariadne,' are conceivexLin arLearlier mood than the damaged ' Madonna and Saints ' in the Vatican, which was completed, it is supposed, before the Pesaro altar-piece, but would seem in temper and scale of form to belong to a later decade. The 'Assunta' (Plate xliii.) was unveiled on the 19th of May 1518. There had been a rumour of friction between the fathers and Titian ; Father Germano, the guardian of the Franciscan order, had, it is said, apologised to the painter to prevent him from retaining the work, or selling it to Adorno, the imperial envoy, who offered to take it off the friar's hands. The general approval of the crowds who gathered to see the marvel probably set the ecclesiastical conscience at rest, and to-day it is still the best known and most popular of Titian's masterpieces. The Assunta ' was the first piece of religious scenic effect which the Venetian school had completed, and, while in many respects it shows the plastic qualities of Titian's best works, and the radiant intensity of colour of his early manner, it stands also midway between the past and the future of Venetian painting. In design it became a standard work which Tintoretto never quite forgot ; it is the first and most significant of a series of religious pictures of parade, and the type which Rubens will always remember ; it helped to establish the limitations which will close round religious art ; it is in many ways the beautiful swan's song of religious painting. It takes rank among the great set-pieces 59 TITIAN of the Catholic Church, painted in the first half of the sixteenth century, which have since remained as inimitable types. Raphael, Titian, Sarto and Correggio — each has been the formulator of pre- cedent in this. Too generous in their art, and, as yet, too genial in their conception to arouse suspicion, they have founded the etiquette for all subsequent religious painting, and to depart from them in these matters is to launch out into isolated personal enterprises and perceptions like Rembrandt, for instance, and so to lose touch with the religious public. Let me hasten to admit that the ' Assunta ' justifies its reputation, — a reputation so great that artists and critics alike have become restive under it, and longed to rebel, but have found something irksome and unbecoming in their rebellion. This is often the case with many huge reputations ; the foolishness of the common praise excites suspicion and fatigue, even in heaven it must be monotonous to say nothing else but Hallelujah ! Hence we find that Lazarus peeps over the gulf at Dives, the sinner, and would like to give him a drop of water. A subtle and insidious form of attack may be made by analysing the mechanism of the work, since all things may be so dissected, and be shown as an aggregate of various quantities of very unequal value. Titian has represented the Deity as a venerable and benevolent old man supported by an obliging angel, and the heavens themselves as a garland of children round an effective space of yeUow, whilst below, regardless of perspective and other platitudes, the disciples gesticulate and pose in rich draperies : this is the gist of the case against the picture.^ But the fact remains, that with a few obvious elements of Resign, and a few generalised elements of emotional appeal, and by some indwelling element of rhythm, and a great sincerity in the use of these things, Titian has achieved an effect which he was unable to 'repeat, and which has baffled imitation. Perfect good luck, which characterises the masterpiece in art as well as the man of genius who is the masterpiece in life, — this is the secret of the ' Assunta.' Both forms of luck were present at its making, and to its luckiness was added that of time and place, sufficiency of aim and a sufficient reward in apprecia- tion, that other attribute of luck. Against this manifestation of a richer nature no wit or ingenuity will avail ; both are powerless against the expression of plenitude in the ' Assunta.' 1 Several of the composing elements of this design can be discovered latent in the 'Assunta ascribed to Pizzolo in the Eremitani Chapel at Padua. 60 THE 'ASSUNTA' Titian has been daring, and, fortunate in his daring, in the focus of interest (the figure of the Virgin) he has achieved a masterpiece of expressive drawing. The face of Mary satisfies us as expressing ecstasy in a human type, which is also generous and genial in its nature, and failing this the whole cast of the figure would convey emotion. In this the painter has had Success on his side. The world has been with Titian from the first in its pleasure and approval of the garland of children who surround the mother of the holy Child. The world of art has envied him the rich simplicity of the group of gigantic apostles who crowd the stage below with a few grand gestures ; we remember among them one or two fervent faces, we admire the opposition of a few broad masses of tone, and the combination of a few rich passages of rare and generous colour. Whether the result is due to a fortunate simplicity (simplicity is not always interesting), whether we ascribe the simplicity of means to consummate art (alas, the art of concealing it is not always so convincing), we remain conscious of a beautiful and effective pattern of colour which delights us from the first, and which gives stability of effect to a picture at once simple in detail and in its emotional appeal. What holds our attention in the work is worthy of our interest, what is less interesting soothes one like the accompaniment of a piece of music finely conceived in its melody, finely sustained in its progression, and broadly scored. The means employed can be perceived ; the result, however, exceeds the means ; the success of the picture lies in its balance between many things that are fine in themselves, more than in the perfect rendering of some one thing. As a work of art it is generous and dignified, and a greater profundity of thought or intensity of vision would strain the balance, break the rhythm, and destroy its unique effect, which is that of a great joyousness, a steady affirmation of a deep delight. How strange the contrast between the upward movement of the large compositional lines of the ' Assunta ' and the broken arabesques and the wayward moods revealed in the ' Bacchanal.' In this last, ecstasy is pensive ; it expresses the ardour and the ease of the wandering spirit of delight, and the spirit of melancholy. The dancers move to the echo of the music of some voluptuous yet ironic flute-melody still held by the air, made sharp or languid in turn by freshets from the sea, or by the glowing scent of a wreath of violets crumbling upon itself. To the great in art, all moods and emotions are capable of their separate justification from the staleness of a common use. Thus Titian had on hand, at the same time, the ' Assunta ' with its general appeal, and the 61 TITIAN ' Bacchanal ' with its unique expression of mood, and the world could not afford the loss of either work, Vasari states that the ' Assunta ' soon became obscured in its place on the altar of the Frari. I suspect him here of some confusion in his notes. When Reynolds saw it, however, in the eighteenth century, he describes it as ' terribly darkened, but nobly painted.' The position of the panel may have heightened the impression of darkness in the first place ; it had also become a fact later with the smoke of more than two centuries of candles. On its removal to the Accademia the 'Assunta' was cleaned and restored, and though it has not passed scathless through the ordeal, its very scale has precluded too great a damage from rehandling. It has benefited also by being painted on wood, and we can say that on the whole it is fairly preserved. Before discussing its actual state, I would again warn the reader that up to 1520 Titian's work was more boldly and simply planned in colour than is usually supposed by art-lovers whose impression of his work rests mainly on pictures obscured by dirt and crumbling varnish. A broad division of local colours was also part of the scenic scheme of the picture, which had to be seen from a distance in a tangle of sanctuary lights and shadows. This is not due to the restorer. The yellow halo may have been impoverished by cleaning, but not greatly so; the recognisable patches of restoration now show here and there in darker stains and in occasional mauve spots upon some of the children. In these blemishes we have nothing drastic or important. Their very obvious- ness is in itself reassuring, since it precludes any drastic overpainting. The upper part of the picture (the edge excepted) is well preserved. The superb group of apostles has fared less well, or, to be quite explicit, the two dark central figures have suffered. Most of the heads, however, are in good preservation ; the sky behind. them shows a certain amount of obvious repainting, though not enough to affect the radiant space it makes above the bronzed faces. I think the sharpness of certain white passages in the clouds was intentional, and there from the first. Titian affects an occasional abrupt patch of white in the construction of his skies, probably to give value to the more subtle kneading and modelling of the rest. He used fresh passages of white in the scheme of his pictures for the same sort of reason which led Corot to put his Uttle patch of sealing-wax red in his grey landscapes. I think we shall realise how far Titian had exceeded his habitual measure of mastery in the * Assunta ' when we examine the two or three superb altar-pieces which are contemporaneous with it in design 62 THE ALTAR-PIECE AT ANCONA or execution, I would qualify the expression ' mastery ' — I should put it thus : in the ' Assunta ' almost another century of art is anticipated, whilst two at least of the following works, ie. the altar-pieces at San Domenico, Ancona, and at SS. Nazzaro e Celso, Brescia, if they do not revert to an earlier manner, reveal in many ways the earlier method of design. I would also like to say that to some extent ' The Entombment ' in the Louvre shows a return to an earlier style. In all these works we can point to survivals of habits which were anticipated some years before. The altar-piece at Ancona is known to me only by photography ; it would seem to be one of Titian's most enchanting works (Plate xlv,). Something of the abruptness of pose and freshness of design of the work done in the first decade of the century is preserved in this picture, which benefits by the more subtle surfaces belonging to a period when Titian had nothing more to master. It has doubtless the frankness of execution which belongs to all his paintings on panel. I feel a certain hesitation in confessing that to me at least there is in this picture, and in 'The Entombment' (finished or delivered in 1523), a survival of something almost Giorgionesque, to use a vague and often abused expression. True, the Madonna at Ancona is dissimilar in facial type to any other of Titian's Virgins. She leans forward in the gracious pose which Titian often affects, but she strikes one as a portrait of some winnmg but not beautiful woman. She is not the matronly goddess of the ' Assunta ' — she seems also nearer nature than the sedate or gracious Madonnas he has painted hitherto, whose placid beauty ranks them after all as the more dignified sisters of the lovely ' Vanitas.' The sky on which the Virgin rests, breaks into the billowy masses and the large white strata of cloud which Titian paints in the 'Bacchus and Ariadne.' In the two fig leaves against the sky the painter reverts to a scheme of things which was in vogue when Bellini was still alive, and in the design of the donor and the ardent figure of St. Blaise we are reminded at once of the ' St. Mark ' in the Salute, and even of the ' Baffo.' We are all the more conscious of this when we glance at the Pesaro family where the Bishop of Paphos kneels as an older man, and the singular freshness or abruptness in gesture in the picture at Ancona is forced upon us. I would pause and describe a work which all writers upon Titian place among the quite early works of the master : this is the ' Madonna and Child with St. John and St. Anthony Abbot ' (Uffizi) (Plate xliv.). 63 TITIAN I grant that this picture was in all probability begun at a very early date — that is as far as the landscape and possibly the infant St. John are concerned ; but here all immaturity ceases, and we have the work- manship and form of another decade. Let us note that the background behind the Virgin has been drastically rehandled by the master (the older background is now visible through the new). The facial type of the Virgin, the character and fall of her veil and draperies, the quality of the pigment, the delicately painted flowers, all point towards Titian's style somewhere about the year 1520. If we examine the character of the veils and linen round the throats of the earlier Virgins at Madrid, Dresden, and Brescia, we shall recognise in this work a less formal arrangement, softer and more flowing folds in the draperies, greater fusion and unction in the contour of the flesh. In the treatment of the St, Anthony there is a certain largeness of mass and a different scheme of chiaroscuro than in the earlier accessory or * spectator ' saints. The picture suffers from minute mendings in the interstices of the small cracks on the surface, but on the whole it is well preserved. I now find myself obliged to write about two portraits of sur- prising quality : ' The Man in Black,' and ' L'Homme au Gant ' in the Louvre. If I have ventured to give the 'Alessandro ' approximately to the year 1516, with a lingering sense that it may be later, I hardly know how to bridge the space between this and the superb ' Man in Black' (Plate xxvii.), which I consider the most reticent, the most consummate of all Titian's portraits. The work (though unfortunately added to) is more ample in build, and I think we can class it with ' L'Homme au Gant ' (Plate xlvi.), which is a better known but not more masterly work, unfortunately in a poorer state of preservation. The now totally ruined or repainted portrait of ' Tommaso Mosti ' in the Pitti (Plate xlvii.) is a contemporary work, its late appearance being due to restoration. It is singular that, whilst the ardour and passion of the ' Assunta,' and the sincerity of the picture at Ancona, should be so noticeable, the 'Resurrection of Christ ' at Brescia (Plate xlviii.) shows but little emotion and no great concentration of purpose. It owed its reputation to the figure of St. Sebastian, who looks like a handsome Samson tired of his bonds. In ' The Resurrection,' which fills the centre panel, we are perplexed by the silhouettes of trees, which we find yet again in 'The Entombment,' against patches of that stormy orange which was in the past a habit with Giorgione and his circle. 64 THE ST. SEBASTIAN The fame of the St. Sebastian, which Titian declared the best thing he had done, urged Alfonso of Ferrara to attempt the acquisition of the masterpiece over the head of its owner, the legate. Titian's growing success made it difficult to procure anything of his. We can imagine that the work on these great altar-pieces alone occupied him to the full. ¥.-5 65 CHAPTER XI THE 'BACCHUS AND ARIADNE' THE Venetian State in 1518 had called the painter to task for the work which still remained unfinished in the Hall of the Great Council. This was again the case in 1522. Alfonso storms and threatens ; we hear of works which were delivered as a sort of sop, of visits and correspondence on the part of Tebaldi, the Duke's agent, and of a suggested visit to Rome. It is only in the following year, in 1523, that Titian fulfils his promise to go to Ferrara. It is supposed that the world-famous ' Bacchus and Ariadne ' was then set up under Titian's own eyes and finished or retouched in situ. It had been commissioned three years before.^ During the many delays which occurred whilst the ' Bacchus and Ariadne ' was in hand, during which, to use the words of Crowe and Cavalcaselle, 'the Duke began to rave and Tebaldi to storm,' we learn that the artist gave as a reason for declining to work at Ferrara, the difficulties of getting male or female models there. We learn also that the painter lost heart over the correction of two figures, and that Tebaldi saw the work in progress when ' the chariot was there, drawn by animals, and two figures completed, but the rest, including the landscape, not even commenced,'^ though Titian declared it might be finished in a fortnight. How tantaUsing this! how we wish for a more explicit account ! What was the degree of finish or incompleteness which seemed so great to Tebaldi and merely a matter of a fortnight's work to Titian? The work (Plate xlix.) stands to-day admirably preserved and elaborately wrought, with a surface which required many paintings to produce, varied, and grained, and enamelled, and with the traces of revisions and repentances. Here was a chance for some busybody to give us facts concerning the artist's method.— Was the picture planned in a broadly schemed ' Of Titian's fresco work done at Padua in 1520, at Conegliano in 1621, and in 1523 in ^e Chapel of the Doge Antonio Grimani, no trace is now left. ^ Crowe and Cavalcaselle, chap. vii. 66 THE 'BACCHUS AND ARIADNE' underpaint, wrought in the flesh with warm light scumbles of red and yellow blended with white? Were the stronger local colours introduced from the first? Was the picture in a transition from a bright key to those mellow surfaces we admire, which now glow with stratum upon stratum of varied glazes? What medium has given a ' tooth ' to the pigment ? Were these delicate impastos of a truth executed in a rich soft tempera, glazed with transparent pigment ? The chariot and animals are done with the greatest economy of means ; they might have been there from the first, or indicated at the last. We see no haste^ nothing but the most consummate and tender practices : the flesh is softened in its glazes by those touches of the fingers with which Titian is said by Palma Giovine to have painted at the end. Look at the melting eyes of the little faun softened by a touch of the master's finger. What would we not give really to know, as Velazquez and Vandyck wished to know, what were the golden means, the few wise practices which could help Titian in producing his masterpieces? For apart from the imaginative force and the unique personal vision of the master, this picture holds in its perfection the very essence of a great tradition or practice ; it has that singular and essential virtue which is held in the composition of a gem; something in its very substance belongs to Titian only, and so far its golden composition has defied the alchemist, be he even Vandyck or Reynolds. Time may have softened the more obvious splendours the work may have once possessed. Time has not made the magic and translucent siirfeces; we shall not find them elsewhere in quite the same degree evpn in the work of Titian, and there are other paintings of his over which we need not ask these questions. This picture excels all others in the Louvre, in Madrid and in Vienna, by this unequalled combination of qualities which other perfect pictures of Titian's reflect only in part. The ' Sacred and Profane Love ' and the 'Bacchanal' equal it in beauty of invention. 'La Vierge au Lapin' possesses something of its richness of detail. The ' Cristo della Moneta,' is even more suave and polished and fused, but this delicate work is by comparison limited in resource. The ' Assunta ' perhaps surpasses it in the sense of movement and in oneness of effect, but this very oneness of mood - will hold us less, and there is no part of the ' Assunta ' which aims at the perfection of workman- ship possessed by this more intimate work. The 'Bacchus and Ariadne' has haunted Rubens, and Vandyck and Watts; and for 67 TITIAN many more centuries it will haunt the Vandyck and the Watts of the future. As mere painting no work equals it. We may prefer to this result the art of Michelangelo or the art of Rembrandt, but they are supreme in different fields of human endeavour, and might, as far as comparison is possible, be the denizens of some different planet. I have borrowed this charming phrase from an intelligent article by a recent critic, since it is useful to express the vast distances between the greatest artists, who never reflect their period, but remould it, regardless of its aims. It is thus that Titian painted this supreme expression of pagan thought which we admire in the ' Bacchus and Ariadne ' at the time when it might have benefited him to be at the feet of the new Pope, or else to glorify in paint the prowess of the declining Venetian State. It is probable that Ariosto had some influence upon the choice of the subjects of these ' poesies ' which Titian completed for Alfonso, i.e. in the choice of Philostratus and Catullus to be illustrated. Here all direct or indirect suggestion ceases ; the fancy of Ariosto could add nothing to the art of Titian, though we may imagine him as a stimulus on the more fantastic and incoherent work of Dosso Dossi. To the interpretation of a poet Titian brought the gift of stimulating the imaginative memory through the eye, the gift of visual poetry which we have admired in the ' Sacred and Profane Love.' If I can trust my memory, another word-picture of Philostratus, 'The Poseidon and . . .' (I forget her name) may also have been present to Titian's mind when he made Ariadne leave the water-vessel on the shore and fly half fascinated from the god. We forget the debt to Catullus ; the word-painting of the poet is merged in the creation of the painter, and Keats, striving in Endymion to recall the magic of the revel invented by Titian, makes a more detailed appeal to our faculties of sight vdthout evoking the rush and pause implied by the painter. Of Keats's description we remember but a morsel, ' And like a moving vintage did they come ! ' We owe to Titian the vision of the leaping Bacchus with his , streaming hair, and the rout of fauns who stamp and chafe in a trance, active, yet held in check by some charm of the god, that rare and ardent Spirit of Delight, whose passion has flashed up for Ariadne, who turns fascinated in her flight, though Theseus' ship is still a wing-like speck against the sky. The stars of her crown become lit in the blue where the great clouds roll up and away, and the sea 68 THE 'BACCHUS AND AKIADNE' pauses and breaks without foam upon the ground, where shell and moss lie close together. A white wild rose of Sharon creeps among the grass, the iris and the columbine, the wild vine and the jasmine — each brings with its associated beauty an element of intimacy to a scene of splendour and passion at a crisis.^ This is one of the secrets of Titian's mood of invention. He places things of everyday use in the world of the imagination. Thus in the 'Bacchanal' there was the love-letter hidden in the shift of one of the girl revellers, there was the scrap of paper with its song, the capon on a silver dish. In the " Bacchus and Ariadne ' the circumstances are less naive, more strange and sudden ; here a small dog barks at the hum of the revel, at the clash of a cymbal held by a Bacchante. The sense of reality is strong in this most poetic of pictures ; the wish to localise the event, or to give us a sense of time and place is part in the success of this work, and if Titian's painting tends to become later more materialistic than it is here, we shall realise that these later works affect us by comparison almost as abstractions when we remember this, the most beautiful, the most romantic of his pictures. With the exception of Mr. Claude Phillips, most writers on Titian have adopted the suggestion of Crowe and Cavalcaselle, i.e. that the famous 'Vierge au Lapin' (Plate l.) is the picture of a Madonna and St. Catherine mentioned in a letter to the Marquess of Mantua dated 1530. The work is supposed to have been in the possession of Charles i., and therefore probably a Mantuan piece. Its production must, however, have been considerably anterior to that date. The almost Giorgionesque motive of the shepherd in the mid-distance is not in keeping with the date usually given to the work, and there should be little doubt that it is contemporary with the ' Bacchus and Ariadne.' The careful rendering of textures renders impossible any comparison between it and the far more generalised pigment we find in such works as the ' Madonna and St. Catherine ' in the National Gallery, with which it is sometimes supposed to be contemporary. I incline to the idea that this exquisite work went with Titian to Mantua when he was on his way to Ferrara to complete the 'Bacchus and Ariadne,' which had preceded him there. Well preserved, this priceless jewel gleams to-day in the Louvre with a lustre and variety of texture and a delicacy of detail that are rare in the life-work of the master. ' The white flower is not a rose of Sharon, but the ' Capparis Spinosa.' 69 TITIAN During Titian's stay at the court of Alfonso he may possibly have painted the rich and nobly designed picture in the Cook collection at Richmond, which its owner has identified as the probable portrait of Laura Dianti (Plate lii.). This portrait has suffered almost to the point of extinction by ironing, stippling, and abrasion of its surface, notably in the head and bust. The rich harmony in blue of the dress enlivened by a primrose-coloured scarf, and, above all, the tender rendering of the linen sleeve, would make us class it within the period when the rendering of local textures counted enormously in Titian's practice, as it does in the ' Bacchus and Ariadne ' and ' La Vierge au Lapin.' The negro page has suffered somewhat less, notably in his striped shirt. Without wishing to pronounce myself on the question of the sitter, I incline to the opinion expressed by Crowe and Cavalcaselle, in so far as they viewed it as a pendant to the ' Man in blue velvet ' in thePrado collection (Plate liii.), formerly described as Alfonso d'Este, but sometimes considered an early portrait of Federigo Gonzaga. This work, in which the sitter rests his hand on a pet Maltese dog, has also suffered, less drastically but no less surely, by the work of an over-conscientious restorer ; it is ironed and stippled like the picture at Richmond. It must once have been a work displaying the utmost finish and loving care in the rendering of surface ; even to-day the painting of the dog is exquisite. Both canvases would rank as the first in date of what have survived of Titian's long series of sumptuous court portraits.^ The sadly damaged fresco of ' St. Christopher ' in the Ducal Palace, (Plate Liv.), has suffered too much to excite more than a moment's interest. It can never have been a fortunate work ; a faded stretch of shore at the horizon alone arrests one ; for the rest the restorer seems to have been as thorough as he was unskilful. This sad relic is all that is left to us of Titian's work done for the Doge Gritti, who had become the painter's patron, and the patron of Sansovino and Aretino. ' The style of both paintings would suggest the years between 1523-1528. 70 CHAPTER XII THE 'MADONNA AND SIX SAINTS'— THE 'CASA PESARO MADONNA' —'THE ENTOMBMENT' IF little or nothing is left of Titian's painting for Doge Gritti, two public works of great importance which still remain were executed for Venetian churches. The first in date — the ' Madonna with six Saints,' painted for San Niccolo de' Frari, — is now in the Vatican, and the ' Casa Pesaro Madonna,' still in the church of the Frari. Deprived of the circular top it once possessed, and so darkened and damaged by time and restoration, the ' Madonna and six Saints ' (Plate Lvi.) is a picture that no lover of Titian is able to enjoy, nor can we find a trace of the many splendours it is said to have possessed at the time of its production. Again the student is at a loss to account for its traditional date. Was it rehandled subsequently ? or is restora- tion alone answerable for a falsifying of its effect ? Was it retouched late in the 'forties or even in the 'fifties ? All this is pure conjecture ; we consult the picture in vain. Portions of the torso of the St. Sebastian and the robe of St. Francis seem to have partly escaped repainting, but these are lost under dirt and dull varnish. Dirt had rendered the painting invisible in Reynolds's time, but it is on panel, and some careful future cleaning may therefore reveal, not one of Titian's masterpieces, but one on which he may have expended a large measure of skill. I personally incline to the belief that it was re- handled late in Titian's lifetime, before it had become the ruin it now is. I am disposed to think that there had been a confusion in Vasari's notes over the two Frari churches, and that he had possibly this picture in mind when he wrote that the ' Assunta ' was dirty and darkened with neglect. The famous ' Madonna of the Casa Pesaro ' (Plate lv.) has not shared the same fate ; it is dirty and darkened, and retouched in the lower portion, notably in the famous portrait of the child, but I believe that in the hands of a tactful cleaner it might yield splendid results. 71 TITIAN Not that it actually makes the impression the art-lover has learned to anticipate from a general knowledge of Titian. Let me say at once, it has the somewhat sleepy effect of a good copy, but dirt and old varnish and the difficulty of examination account for this. The superb design or pattern of the picture fascinates the beholder although he misses the beautiful passages of painting. The figure of St. Peter has darkened most, and the sky lost its lustre, but even now we have the two superb columns, the shadow cast from the overhanging cloud, and the hand- some magisterial group of the Pesari with the once ardent Baffo of the early picture, now sedate with added years. Behind him, two Turkish prisoners are led into the holy presence by a figure of St. George, on whose flag we note the arms of the Borgias. Clearly Baffo remembered old gracious debts to a family which all other men had striven to forget or to malign. We must consider another master work of Titian's, formerly a ' Mantuan piece,' one of the jewels of the great collection of Charles i., and now one of the treasures of the Louvre. This priceless picture is the 'Entombment' (Plate li.), which Titian finished for his new patron Federigo Gonzaga, the nephew of Alfonso of Este, and the son of Isabella d'Este. Was the ' Entombment ' actually designed and painted about the year 1523 ? I think not. I think that at the latest it should be classed with the altar-piece at Brescia, and I agree with Mr. Claude Phillips in so far that he detects survivals of a Giorgionesque tradition in portions of the work. I believe that not only must we place it some two or three years earlier than is usual, I would allow even a little more. The purplish drapery on the bending disciple who supports the Saviour resembles the piece of purple satin on the shoulder of the httle faun in the ' Bacchus and Ariadne,' and on the ground are two exquisite snail shells painted in the manner of the tender pieces of realistic detail we admire in the same work. But there are portions of the * Entomb- ment,' notably the distance and the sky, which seem earlier ; the St. John and the head of St. Joseph remind one of the ' Assunta,' and on the evidence of the picture itself, I should give the date of its design and the bulk of the workmanship approximately to the year 1518. What writer on Titian has not praised the colour of the ' Entomb- ment ' — so rich, sonorous, and harmonious ; who has not admired the broad marshalling of noble local colours of which the first masterpiece was the ' St. Mark Enthroned ' of the Salute, the other the ' Assunta ' ? In the ' Entombment ' the harmony is even richer, more subdued in its 72 THE 'ENTOMBMENT' splendour, not less striking; and to-day, under dirt and old sallow varnish, the picture glows with the richness of summer flowers in the July light of an afterglow. The ' Entombment ' is, on the whole, well-preserved in all its essentials ; it is damaged, like all the Louvre pictures, along the edge, and the piece of sky above the seam is a modern addition, for France in past years would seem to have had quite a dynasty of directors who thought that artists never knew the proper size for their pictures. A letter is still preserved from Federigo Gonzaga to Alfonso, signed ' Servus et Nepos,' in which he solicits permission for Titian's services ; and in the same year, 1523, we hear that the portrait Titian had painted of Frederic was finished and waiting a handsome frame. This, in all probability, is the blue portrait in the Prado which I have already discussed. 73 CHAPTER XIII THE 'ST. PETER MARTYR' ON the 16th of August 1867 the famous picture ' The Martyrdom of St. Peter the Dominican ' perished by fire, together with an altar-piece by Giovanni BeUini, in a chapel to which they had been temporarily removed. Thus we have lost all means of appreciat- ing at its true value the work of Titian which elicited the greatest admiration in his time, which Vasari described as the most celebrated, the greatest and best executed picture which Titian ever made in all his life. The masterpiece is now replaced in the church of SS. Giovanni e Paolo by a copy by Cigoli (Plate lvii.), which can give no idea of its splendour of surface and colour. In the collection of Lord Leighton there was formerly a beautiful small copy ascribed to the sculptor- painter Alfred Stevens, and from this it was possible to form a better impression of the glow and glory of this work, with its great massive sky of rolling cloud, its noble landscape and magical horizon. It is customary to ascribe the fame of the picture to some sort of compliance on Titian's part with a prevalent admiration for the grandiose and the grandiloquent which was then prevalent in Italy. It is assumed that Titian challenged the admirers of the grand manner, of which the Laocoon had become the popular canon, and Michelangelo, who had visited Venice in 1529, the titular deity. This may be true in its degree, but do not let us forget that besides the foreign or borrowed elements in the drawing there remained the great originality of the design of this first, and perhaps, the only heroic landscape the world has ever seen. The great grove of trees and monumental trunks struck by the light in their different strata of bough and foliage have had no precedent in the history of painting. The ' St. Peter Martyr ' remains in many respects not a departure for Titian, but a climax in the development of his discoveries. So much may be said in defence. True, the declamatory Dominican who turns in his flight towards the vision hovering above, interests us less than it did Titian's con- 74 THE 'ST. PETER MARTYE' temporaries, but even in copies and prints we are conscious of the virile dignity of the martyr, and we feel that something which makes for the beauty of the group of apostles in the ' Assunta ' did not for- sake Titian in this work. The ' Peter Martyr ' must have had an incalculable forming in- fluence on the great Rubens ; yet who can deny the greater reticence of Titian's art even in emphatic gesture, when we conjure up the name of another artist almost equally great ? This work furnished matter for study to so many masters and schools that we are apt to disparage it, owing to that influence which it has had, directly and by proxy, on the later Venetian school, on Vandyck, the Poussins, and Salvator Rosa, — that is, on good and even indifferent artists. I think we owe to its example one masterpiece at least, or part of it, namely the Charles i. on horseback, by Vandyck, in the National Gallery. In this the landscape and unrivalled sky help us perhaps to form an idea of the splendours of the lost masterpiece of Titian's maturity. The ' Peter Martyr ' was the subject of a competition between Titian, Palma, and Pordenone, in 1528. The picture was delivered in April 1530, after some money troubles with the Friars. It is one of those works which helps to close a period of about thirty years, which has remained unique in its kind in the history of Italy, and unique in the history of human endeavour. It represents in Venice, at least, the climax of her share in the tremendous artistic upheaval which had pro- duced the Stanze, the Sistine ceiling, the statues of the Medici Sacristy, the pictures of Titian, and the cupola in the Duomo at Parma. I would not limit the value of the work of Italy in the sixteenth century to those thirty magical years only, but from henceforth, despite the stupendous ' Last Judgment ' of Michelangelo and the later works of Titian, despite the aftermath of fine painting and picture-making in Venice, the century follows a course less wonderful ; it displays not an exhaustion of resource, but a deterioration in the quality of its inspira- tion. We might almost instance the year of the sacking of Rome in 1527 as a symbolic date for a period of change, with which it coincides approximately, and just as we say that a man becomes of age in his twenty -first year, so the art of Italy entered into middle-age after the mercenaries of the Constable de Bourbon entered the Eternal City, with the result that the Stanze frescoes of Raphael had to undergo their first restoration by the first man who could not understand them. In 1529 Michelangelo was a fugitive in Venice. In 1530 Titian reached the climax of his first manner in the ' Peter Martyr. ' From that 75 TITIAN date something supervenes in the temperament of the great Italians, Michelangelo alone excepted, which has since tired the art-lover of the art of the sixteenth century. I will not say that during thirty years Italian art had lived its capital out ; but from that date it lived on a lesser wealth, it became immeasurably poorer in spiritual or imaginative resource. Michelangelo remains, not less, but handicapped by the in- creasing weightiness of his artistic message. Titian reserves to himself henceforth the faculty for additions to his art, but, for a while at least, the man grows smaller. When, in examples of the work of his agitated old age, he goes beyond his habitual range and seems conscious of the need for an effort of the spirit, his art becomes less sure, — that is, it lacks his habitual faculties of cohesion, and, as with the later art of other great men, the indwelling sense of rhythm becomes lost or forced, the power of cohesion diminishes under the strain. In the irregular later plays of Shakespeare, or again in the second part of Goethe's Faust, this is the case also. This is perhaps the case in much that Beethoven conceived towards the end. We value and even overpraise these works at times, partly because they stimulate us, not solely by their intrinsic worth, which is considerable, but because they are enriched by the accumulated splendours that have preceded them, from which they gain a borrowed light. If Titian's art reveals in his last years this curious intensifying in parts, which corresponds to the more incoherent splendours in the late works of these great men I have instanced, in the middle of his career he lapses from the standard he had maintained till then, and sinks to a different and lower level. Titian does not cease to attain success in the realms of paint- ing, but, confined in the limitations of a splendid practice, he merely exploits the resources of a fine and unrivalled convention, translating into golden terms not the nobler emotions and faculties of the major man, but the desires and the valuations of the world at large. The development of Michelangelo into a superb and impassioned isolation continues to the end. With Titian the expansion of his genius ceases for a while, and his art kept open house with the world, reflecting it not as it was, but as it wished to be. We have twenty years where he is still one of the world's greatest masters, but not in the same degree one of the world's truest friends, albeit this failing may have been partly due to too great a love of life, or more probably to an eternal cause of change, which is this : there is a limit to the production in any one field, and the human mind shares with nature 76 THE 'SX PETER MARTYR' herself in the need for change. In 1530 Titian had become a middle- aged man, the century itself was well on towards maturity, for like a man or a nation, a century also has its youth and even its old age, and the youth of the sixteenth century had achieved what no other period has succeeded in producing. In thirty years there had been done what no other space of time has been able to surpass. In Venice alone Titian had established the canon of painting, covered an immense field of discovery ; for a time he lives on his acquired knowledge, the unrivalled chief of a fine tradition which any other nation might admire and envy, but which is less valuable in ' personal ' or emotional quality than that which he had hitherto produced. 77 CHAPTER XIV THE DEVELOPMENT AND CHANGE OF TITIAN'S MANNER THE new era or phase of Titian's art might be described as the period of princely and foreign patronage. It is true the number of great ambitious works executed by him does not diminish — Titian is still the painter of heroic canvases and fine altar- pieces — but we are somehow less conscious of these than of an increase in paintings which owe their origin to a more direct influence of the everyday world. Even this definition is unsatisfactory, since we shall find that the ' Magdalenes,' ' Venuses,' and ' Bellas ' are after all the true sisters of the ' Flora ' and ' Venus ' and other fair Venetians of an earlier period ; they hardly differ from the secular conditions of the earlier pictures, yet something has changed in Titian, or is it in us ? He has added nothing in these later works to which we can point for objection. We feel that each of these beauties was born to be looked at and admired ; but this was also the case in earlier pictures — the temper of the painter has not become more frank or more gross, but the charm is less ; we remember even the naive coquetry of his early glancing ' Vanitas ' and ' Venus ' (so conscious of an audience), whilst we feel almost shocked at the impassiveness of his ' Magdalene ' in the Pitti, and the boring large naked lady in the Uffizi, known as the 'Venus of Urbino.' Perhaps these fine Venetian beauties are conscious that for more than three centuries they will astonish the tourist and befriend the copyist. The bloom, the perfume, and the charm are lacking which we prized before. I fancy that Titian painted them without emotion, and with too great a trust in his accomplish- ment. When painted, and very well painted, these ladies were to be packed off to decorate the apartments of Italian princes and to fascinate foreigners. If the following twenty years contains no work we can class with the ' Sacred and Profane Love,' the ' Cristo della Moneta,' the 'Bacchanal,' the 'Assunta,' the 'Ariadne' and the Casa Pesaro altar- 78 DEVELOPMENT OF TITIAN'S MANNER piece, or indeed with many other works done by Titian in the first thirty years of the century ; if his sense of beauty becomes less nimble, his imaginative and emotional faculties infinitely less — in one branch of his art at least there is no loss of quality. To this period belongs the greater number of Titian's finest portraits ; in this field there was no falling off. We are deprived in our estimate of Titian's development by the loss of the ' Battle of Cadore,' on which his contemporaries set the greatest store, and upon which the large generalising canvases of Tintoretto were doubtless to a great extent founded. But whatever may have been its splendours, this work could not, from what we know of it, have excited anything but the most general emotions ; it was doubtless rich in resource and detail, but these generalised ' heroics ' and ' pathetics ' do not wear well in the love of the world, and were the picture still with us, the tremendous landscape, with its flash of lightning and the gleam of the armour, would interest us most. I feel that these few words in preface to the second movement in Titian's life may have carried me too far, and I am conscious that a splendid and eloquent audacity characterises many of these paintings in which the personal bias has changed, though the effort is not always less ; yet my coldness towards them is not solely temperamental or sentimental ; there are times when Titian's technical resources interest us less than hitherto, the unmatchable painting of the past gives way to a workmanship no longer exquisite and mysterious, but a little bald, a little empty, and in a sense academic. I feel this most in some of his most popular canvases, the ' Venus of Urbino,' the ' Magdalene,' and, to be quite frank, in almost aU his portraits or paint- ings of women. The temper in which his more ambitious works are now conceived remains always generous, and sometimes magnificent. In his series of male portraits he continues to excel as no one has excelled. In these works, dorie to a great extent in direct contact with nature, there is an unfailing dignity, a great variety, and a subtle magic of workmanship which in its power and reticence has never been surpassed. But we cannot say the same of most of his more ambitious efforts. We might describe Titian's early career as that of a poet-painter ; his second phase, which we are about to discuss, as thfit of a master portrait-painter; in the last period of all which follows after 1560, when the constructive faculty, and even the realistic vision, becomes impaired, a new emotional force becomes expressed, and to 79 TITIAN poetry and realism the artist adds a visionary quality which is different in its kind from the steady perception of the beautiful which had been the success of his youth. If in his first phase he develops the scheme of things perceived by Giorgione, and surpasses him in passion and range and in his second period is a rival of Raphael in his influence on art ; in his last manner he outshines the random flashes we admire in Tintoretto, and anticipates something in the art of Rembrandt. A large portion of the possibilities of painting and the major discoveries that have been made in its technique were made by Titian, and expressed by him in the span of a life exceptional in its length and work, unrivalled in its influence, and unsurpassed in its variety. 80 CHAPTEK XY ARETINO : RELATIONS WITH THE HOUSE OF URBINO IT is usual to accept the year 1527 as the date of the first meeting between Titian and Aretino. Was this the case ? A * personal ' impression, perhaps a mere intuition or whim, has tempted me to recognise the likeness of the ' divine ' Aretino in the bending figure of St. Joseph of Arimathea in the ' Entombment ' now in the Louvre. In the previous pages of this book I have volunteered the suggestion that the * Entombment ' is even earlier in date than is generally sup- posed ; I therefore incline to the belief that both men met much earlier in life. This idea is nursed by a print of a now lost picture described in the seventeenth century by its engraver as Pietro Aretino. This Giorgionesque design, with the ledge and laurel bough, can clearly not have been painted later than 1518 ; it may not, after all, represent the Aretine, though I rather beUeve it does. Had the poet visited Venice when in the service of Agostino Chigi, or are we to accept it as a fact that he met Titian at the earliest in 1527 ? Be this as it may, we know that a portrait of Aretino was painted in that year, and sent to the Marquis of Mantua : this work has so far remained unidentified. The gift was the first of its kind ; it marks the beginning of a famous friendship which lasted till the death of the poet, critic, libeller, or what you will, who was famous in his time as ' the divine Aretino,' and rather infamous ever since in legend or history. Aretino combined most of the faults of his time (not an ignoble one after all) with a few of its good qualities. If he had been born in afiluence, I believe the world would have benefited by one of those rich and genial types who hasten the development of a generation, who leave enduring work in the civilisation of a period, and who are remem- bered with affection for a few foibles. Born in the Hospital of the small provincial town of Arezzo, endowed with a certain measure of good looks, he became an adventurer or worse, a cross between the pander and the bully ; his knowledge of human nature turned towards T.— 6 81 TITIAN the furthering of his needs ; the wit became merged in the buffoon. To the last the fine faculties of the man remained, dimmed by an ostentatious cynicism, but redeemed to some extent by laughter and generosity, and a certain largeness and sunniness of nature which endeared him to his friends. Titian's friendship with Aretino benefited the painter in so far that hardly a single canvas passed without praise, or a sonnet addressed to the destined owner, for which painter and writer reaped direct and reflected benefits. The friendship lasted till Aretino's death, and together with the sculptor Sansovino this trinity of friends (known as the Triumvirate) formed the focus of the artistic life of Venice. To the houses and suppers of the ' Triumvirate ' drifted whatever was notable in the worlds of thought and action. Palma Vecchio, Titian's friend, died in 1529, and in the course of the following year Titian lost his wife. We hear of the artist being downcast by this event, which occurred after a return journey from Bologna. In the course of two months, though the painter had been ailing, he reverted to his work, being again galiardo, to use the words of Benedetto Agnello. We hear of a picture of nude women, a portrait of La Cornelia, a St. Jerome, and a Magdalene as ' beautiful and tearful as possible,' painted to be sent to Vittoria Colonna. It has been suggested that the picture in the Pitti (Plate lviii.) is a second version of this subject, but done this time without any religious arriere pensee for the Duke of Urbino. In this famous picture the saint is illuminated by a golden lamp- light, while beyond is the dark blue of a night sky. Extreme care has been expended on the rounding of her ample form, and upon the tangle of rich burnished golden hair, with a metallic lustre upon it, which must have fascinated Rubens. The shadows have been slightly strengthened by a restorer, otherwise the picture is well preserved. The forcible contrast between the golden skin and hair and the rich azure of the night sky (it is too dark to represent daylight) is boldly carried out, but without minor refinements. There is an absence of cooler tones which might have harmonised the rich flesh tints with the emphatic blue of the distance. The fact that we accept without demur the frankness of the con- trast is sufficient praise of the colour of this picture, which in character and design anticipates much that became habitual in the seventeenth 82 THE 'MADONNA AND ST. CATHERINE' century in the works of Cigoli, AUori, and even Guercino. The men- tion of these forgotten names is sufficient to make us appreciate the greater power displayed by Titian in the execution of this painting, which, nevertheless, remains not a very significant or fascinating work. I would endorse Mr. Claude Phillips' suggestion that the rich blue picture of the « Madonna and St. Catherine,' in the National Gallery (Plate Lix.), is probably the work mentioned in Malatesta's letter to Federigo Gonzaga. Technically there is nothing to exclude this sup- position ; the rich, not to say rather exaggerated, blues of the distance, and the more generalised vegetation, are probably much in the manner that followed after the completion of the ' Peter Martyr.' I imagine that the winning type of the Virgin has strengthened the impression among some critics that it is earlier in date, though the type of the St. Catherine accords well enough with Titian's style at this period. With this last canvas I would also class the ' Salvator Mundi ' in the Pitti (Plate lx.). This work has suffered damage from restora- tion in the sky and distance ; like the * Madonna and St. Catherine ' it might be described as a harmony in blue. Are we to identify the exquisite little picture of ' St. Jerome at Prayer,' now in the Louvre (Plate lxi.), with a 'St. Jerome at Prayer ' painted for Federigo Gonzaga in 1532 ? I incline to think so. I would urge that a certain crispness of detail in drawing and in touch would lead us to class it with works done in the first few years of the thirties : the darkened condition of the picture (through mere dirt) has accounted, I imagine, for a tendency to place it many years later. Shortly after the death of his wife we hear of the benefice of Medole being conferred by the Duke of Mantua on Titian's son Pomponio, then still a boy. This son was to be the cause of much heart-burning to the painter in later life. The first few years of the thirties were employed in a tangle of affairs, without yielding any masterpiece of the first rank ; indeed, we might consider that, from the termination of the ' Peter Martyr ' till the date of Titian's second meeting with the Emperor at Bologna in 1533, there followed an epoch marked by lesser effort ; and I would venture the suggestion, that for a time following on the death of Titian's wife, his brother Francesco collaborated on works or executed designs which now perplex us by elements belonging to Titian's practice, without, however, revealing his qualities as a colourist or painter. 83 TITIAN These pictures, which are sometimes ascribed to Polidoro Venetiano (and which as often as not contain a St. John clasping the lamb by the throat), are I believe, mainly or in part, by Francesco Vecellio. Foremost amongst them, and the best in quality, are the 'Holy Family' in the Louvre, its replica in the possession of Captain Holford, and the damaged replica of the blue 'Madonna and St. Catherine ' in the Pitti ; and to Francesco I would ascribe the comple- tion of the picture of the ' Madonna with St. Dorothy and St. Jerome ' at Glasgow, though, if I can trust my memory, the St. Jerome and part of the distance reveal Titian's workmanship. Let us note that this picture is a later variation of the design of the Madonna at Bridgewater House. In 1532 Francesco Maria della Rovere desired a ' Nativity,' and this picture in a ruined condition hangs in a small room in the Pitti. There exists also a ruined copy of this work in Christ Church, Oxford, sometimes ascribed to Savoldo, which I imagine to be by Francesco Vecellio. 84 CHAPTER XVI 'THE EMPEROR CHARLES V. WITH A DOG'— 'THE YOUNG ENGLISHMAN'— 'ST. JOHN THE ALMSGIVER'— 'LA BELLA' TITIAN had met Charles v. at Bologna in 1530, but the meet- ing had taken place without any material benefit to the painter, the Emperor having a disinclination to sit for his portrait. We have his own words on the subject of portraiture, that being ill-favoured, but usually painted uglier, he generally made a favourable impression on those he met who were prepared to meet one uglier still. It was only late in 1582, after Charles had seen Titian's works at Mantua, that his former indifference was changed to a wish to be painted by the great Venetian. The Duke wrote to Titian from Mantua two short familiar letters asking for his presence : one of these, dated November 1532, urges the painter to take the pre- caution to have some fish (pesce suola) brought with him. Titian, however, joined the Empei'or at Bologna in the retinue of Alfonso d'Este, where we hear of his being worked to his utmost and hardly able to snatch his meals. It was on this occasion that the famous portrait of Alfonso, which Michelangelo had admired, was given to Covos, the Emperor's Secretary, to be presented to the Emperor, together with some other works of the Ferrarese Collection selected by Titian himself, of which we know nothing more than their subjects. They represented a Judith, a St. Michael, and a Madonna.^ We sus- pect the gift of the famous portrait to have been made to some extent against the grain, since it was urged at the time that the work was no longer a likeness of the Duke as he then was, and that another by Titian might take its place. Of this picture, which passed to Spain, all traces have now been lost : it is known to us only by a badly hung copy in the Pitti of a later version or replica of the work executed by Titian for the Duke's son. The original of this copy would have passed as an exact duplicate, indistinguishable from the first, had the painter not ' Life and Times of Titian, Crowe and Cavalcaselle. 85 TITIAN added the order of St. Michael. This we find in the copy in the Pitti, which, for some reason or other, is ascribed to Dosso Dossi, with whose workmanship it shows no affinity (Plate lxix.). The Emperor sat to Titian for a portrait in full armour, holding a baton. The original has disappeared, but I think we possess an old copy of it, signed by Pantoja della Cruz, skied in a small room of the Prado. The design is in the manner of Titian's portraits of parade, the helmet rests on a velvet cloth, such as we find in the portrait of Francesco Maria, and in that of Philip ii. ; beyond is a rich glimpse of sky. We recognise too many elements which point to Titian's methods of arrangement to credit Pantoja della Cruz with its inven- tion. Among the many beauties which the original may have possessed, we can imagine the beautifully modulated pigment of the white satin trunk-hose against the white stockings and leggings, con- trasted with the tones of the steel armour. The portrait of Philip ii. was designed subsequently as the pendant to this work, the main compositional lines of the pictures balancing each other. Of the preliminary sketch for this canvas, described by Crowe and Caval- caselle as formerly at Bologna, but since sold to an English collector, all trace has now been lost. To the year 1533 we can ascribe the superb full-length of Charles v. with a dog, now in the Prado (Plate LXiii.), which is one pf Titian's noblest and most significant works. This surely remains the simplest and grandest royal portrait or portrait de parade ever painted. The latter term, ' portrait of parade,' which we usually give to full lengths, is here inappropriate, for, on the whole, there is an intimacy in the con- ception of this work which is singular in its kind. Though the picture has become faded or dulled by some alteration of its surface, as if it had at some time been ironed, though we miss, in consequence, the crispness and lustre of Titian's touch, this work remains a masterpiece. The carriage of the head, body, and the hands expresses a dignified simplicity; — this is habitual with Titian, yet not quite in the same degree ; the various whites and textures of the dress enlivened with blue and gold ; the green curtain and the various cool browns of the colour arrangement are exquisite in their choice. I would venture to class the ' Duke of Norfolk ' or ' Young Englishman ' (so calljed) in the Pitti (Plate lxiv.) with the Charles at Madrid, though, for reasons that are unintelligible to me, it is usual to place this masterpiece some ten years later. Surely in the forties the grain of Titian's paint was different, at that period the linen wrist- THE 'YOUNG ENGLISHMAN' bands tend to become mere strips of white, while the collar would resemble that worn by Charles v. in his later portraits. This change of fashion in the linen is general in Titian's later portraits. The ' Young Englishman ' is perhaps one of the master's most popular works ; with most art-lovers it is a rival of ' L'Homme au Gant,' in the Louvre.^ In design it is perhaps equal to the latter, in workmanship it is the finer of the two, more subtle in tone and pig- ment. Despite mendings and small patches due to the cracking of the surfaces it is a well-preserved work, and retains that cool yet golden lustre which has vanished from the ' Charles v.' at Madrid. A famous picture in the Pitti can be ascribed to the year 1533, this is the swaggering portrait of ' Ippolito de' Medici' (Plate Lxv.). Though cracked and darkened, this is still an impressive work, at once summary in execution yet subtle in characterisation. This secular- minded cardinal had shown as little aptitude for arms as he had for the church. Imprisoned by Charles after his return from the wars against the Turk in Hungary, where the Italian contingent had mutinied, he is here painted, on his release, dressed in rich ruby velvet, and with the plumed cap of a Magyar. Among the many patrons Titian met at the imperial Court was Alfonso d'Avalos, whose name is associated with the rich ' Allegory ' in the Louvre (Plate lxvi.). The subject of this picture has suggested various interpretations ; it is supposed that d Avalos is here bidding farewell to his wife (attended by Love, and perhaps Pleasure, or is it Chastity ?). The version in the Louvre seems to have been the original of quite a series of allegorical conversation-pieces of this type, two of which are preserved in Vienna. The better of these represents a bearded man who holds a mirror to an impassive lady, accompanied by Cupid, from whom she has taken an arrow : under repainting and damage, this picture, which shows the work of several hands, may at one time have been (in part) by Titian. The second is one of those despicable purplish pictures like the ' Girl with a Vase,' at Dresden, which I believe we shall be able to ascribe to Orazio Vecellio, to whom we owe quite a series of replicas and adaptations of his father's works, done in the fifties. The popular ' Allegory ' in the Louvre is in a shocking state of partial damage by abrading and retouching, and by centuries of dirt ; and while the picture must from the first have been merely gorgeous ' Dr. Gronau has ventured the interesting suggestion that the picture is a portrait of Guido- baldo, Duke of Urbino. 87 TITIAN and ornamental in type, it still shows fine passages of rich colour, and, in the Cupid at least, some exquisite painting. The fair ladies, as is usually the case with popular pictures, have been terribly retouched, and some damage has happened to the bosom of the woman who holds the crystal, some abrasure of the pigment, due possibly to the removal of an added drapery which at one time may have covered it. I am inclined to consider that the work belongs to the year 1536 rather than to an earlier period in Titian's career. I imagine that the woman who holds a crystal may represent Wisdom or Prudence, and the attendant figures with flowers and wreaths and darts may be the pleasures upon which the armoured warrior turns his back. Some trite allegory is more likely to be at the root of this ' poesie ' than the theory advanced by Crowe and Cavalcaselle that the crystal-gazer is a pensive wife. In the church of S. Giovanni Elemosinario, at Venice, hangs a nobly designed work of Titian's, which is now difficult to see, owing to dust and to its position in the church. Deprived as it is of the circular top, darkened, cracked, and probably damaged, the majestic design nevertheless still holds its own (Plate Lxvii.). The minute cracking of the surface and the lowness of general tone tend to impart a much later appearance to the work; I believe even that it was retouched by the master at a later date. The sky is nobly invented and contrasted with a rich green curtain ; the cast shadow on the book, the striped marble steps, all help to anticipate something in the art of Veronese, whose beautiful religious pictures are so often devoted to the courtesies between richly-robed saints and attendant figures who bend in homage. Traditionally it is supposed to have been painted in some sort of competition with Pordenone, whose picture hangs over an altar at the side ; but, if this was the case, there is now no thought of compari- son. Titian is here with most of his magisterial qualities, and above all as a pioneer in the art of the future ; poor Pordenone sinks for ever to his proper provincial level, he is still striving after effects that had been outclassed ten years before by Lotto and even by Romanino. We detect in Pordenone's work the provincial assurance which tires us in the unflagging and unthinking output of Bonifazio Veronese and his thousand assistants ; Pordenone is here all manner, his work lacks fibre and construction, it is forced and yet trivial also. In 1534 Isabella D'Este wrote for the return of an early portrait of her executed by Francia, from which Titian was to paint a new work representing her as she had been many years before. This picture, or what is left of it, now hangs at Vienna (Plate lxvii.). It is repainted 88 «LA BELLA' throughout in a pitch never affected by the artist, and with a heavy and uniform pigment.^ We are infinitely more interested in a copy by Rubens of another portrait of the Duchess which hangs in the same gallery. Here, without emphasising the decay of the once famous beauty, Titian represents her ample in proportion, superbly gowned in a rich dress of crimson velvet, and holding a heavy set of lapis-lazuli beads which hang from the girdle at her waist. The rosary repeats the rich colour of the blue background, an unusual, or rather unique experiment, for let us note that the blue is not a sky, but a quite uniform space of colour. The cut of the linen shift and the shape of her headdress belong to an earlier period, and it is probable that Isabella, like many other beauties, dressed to the last in the fashion of her prime. The picture purporting to be the original, now in Paris, in the Leopold Goldschmidt collection, is known to me only by photography. I am disinclined to believe that it is the original by Titian, it looks like a copy. The years 1536 and 1538 remain memorable for the completion of three masterpieces : the woman in a blue dress known as ' La Bella di Tiziano ' and the superb portraits of Francesco della Rovere and of his wife Leonora. 'La Bella' (Plate lxviii.) corresponds in this period of Titian's career to the ' Flora ' he had painted many years before. It has suffered greatly, but on the whole with less drastic or distorting effect than the ' Flora ' : if in this last the retouches have ruined the eyes, the nostril, the more delicate shadows, and turned the gold hair into a wig, the flaying, ironing and retouching of ' La Bella ' are less disturbing in effect. I have seen the picture dimly lit by a thundery sky, when the surfaces of the pigment appeared once more to regain their mystery, the form its envelope, the work seeming again an example of Titian's ripest skill. Hundreds of copies have not quite reduced one's impres- sion of ' La Bella ' to the level of so many over-restored masterpieces, though we feel that it has established the canon for a certain kind of rich sham colour, which has passed in ancient and modern times for the colour of Titian. As with ' the Magdalene ' the harmony is one of blue and gold. The blue dress is decorated with gold and passages of purple ; the effect is perhaps a little too rich, though the greenish neutrals of the dark background act as a foil to the tones of the dress. The harmony is too sumptuous, one feels as one might in a room with ^ In Vorsterman's engraving of this work there is a curtain in the background which has been ' removed. 89 TITIAN too much upholstery, or too many velvet curtains : and yet, like that ancient author who wrote ill of the golden Helen, and had to write again, saying ' that was not true which I wrote I ' — so I am touched with remorse. The picture expresses a genuine relish for human splendour, the brow and shoulders are still (despite restoration) fine in line and rich in texture, the large eyes and arched eyebrows (despite restora- tion) have a. great freshness and beauty, and (despite restoration) the painter and the art-lover alike may well become absorbed in exquisite passages such as the puckers of delicate linen, the gauze veil, the intricate coiffure made of plaits and bows of rich golden hair. At first sight this painting strikes one as golden and glorious, but a little showy ; on second sight we realise that a great frankness of presentation relieves it from vulgarity. We then become conscious that the picture possesses some other quality, that it expresses some- thing racial as well as temperamental ; there is after all a sort of distinction in the very frankness of statement, and leaving for a moment our aesthetic prejudices we find ourselves like a mere tourist thinking what a very beautiful woman this beautiful woman must have been ! Alas ! that element of freshness and frankness has evaporated fi-om what was once the ' Venus of Urbino,' that is, if the model was indeed the same as the ' Bella,' but we shall consider this famous work after we have glanced at the famous portraits of Francesco Maria della Rovere, Duke of Urbino, and at that of his sedate-looking wife, Leonora Gonzaga. The portrait of ' Francesco Maria ' (Plate lxx.) still stands as one of Titian's most powerful creations ; it is cracked and patched, and sadly damaged about the lower edge and at the sides, but large obvious and homely mendings in the picture exclude that deadlier damage by over-painting and stippling. A little varnish, by which pictures benefit in the north of Europe, might do wonders for it yet. The armour is superbly lit and forcibly painted, lacking, one might think, in a last connecting over-glaze, which it would have received on the part of the painter in an earlier decade. The face is fine in structure, if a little over modelled ; the bS,tons against the wall, with the Duke's motto on a scroll, are admirably done ; the effect of the canvas lacks, however, a certain mystery, which may be due to restoration in the past, or, more probably, to the sunken and dry surface of the paint. The ' Portrait of the Duchess ' (Plate lxxi.) has suffered in some 90 PORTRAIT OF GIOVANNI MORO details, notably in portions of the gray wall and in the shadow on the green cloth, and the pressure of the stretcher has injured the outer edge, yet, on the whole, it is the better preserved of the two works, and under a new coat of varnish might reveal unexpected passages of great technical excellence. A certain lack of mystery in the painting is not, I believe, entirely due to wear and tear. I think that during , the thirties Titian was often less subtle in the handling of his ' pigment than he had been before, and that later he developed a more broken touch to acquire the fusion which is absent from most of the pictures (now in Florence) famous as having belonged to the house of Urbino. I would ascribe to the year 1537 the portrait at Berlin of Giovanni Moro (Plate lxxii.). This fine work has recently been attributed to Dosso Dossi. Not only has Dosso never employed the solid and sustained pigment which characterises this portrait, but in temper and conception it belongs to this period of Titian's career when he painted the ' Charles v. in armour holding a biton,' the ' Duke of Urbino with a b3,ton,' and the sensational portrait of ' Giorgio Cornaro ' in full armour. It is unnecessary to instance the metallic lustre in the colour of Dosso Dossi which we do not find here, since that had ceased to characterise his work by the time the ' Giovanni Moro ' was painted, and he had lapsed to the rank of a mere provincial painter. The quality of the Berlin picture is admirable ; it is a first-rate work by a first-rate man. In the illumination of the face it shows Titian's tendency to insist upon the structure of the lachrymal duct and the space below the sardonic muscle, or, to put it in less technical and pompous language, the light strikes the face at the usual angle which Titian affected, and so emphasises these structural details. I am at a loss to understand that there should be any doubt concerning this picture, which, in the seven- teenth century, passed (like most portraits of men in armour) for a Giorgione ; possibly all figures in armour are to be given in the future to Dosso Dossi. Are we justified in identifying the famous ' Venus of Urbino ' with a nude delivered to Guidobaldo ii., the son of Francesco Maria, after the death of his father, somewhere about the year 1538 ? It is possible, or even probable, that the fair Venetian who posed to Titian for ' La Bella ' is here again, dressed only in a bracelet. She reclines on a couch of fine linen, designed to show off the mellow ivory of her limbs. Mr. Bernhard Berenson has detected a resemblance between 91 TITIAN the ' Venus ' and the rather prudish-looking Leonora Gonzaga, and attributed to Titian some magician's trick by which the beauty of the Duchess, then a matron, has been made to bloom and glow again. The idea is charming, but, like many modern legends, it is too much in the spirit of the Renaissance to belong to it ; Gautier and the 1830 movement must intervene to persuade us, and, like the story of Diane de Poitiers sitting to Jean Goujon in the nude for his statue of Diana, we must dismiss this legend with a sigh of regret. ~ Is this famous ' Venus. -of-Urbino' indeed one of Titian's master- pieces ? If we may judge of it at the height at which it now hangs, it is sadly dimmed and marred by minute and systematic restorations (Plate lxxv,). The pose resembles that of the 'Venus' of Giorgione, albeit the arm which is intended in the first workto support the head here does duty to support the body. To me there is something tiresome in the arrangement of this stately and famous nude, in the^ * ornate simplicity ' and the sumptuous realism of the background. There is something fatuous in the blandness of the face, graciously disposed in a smile of acknowledgment of public praise, as if a curtain had been removed and the crowd had burst into applause. If we can trust our eyesight, the magic the painting may have once possessed has left it. The picture was a tour de force at the time it was painted, and remains so still, for the very baldness of the lighting and the clean sculptural quality of the contours present a series of real technical difficulties which are not present in the same degree in the later picture of ' Danae ' at Madrid. Besides the kneading of the pigment over the large spaces of flesh, we feel that Titian had to face another difficulty in the large space of receding linen which he proposed to paint in its tone, texture and detail ; this unfortimately now shows stippling and restoration, and of its original quality we can form no estimate. Many of the darker passages have become heavy, and there are so many large flat spaces which must have required a superhuman skill to model in solid equal pigment, that one feels sceptical, and inclined to doubt whether it ever possessed the bloom and quality which would render acceptable this important but rather academic picture. It lacks naivete and simplicity, though critics have raved over the classic simplicity of the scheme, which contains too many costly accessories chosen in a sort of Sunday-best temper. This Venus or courtesan seems to have taken off her clothes in a mood of boring ostentation, and it has pleased the public to detect purity, or 92 LOST PICTURES maybe ' Lascivia,' in a work which remains a handsome and magisterial performance, or exercise in the fine arts. Allied in type, but later in date than the 'Venus of Urbino,' is the sadly darkened and damaged ' Girl in a fur Pelisse ' at Vienna (Plate Lxxvi.), from which all magic has disappeared. I think there is no evidence that this is the ' girl putting on her smock with two hands ' of the Charles i. collection, since it does not correspond to such a description.^ Events moved rapidly for Titian during the years following the arrival of the Emperor Charles v. on Italian soil. In 1530 the painter had met his new patron ; in the following three years we find him in his employment. Titian declined to accompany Charles to Spain, or in the Tunisian expedition, but was once again with the Emperor when he held court at Asti. In 1534 Alfonso, Titian's old patron, died. His death was followed by that of Francesco Maria, Duke of Urbino, in 1537. A long series of portraits of men eminent in the political turmoil of the time have disappeared, those of the Cardinal de Lorraine, Francesco Sforza, the Cardinal Bembo. An allegory begun for Francesco may be the picture Titian remoulded years later, now known as ' Spain coming to the rescue of the Catholic Church.' A ' Rape of Proserpine ' has been lost, the famous series of the Caesars executed for the Duke of Mantua in 1536-1537 has vanished, probably in one of the many fires which have devastated the Royal Palaces of Spain. Of ' The Caesars ' we can only form the vaguest idea from bad seventeenth- century prints and late copies ; they excited the admiration of Titian's contemporaries, and of Rubens and Vandyck. Superb colour and fine workmanship may have given a certain splendour to these half- length figures, dressed variously in Roman breastplates or sixteenth- century armour, and with an ample supply of accessory draperies, bsltons, and wreaths. They were each to be supplemented by 'histories' by Giulio Romano, who completed the twelfth 'Caesar' not supplied by Titian. In March 1537 Federigo wrote to Titian to say that the Room (Sale di Troja) which was to be hung with his pictures would be ready in May, and he hoped that this would be an incentive to him to be industrious and punctual; this he accompanied by a present of a dress acknowledged by Titian in the 1 Several old copies (one of them at Hampton Court) have kept for us the design of this lost work, which must have been painted many years later, at the time that Titian was in full swing of production for Philip ii. 93 TITIAN following typical letter, which gives us much of the tone of the painter's correspondence, and of which I have paraphrased the bulk : — TITIAN TO THE DUKE FEDERICO GONZAGA AT MANTUA Most Illustrious and Excellent and Revered Patron, — There was no need that Y.E. by your letter, and the gift of the most rich cassock, should put me in memory of your pictures : it is not possible for me to have them more at heart, know- ing full well, as I do, in how great a debt I am for many benefits. But since it has pleased you to do so, I beg to thank you for the favour and the reward, and beg to kiss your hands a thousand times. Some, many, days have passed since I gave one of the pictures to the Ambassador who requested them for Y.E. Two others are well advanced, the which I intend to finish quickly, when I hear that the first h£(s given you satisfaction, or when I have heard in what way it has not pleased you, so that it may become a standard for the others, which shall follow, hand over hand without intermission till such time as they all are finished, and I hope to do this in such wise that Y.E. will be well served by me. It would be a great favour to me if, at your first convenience, you could liberate my benefice from the pension payable on it, which, besides causing me a loss in moneys, which I pay annually, gives me annoy- j ance and disturbance because of the persons by whom I am maddened, and out of whose hands only Y.E. can save me. This I beg and supplicate of you, etc. . . . This alone would be enough to make me a perpetual slave to you, to whose good grace I most humbly commend myself. — Y. Excellency's Humble Servant, TizLANo Vecellio. From Venice, April VI., 1537. 94 CHAPTEK XVII ' THE BATTLE OF CADORE '— ' THE PRESENTATION OF MARY IN THE TEMPLE' THE completion of the series of ' The Caesars ' was interrupted by an abrupt reminder on the part of the Signoria that the land-fight Titian had undertaken to paint as early as 1513, and for which he had been in the possession of a broker's patent ever since 1516, was unfinished, and the painter was called to refund the moneys he had received, amounting to something like 1800 ducats. Pordenone was installed in the hall in which Titian had supplanted Bellini and his followers over thirty years ago ; we can imagine Titian's concern, who not only had to face the permanent loss of his salary, and to refund the huge sum mentioned above, but to face the affront of seeing in his place the very man who had worked himself into the position of a sort of rival by an ostentatious affectation of a dread of his jealousy, at a time when Titian was unable to attend to his local reputation and advancement owing to the pressure of work for some five courts and princely houses. Titian had dispatched to the Empress the ' Annunciation ' which he had undertaken for the Nuns of Santa Maria degli Angeli of Murano. This affbrded Aretino the occasion to describe the picture (since lost) in a letter, and to praise Titian's work for the Great Hall. The 'Land Fight' has since become famous in the memory of the world as the 'Battle of Cadore.' Since the fire in 1577 it is known to us only by a contemporary print by Fontana (Plate lxxiii.), a fragment of an old copy done on a reduced scale now in the Uffizi (Plate Lxxiv.), and by the contemporary praises of Sansovino and Vasari. Readers of Crowe and Cavalcaselle will find a minute account of the subterfuge by which the battle of Cadore, in which Austria had been defeated, was allowed to pass in the eyes of the uninitiated as the representation of another battle, that of Spoleto. No inscription 95 TITIAN was appended to this design in which the imperialists were represented in Roman armour, whilst the cognisance of Giorgio Cornaro replaced the more readily recognisable winged Lion of St. Mark. The work excited universal admiration, and made an indelible impression on Tintoretto, who never forgot the bending knight in armour. We detect a chance recollection of the knight dashing across the bridge in his exquisite canvas of ' St. George and the Dragon ' in the National Gallery, and several reminiscences of the mil^e to the left in the portentous battles by land and sea which Tintoretto executed on the ceilings in the Ducal palace. We might say that no work of Titian's had a more immediate or enduring effect, and, with the exception of Paolo Veronese, all subsequent Venetian painters were influenced by it. The influence of Titian's earlier masterpieces had been great, but on the whole less obvious than in this case. The 'Battle of Cadore' furnished the model for all subsequent decorations in the Ducal Palace. The occasion for pictorial display which this work contained must have been fruitful of admirable results, notably in the liquid brook, the portrait of Giorgio Cornaro in armour holding a baton, the girl clambering the bank of the river, and the white horse 'whose flanks shone like silk.' The design probably teemed with technical beauties and fehcities of pictorial invention. The work had disappeared when Rubens visited Venice, yet who can doubt the influence the ' Battle of Cadore ' had on him through copies or studies, one of which he seems to have possessed. To this period, when Titian still had the ' Battle of Cadore ' on hand, belongs, as I have said, the ' Portrait of Giovanni Moro ' at Berlin, the replica of 'Alfonso leaning on the Cannon,' and the series of ' Caesars.' I think that we may place here the portrait of a ' Young Man in Black,' in Berlin (Plate lxxvi.), and the sadly damaged 'Man with a Hawk' (Plate Lxxvii.), known sometimes as Giorgio Cornaro; this last work, on its return from America, impressed some students of Venetian art as a copy. I think this impression was due mainly to the repainting, in brown, of the background, formerly gray, with the consequent weakening of the contours and falsifying of the shadows ; the ' tooth ' of the pigment had also been reduced by ironing or relining. The ' Portrait of Francis i. ' (Plate lxxviii.), which Titian executed from a medal is too well known to need comment, yet the date of its production is difficult to establish ; it may have been painted before 1539, which I incline to believe was the case. In method it approximates to the year 1536, but the unusual conditions it fulfils, 96 THE 'PRESENTATION IN THE TEMPLE' and the fact that the face is in profile, a rare thing with Titian, renders decision difficult. It is unusually bright in its definition of local colour; Francis wears brilliant pink satin sleeves and vest, against a strip of green curtain ; in this fact alone we recognise a habit of the artist which tends to disappear later — after 1540 there is an ever-increasing sobriety in dress and in the colour schemes of his portraits. ' The Presentation of Mary in the Temple ' (Plate lxxix.), designed for the brotherhood of Santa Maria della Caritk, now occupies once more the room for which it was painted. Two doors cut the design at the base, one of these opens through a sort of architectural door painted on the side of the flight of steps, the other cuts off the lower limbs of a group of senators. Were these doorways in the original scheme, or were they ruthlessly cut through at some later time ? Mr. Claude Phillips urges that Vasari would not have failed to notice the strange shape of the work had they been there from the first. I am unable to decide the question. I sometimes feel that the architectural opening on the steps may have been intended to frame in a doorway, but I recognise a certain strangeness in the position of the second for which the design does not make allowance. To be candid, I agree with Mr. Phillips that both doorways were not there, and yet I am glad that we are spared the unsightly pieces of canvas which were added to the picture when it was removed from its position before its final reinstatement. Crowe and Cavalcaselle's description of its fehandling on its removal applies to-day ; it is restored to extinction, and we shall search in vain for the once beautiful workmanship, albeit the effect due to broad colour-massing is still splendid, and the patient art-lover may be rewarded by a careful examination with an opera-glass in the discovery of chance passages which give an idea of what the work once was. Nothing could exceed the nobility of the priestly figures on the steps, who seem in their austerity and dignity to have furnished Veronese with the type of the superb bishop in the ' Consecration of St. Nicholas ' in the National Gallery. Dr. Gronau has underlined the traditional element in the design which Titian had retained from the earlier Venetian school. We shall recognise the scheme in a drawing by Carpaccio, and in paintings by Cima and Carpaccio ; and though the picture by Cima, at Dresden, is a work of enchanting beauty, the rich realism, the nobler design, and the more dignified temper shown in Titian's canvas renders all further T.-7 97 TITIAN comparison out of the question. Something at once courtly and homely, a great intimacy or naivete of perception which enchants us in the works of Gentile Bellini, or in the pictures by Carpaccio, and Titian's frescoes at Padua, recurs again in the ' Presentation,' perhaps for the last time in Venetian art. The ancient crone with her basket of eggs and her fowls to sell brings the Italy of the primitives and rural Italy of to-day into a single space of time. The tone of the rosy variegated bricks is contrasted with the superbly designed sky, whilst the cool, jagged peaks at the horizon remind one of the approach to the Austrian frontier where the more tranquil lines and colours of Italy are about to change for another order of natural beauty of a more fantastic type. Restoration has done its worst on the sky and on the group of rather ' ornamental ' ladies at the foot of the steps, and on all the figures generally, though some of the heads of the senators seem authentic. The blue-robed figure of the Virgin sparkles hke a sapphire in her nimbus of pale gold. She is curiously mature in pose, elaborately gowned, somewhat like a little princess dressed up to lock older ; — has this portion escaped the restorer ? — the result is still charming and fresh in colour. We are here reminded of Paolo Veronese, who will give to his children this blending of naivete and pomp. 98 CHAPTER XYIII 'TOBIAS AND THE ANGEL'— 'THE ASSUMPTION' (VERONA) I SHALL attempt to class together a few perplexing works which have to be considered before the wonderful period to which belong Titian's journeys to Rome and Augsburg. Dr. Gronau has classed two pictures together, ' Tobias and the Angel' (Church of S. Marziale) and the 'Annunciation' (Scuola di San Rocco), which seem to have puzzled writers upon Titian, owing possibly to their unfortunate positions upon dark Venetian walls. I have stated in a previous chapter that we have a record of an earlier and Giorgionesque work of ' Tobias and the Angel ' in a print by Leffebre. Giovanni Morelli considered the version at San Marziale (Plate Lxxxi.) an early work. This fills me with confusion and astonish- ment, for in style it belongs at the earliest to the first years of the forties. Dr. Gronau has pointed out the affinity between this canvas and the 'Annunciation' (Plate lxxxii.), and I am satisfied that both pictures are contemporary. Both are sadly darkened owing to neglect — neither is quite worthy of Titian — both suggest an earlier type of design executed at a period when the painter's technique had changed and become unsuited to the character of the composition. I would endorse the opinion of Crowe and Cavalcaselle, who place the 'Assumption' of Verona (Plate lxxx.) about the year 1540, whilst it is usual to place it in the later half of the twenties. Viewing this picture, uninfluenced by the opinion of others, — were it in fact quite new to me, a recently discovered picture, I should, judging by its scale of colour and form, place it between the ' San Giovanni Elemosi- nario ' and the ' Presentation in the Temple,' with a strong bias towards the latter work. It is difficult to do justice to this altar-piece, since it would seem never to be well lit. It has suifered from drastic repainting in the vision of the Virgin; in the lower portion it is, however, better preserved, but obscured by dust and neglect. The lower half is superb in many of its details, the tawny browns and purples in the 99 TITIAN mantles of the disciples, one or two grandly painted heads against the brilliant sky repay one well for some difficulty in examination ; the book leaning against the tomb is one of those exquisite and intimate pieces of still life with which Titian had delighted us in the past. The picture lacks varnish, and its surfaces have thus become some- what lustreless. We have in Titian's letters on his private affairs during the later thirties the record of his money troubles, and of difficulties with his ever unsatisfied patrons, as well as the constant friendly activity of Aretino in his behalf. The Doge Lando was painted, and a picture of the Sultan Solyman executed to serve as the model for a medal, but both works have disappeared. Titian's ambitions now turned towards Rome, which he had previ- ously declined to visit. Aretino advocated a visit to Florence to paint the Ducal family. There follows, as far as we can judge, a sort of lull in his production, which had yielded before such marvels of skill and energy as the ' Battle of Cadore ' and the ' Presentation in the Temple.' ' Titian's relations with del Vasto, the governor of Milan, whose influence the painter had sought, is recorded in the ruined picture now in the Prado known as the 'Allocution' (Plate lxxxiv.), where the General del Vasto is represented in full armour addressing his soldiers. The design suggests a remote influence of some Roman medal where an emperor is represented addressing an army. The ' Allocution ' has been so damaged by fire and repainting as to be now in a state of total ruin. We know that it was still unfinished in 1541, in which year Titian once more met the Emperor. He had been heralded by letters to generals and secretaries from the indefatigable Aretino, and again we have the mention of works which have since been lost, or else disturb and perplex us by traditional identifications combined with an absence of commanding qualities. The full length of the so-called ' Don Diego Mendoza ' is such a picture, the ' Cristoforo Madruzzo,' formerly at Trent, is such another. Documented and dated, this last affiscts me (in reproduction : the original is unknown to me) as a late picture by Moroni ; it is at once gauche in drawing (note the clumsy short thumbs) and design. I am glad this was also the impression of Morelli, basing his opinion upon a photograph.^ ' The portrait of his patron Bembo now in the Barberini Palace, Rome, is unlsnown to me ; it is praised by Crowe and Cavalcaselle ; it would seem doubtful, judging it by a photograph. 2 A recent article in the Gazette des Beaux Arts has corrected the date to 1662 ; the alteration of the date still leaves me undecided as to the authorship of the picture ; possibly its condition may account for my perplexity. . It is now in the collection of Mr. James Stillman, U.S.A. 100 PORTRAITS The ' Caterma Cornaro as St. Catherine ' in the Uffizi is supposed to have been painted in 1542. To the present writer this worthless work would seem a shop production by Titian's son Orazio, executed at least ten or fifteen years later. To the early years of the forties we may ascribe the superb portrait in the Louvre of a man resting his hand on the ledge of a pillar (Plate Lxxxvii.), and the sadly over-cleaned ' Portrait of the Daughter of Roberto Strozzi ' now at Berlin (Plate Lxxxv.). 101 CHAPTER XIX THE CEILINGS IN THE SALUTE— THE 'ECCE HOMO' BETWEEN the years 1542 and 1544 Titian executed the two pictures, the 'Resurrection' and the 'Last Supper,' which still remain at Urbino, The ' Resurrection ' (Plate lxxxix.) shows elements of affinity with the great 'Ecce Homo' now at Vienna, the shield-bearer in both pictures being similar in pose. The ' Ecce Homo ' and the ceilings for Santo Spirito now in the Salute count among Titian's most ambitious efforts ; they were executed within a few years, and are contemporary with the pictures painted for the Farnese family. The several works now preserved in the Salute were commissioned by the brothers of Santo Spirito. They were transported to their present resting-place in the seventeenth century. The early ' San Marco Enthroned' has already been described, the 'Descent of the Holy Spirit ' is a late work replacing an earlier one with which the brothers were dissatisfied. The eight medallions of the ' Evangelists ' and ' Fathers of the Church ' on the ceiling of the choir have been praised in glowing terms by Crpwe and Cavalcaselle ; they have probably darkened since, but they are situated at a height which renders any estimate of them too difficult. In the huge adjacent sacristy of the Salute are now preserved the famous ceilings representing ' Cain and Abel,' ' Abraham and Isaac,' and 'David and Goliath' (Plates xci., xcii.) which constitute a sort of challenge on the part of Titian to the ' Grand manner,' then the fashion in Italy. Writers on Titian have detected in these works a reflection of the foreshortening affected by Correggio ; the designs, however, are a natural development of the more rhetorical mood in which Titian had painted the 'Peter Martyr' more than ten years before. Vasari's visit to Venice as the scene-painter in Aretino's comedy 'La Talanta,' as the painter of the ceilings for Giovanni Cornaro, and the intended painter of these very ceilings for the Santo 102 THE CEILINGS OF THE SALUTE Spirito, may have influenced Titian, and urged the master to show that he also could astonish in the grandiose or the portentous manner. Let us separate any such aim from the influence of Michelangelo's gigantic forms and tremendous gesture, the inner significance of Buonarroti's work allows of this, the breath of inspiration, passion and thought sweeps through his figures, or they move under circum- stances where the usual standard of appropriate gesture is merged in the awe of a deluge or plague, or in the terrors of the Day of Judg- ment. He saw things at a crisis, — his themes allowed of this. In Titian's finely designed ceilings we have flourish of gesture and pose ; this is emphasised by the unusual angle at which the designs are seen, it is perhaps this added ingenuity of foreshortening that makes 1 us suspicious of the essential dramatic quality of the works. The themes themselves allow of an heroic treatment, and merely for the sake of art, an artist is justified in using ' a big orchestra ' (if I may use the term) — it is useless to quarrel with a painter over the conditions he has chosen ; Titian aimed at astonishing the world. In this he has succeeded ; he is impassioned and grandiose, and, doubtless, were the paintings in a fair condition, the magic of his method would cast its spell and make us accept his terms ; but alas ! the very drastic rehandling they have undergone has marred all authenticity of aspect. The dull purplish and livid tones of the restorer have become blighted in their turn by time and wear, and I know of few works more obviously falsified and distorted. The grand orchestral effects peal out of instruments that are out of tune, the glare of the sacristy windows lights up unmercifully the ridiculous over-emphasis of the features, notably the eyes of the donkey in the ' Sacrifice of Abraham,' on which the restorer has expended his choicest skUl. Candidly I prefer to the originals the academic and hueless prints by Leffebre, which were done in the seventeenth century ; in these the eye can appreciate the arabesque of the designs, and the impetuosity of aspect in these essentially calculated masterpieces of effect. It is interesting to contrast this partial modification of Titian's habits of design, displayed by the ceilings in the Salute, with the great 'Ecce Homo' now at Vienna (Plate xc.) which the painter finished in 1543 for his friend and compare, Giovanni d'Anna, a rich merchant of Flemish origin settled in Venice. We are reminded in this work of the ' Presentation of the Virgin,' that is — it forms a sort of pendant, less traditional in composition, yet penetrated also by an essentially Venetian temper. In no other centre, or school, could the subject have 103 TITIAN I ! been so treated, with the same blending of decorative effect with reaUsm of detail. Like many works of Titian (and in this he would seem to combine the habits of design of Carpaccio and Giorgione) the picture has been started with a great simplicity of motive : a few architectural features supporting a design of restricted perspective or depth. The figure of Christ emerges almost abruptly from the side, a flight of steps supports the main group and serves at once to fill and limit the stage. Titian would seem to have beckoned to a few friends and familiars, and painted them as a chance crowd, taking pleasure in their personalities; sometimes raising a face or arm to ensure dramatic appeal ; thrusting across the sky the diagonal of a lance and the fluttef of a flag, and saving the improvised aspect of the situation, not by the premeditated focussing of interest, but in the arrangement of light and shade and the glamour of colour. Possibly I have succeeded in this attempted analysis of the work in merely being obscure where I wished to be explicit, yet if we turn to the balanced and focussed stage management (I can use no other word) of Raphael in the ' School of Athens ' for instance, or even in the most discursive, and in a sense the most ' Venetian ' of his designs, namely the ' Mass of Bolsena,' we realise at once all the difference which distinguished the art of Venice from that of any other centre, a difference of temper which Giorgione emphasised, and which has enabled Titian in the ' Ecce Homo ' to allow the centre of the design to be filled by an accessory figure of some Venetian gentleman holding a lance and a portrait of his daughter Lavinia toying with a child. One is reminded in these apparent ' inconsequences ' (I have no other word at command) of the discursive temper in which Shakespeare has conceived many scenes in his Tragedies and Histories. A mental or physical exuberance has led both men to im^o^ise upon the given theme, and yet to con- vey an impression of intimacy and magic by digression of fancy in the creative mood, relying the while upon the intensity of certain portions of their work, and the sheer force of an unique temperament, to capture the attention. The simple sense of construction (design imagined almost in bas-relief) is here hardly disguised, just as we have in some of Shakespeare's histories a survival of the childish processional construction of Marlowe enriched by flashes of lyric thought and lyrical characterisation which satisfy us. In the ' Ecce Homo,' a Vitellius-like patrician, a handsome warrior, a charming girl and a few accessory figures form a crowd at once memorable and sufficient. Titian has transfigured them by the 104 THE 'ECCE HOMO' resources of his art, he has endowed them with mystery and movement by the magic of tone and the contrasts of rich varied colours. From the academic form of the shield-bearer the eye is carried to the truculent incarnation of Pontius Pilate dressed in a blue Roman costume, — no less a person in this case than the worldly Aretino, who, with a shrug of the shoulders, introduces to these men of the Renaissance the bowed figure of the 'Tragic Man.' The scene is lit by the light of a gorgeous day where the wind builds up its shifting monument of cloud, and the sun illumines the wall where it lights the thigh of some marble god or god-like Caesar. Such is the programme of the ' Ecce Homo,' such is the temper displayed in the work, which is worth, in its success, a whole world of more reverent renderings of the scene. Is Titian equal to, or does he surpass, the possibiUties of the subject ? Rembrandt, the most tragic and imaginative of painters and interpreters of the Gospels, enlarges in his marvellous plate of the 'Ecce Homo' the reaUstic elements of the situation, only his crowd is more various, more copious, more important ; it expresses another nation, another society. Here Christ is thrust before the motley crowd of the market-place. With Titian the crowd is that of a palace ; and the Nazarene is judged by those who live in the sunlight of an arrogant life. We are not in Amsterdam or Jerusalem, there is no convulsed Ghetto passion ; Titian expresses the partial curiosity, or hostile indifference, of the greater world. The pic- ture is signed by Titian ' Eques Cesaris.' If there is something lacking in the conception, this weakness is in the figure of Christ, who, despite the blood upon his face, would seem some handsome, but for the moment unpopular, prince or gentleman, well-fed and developed, but cowed by the superb indifference of Aretino as Pontius Pilate, who does not realise for us indeed the scrupulous Roman official of history, but a prince of the world, doubtless the host of the Vitellius-like pharisee and the turbaned Oriental, or the nobleman on horseback, who would seem to be the handsome descendant of one of those Italian houses in which good looks had become hereditary. So much for the conception of the picture, which illustrates once again that racy blending of fact with imaginative digression, inside a restricted scenic theatre, which has characterised Titian's invention in the past in the ' Bacchanal,' the ' Ariadne ' and the ' Presentation of the Virgin.' Let us value this well and bid it good-bye, for with one exception, ' The Supper at Emmaus,' which, in part at least, is later than the ' Ecce Homo,' we shall not meet with this spirit again in the 105 TITIAN history of painting. Titian himself sinks into the practice of a more emphatic habit of thought. In the ' Supper at Emmaus ' there is a return to the past, or rather the survival in a later picture of a much earlier mood, yet again in the vast print of the ' Pharaoh drowned in the Red Sea ' (Plate xciii.) we have a design which would seem many years earlier than the date of its execution ; in this we admire once more the discursive composition and racy details which differentiate the conception of the ' Battle of Cadore ' from the ' battles ' and ' catastrophes ' of Tintoretto. The ' Ecce Homo ' fascinated Henry iii. of France during his sojourn in Venice. It was purchased by Sir Henry Wotton in the seventeenth century to pass into the hands of the superb Duke of Buckingham, who refused £7000 for it, offered by that great gentle- man, the Earl of Arundel. The picture left England under the Com- monwealth, to pass ultimately into the famous collection at Prague, whence it was taken to Vienna, where it now hangs in the Imperial Museum, on the third row, too high for careful examination, and in a horrid glare of light. I would therefore state at once, — this canvas is out of sight, or rather out of proper range, — it would seem to have suffered from drastic retouching, notably in the girl described as Titian's daughter Lavinia, and in the foreground figures. The dis- position of the colour scheme is singularly striking and original : there are unexpected passages of ripe green, orange, yellow and blue. As in the ' Presentation of the Virgin,' we are conscious of this originaUty of colour invention ; we are equally conscious, alas ! that the surfaces and general quaUty of the pigment no longer reveal Titian's workman- ship ; it is now at once bright in colour and heavy in tone. 106 CHAPTER XX POPE PAUL III.— VISIT TO ROME— THE ' DANAE '— MICHEL- ANGELO— ORAZIO VECELLI THE decade we are now concerned with brought Titian the patronage of another Italian farriUy, namely, that of the Farnese. No trace is left by which we can identify the portrait of Ranuccio Farnese which the master executed in 1542,^ A promise of a church benefice for Titian's son Pomponio was used as a bait by Cardinal Alessandro, whose guest the painter became during the meeting of Paul iii. with the Emperor Charles v., or, to put it in the words of Crowe and Cavalcaselle : ' it was during the period which elapsed between the arrival of Paul in. at Ferrara and Busseto and his departure from Bologna that Titian was the guest of the Cardinal.' On 10th April 1543, Aretino wrote to Cosimo de' Medici that the Pope had sent for Titian. At Busseto Charles probably commissioned the portrait of the Empress, which now hangs in a totally ruined con- dition in the Prado. Titian went to Bologna, where the Pope in all probability sat to him for the masterly portrait which is hung in the gallery at Naples. The office of the Piombo was offered to Titian, who declined it, not wishing to deprive Sebastiano del Piombo, who then held the post, subject to a pension to Giovanni da Udine. The benefice of Colle was promised to Pomponio. Titian returned to Venice, however, without securing it ; but this tangle of affairs concerns us hardly at all. The first meeting with the Pope resulted in the portrait at Naples, which is beyond doubt one of Titian's masterpieces, and one of the finest portraits in the world (Plate xciv.). The picture is covered with a thin coat of blighted and sallow varnish ; behind this it would seem to have faded or sunk, otherwise it is 1 An interesting but damaged picture, doubtless from the studio of Titian, hangs in the Cook collection (Richmond). This has lately been identified as Ranuccio Farnese. The major poi-tions of the work suggest the hand of Orazio Vecellio, though the clothes have some of the quality of Titian's painting. 107 TITIAN magnificent, and beyond praise ! Yet it is so thin, transparent and delicate in texture that I incline to the belief that, barring the glazes, it is entirely executed in thin fresh tempera, without solid body, and without perceptible retouchings in oil paint. It is exquisitely crisp in touch, singularly direct in • ecriture,' and so highly finished that, beyond a doubt, Titian was here exerting his utmost skUl and care. The minute rendering of the white hairs in the beard and fur, the wrinkles upon the hands, the finish in the eyes and nails, all are calculated to astonish even the most indifferent spectator. This result has been obtained, however, without the slightest loss either of grip upon the character of the sitter, or in the grand and simple effect of the picture. ' |There is no lifeless rendering of detail in profusion to amuse or distract the spectator as in the elaborately furnished painting of Strozzi's little daughter, or in the quite lifeless and ornate portrait of the Empress. The skill is of the highest order ; look where we may, at the sleeve or the ring, each is a marvel of finish seen in its proper relation to the whole. The background has darkened, it is now olive brown, and the general tone is a little sallow ; this would suggest that u^der old varnish it is probably rather silvery in key. The portrait at Vienna known as the physician Parma has, in a different technical convention, a similar delicacy of grain ; both have that gauze-Uke texture which we find in Whistler's portrait of his mother, but without loss of solidity or plastic sense. In both pictures the pigment is different from the rich and fused impasto which we shall find in Titian's other portraits. The other portrait of the Pope, or replica at Naples, may at one time have been an original ; it is now sadly defaced and damaged. That at the Hermitage (Plate xcvi.) displays a more emphatic characterisation, combined with less document, and a more generalised scheme of drawing ; it was probably painted at a much later date, and not from nature. We may dismiss the 'Portrait of the Cardinal Alessandro Famese ' at Naples. This picture, with its cold greenish-grey tones and awkward curtain, seems by Moroni. Our main interest centres in the large unfinished canvas of ' The Pope between Ottavio and the Cardinal Farnese,' which is one of the treasures of the gallery at Naples (Plate XCIX.). I would confess that I feel a profound sense of admiration for the worldly and grasping Pope Paul iii. As with Julius ii., the world owes a debt to these two men, who in the litter of policy and greed 108 TITIAN AND POPE PAUL III. which then constituted individual politics as they now constitute the politics of nations, foun^ time to divine the permanent value of the world's greatest sons, ^aul iii. commissioned the 'Last Judgment,' he was the patron of Titian, and humanity has benefited more by his foresight and magnificence than it has suffered by the actions of his family. T wnnlH aM tjiat the saintlv type a fjxian itJs usual to hold up to admiration is too preoccupied with himself only, he differs but a littleTfoin the uselessTicFyoimg manpf the Gospel who wished to be s^ved ; Iprefer iEeVorldlings'wIio provide the truly great with nard and cassia to the most approved type of little clockwork moral mah who might find fault with these great figures of the Renaissance for liking two very admirable things too well, namely, Money and Power. In the case of this bad Pope money and power enriched the world by the works of Michelangelo and Titian. //We, the wise sons of an enlightened epoch, have much to learn in the essential value of things from less enlightened men ; we prattle about the proper use of things, but forget to make them. Titian has made a monument of this shrewd and masterful man in the unfinished picture at Naples, where he turns to the bowing Ottavio, while Alessandro stands behind his chair. This work, which is of the most absorbing interest, was commenced, it is supposed, on Titian's arrival at Rome, where his advent resembled that of a monarch of painting visiting in person Michelangelo, the monarch of the arts, not the business venture of the canny and gifted Venetian he may have seemed to a contemporary. Before their meeting Titian had written to Michelangelo asking him to favour his interests, and in the accompanying letter from Aretino the latter prattles about the honours he had received from the Emperor, and, after praises of the ' Last Judgment ' which he had not seen, begs for drawings which he ' valued more than all the cups and chains of princes.' Titian travelled to Rome in 1545 escorted by seven riders provided by Guidobaldo of Urbino, flattered and honoured by all, welcomed by the Cardinal Bembo, who, twenty years before, had urged the master to journey to the city of the Popes. Vasari was deputed by the Cardinal Farnese to act as cicerone, a lodging in the Belvedere being placed at Titian's disposal to facilitate his access to the presence of the Pope and the other members of the Farnese family. I cannot resist transcribing from the pages of Crowe and Cavalcaselle a translation of a letter from Aretino, in which we catch a glimpse of the occupations of the painter in what was then the capital of the world. 109 TITIAN ' I long for your return that I may hear what you think of the antiques, and how far you consider them to surpass the works of Michelangelo. I want to know how far Buonarroti approaches or sur- passes Raphael as a painter ; and wish to talk with you of Bramante's Church of St Peter, and the masterpieces of other architects and sculptors. Bear in mind the method of each of the famous painters, particularly that of Fra Bastiano and Ferine del Vaga ; look at every intaglio of Bucino. Contrast the figures of Jacopo Sansovino with those of men who pretend to rival him, and remember not to lose yourself in contemplation of the " Last Judgment " at the Sistine. . . .' So Aretino solicits Titian's opinion upon the master workers who had formed for him the criterion of artistic perfection, and with whose achievements the great Venetian was at last to become acquainted. What would we not give for a record — a mere journal- ist's record, of Titian's impressions ! We catch a glimpse of them in Vasari, the first, the greatest, of journalists or reporters, but it is only a glimpse. We have to some extent to interpret his account and, as with all journalism, detach the essentials from the mere parti pris of the raconteur. Titian admired the then unrivalled collection of antiques, he admired Raphael, ' Whose was the clumsy hand which had damaged the Stanze frescoes by restoration ? ' — the hand was Sebastiano del Piombo's, now fallen away from the promise of his youth, and the first in the tiresome hierarchy of Italian eclectics. What of Perino del Vaga ? again report speaks of his jealousy or fear of the new master Titian, then the favourite of the Pope. Our interest becomes intense, acute ! What was the result of the meeting between Michelangelo and Titian ? We must turn to Vasari ; whose account of a chance phrase of Buonarroti's has become famous ; this I will transcribe, but again let us be on our guard, and weigh the value of words in their proper relation to the events to which they belong ; for words may be coloured by intonation, they may gain in significance also, in one direction or another, by unconscious modification of the man who repeats them. We must consider the occasion when they were spoken, for a verdict on Titian cannot be passed on the ' Danae ' upon which Michelangelo pronounced himself. Here is Vasari's account. ' Now it chanced that Michelangelo and Vasari, going one day to see Titian in the Belvedere, beheld a picture which he had just then finished, of a nude figure representing Danae . . . many of those present beginning to extol the work (as people do when the artist stands by), praised it not a little, when, all having left 110 THE 'DANAE' the place, and talking of Titian's work, Buonarroti declared that the manner and colouring of that artist pleased him greatly, but that it was a pity the Venetians did not study drawing more, "for if this artist," said he, " had been aided by Art and knowledge of design as he is by nature, he 'would have produced works which none could surpass, more especially in imitating life, seeing that he has a fine genius, and a graceful animated manner."' Had the praises of those who stood by been excessive ? Did this lecture of Michelangelo's on the Venetians apply to Titian ? or did, it affect mainly the tendency of the school which aimed at illusion, and not at construction ? Had Titian by a sort of challenge to the grand or titanic manner, which we may detect in the 'Danae' (Plate c), expressed something which was different, and on the whole less than himself ? We are confronted here with the two opposite theories of art. Michelangelo, the Prometheus of art, the maker of men, is here opposed to Titian, the man who reflected the beauty in all things. Here we have an absolute opposition in aim and vision, but let me hasten^ to add that Titian in the ' Danae ' is aiming at something unusual, something foreign to his temperament ; he is striving after the heroic in mould, and after generalisation of form, neither is habitual to him. He has recorded facts more finely than any one else, he has not created types, and in the effort of this work his magic has left him ; in its place there is no passionate impulse which might transfigure the subject to hand. The ' Danae ' seems merely life-size, she is no sister of the giant ' Night ' or * Dawn ' of Michelangelo. If the painting >it one time revealed the average skill Titian then had at his disposal, the picture no longer possesses it. It is vague in drawing, expressionless ill pigment, and now, alas ! unpleasant in colour. We may search in vain for the lovely grain of the flesh, this has disappeared beneath a highly stippled and mended surface. The Cupid, borrowed in part from a Praxitelean torso, glows with some quality of tone, but this chance excellence is like a musical note which might happen to charm in an instrument which has lost all quality and ' timbre ' ; the draperies are now the work of a restorer, and through all this we feel, or perhaps I should put it thus, the present writer feels, that Titian was below him- self and out of his proper sphere. Twice I have praised the Farnese group now at Naples, and each time I have failed to describe the picture. The reproduction (Plate xcix.) speaks for the design. Titian has here striven to group in something like a transcript from reality the Pope, the Cardinal, and 111 TITIAN Ottavio Farnese. The latter bows deferentially to Paul in., who turns to speak to him, the Cardinal faces the spectator. The picture, which is quite unfinished, is planned in a harmony of various reds, ranging from earth-reds to crimson and scarlet, enlivened by the white in the vestment of the Pope and the hose of Ottavio. Some spaces of the picture still show the actual surface of the canvas, which, for a work by Titian, is unusual in its texture. Many reasons may suggest them- selves for the unfinished condition of the painting, which has remained quite rudimentary in parts. I am disinclined to consider the psycho- logical qualities with which Crowe and Cavalcaselle have endowed the work ; one could read far more story, for instance, in the contrasted heads of the gentlemen hi waiting in Raphael's ' Mass of Bolsena ' where none has been seen, f The Cardinal lo oks out as he mi ght in any portrait , the Pope be nds (with the keen expression we find in aJl his pictures) Jbowards Ottavio, who bows as he would have had to do in approaching t he papa l p resence. | ][ I see no reason for 'fitigirtp-have divined tragedy in the situation ; if he had done so, he would have taken good care not to show it. The fact that the picture was left unfinished might be due to the pressure of other commissions, or to some dissatisfaction with the likenesses, or to the mere texture of the canvas, which, I repeat, is unusual. At Naples hangs the swaggering 'Portrait of Pier Luigi Farnese' (Plate CI.) which has darkened, but stiU remains a fine work in the grandiose manner.^ Titian left Rome richer in fact and in reputation, and an elected citizen of the Eternal city. Vasari mentions for the first time with praise a work by Titian's second son Orazio (a ' Portrait of Messer Battista Ceciliano '), ' which is a good work.' The occurrence of that name introduces upon the scene the probable author of many replicas of masterpieces which we shall have to analyse later, which still pass sometimes as originals or repainted originals. I have stated that in my opinion, the ' Caterina Comaro ' in the Uffizi is by Orazio, it was doubtless painted several years later than the traditional date 1542, or even the year 1545, which is still under discussion. It belongs in fact to the years of Titian's relations with Philip ii. when the characteristics of Orazio's workmanship become manifest. In March 1546, on the return journey from Rome, Titian passed through Florence; there had been for some time past a sort of coquetting between Titian or his impresario, Aretino, and the Florentine court, but this had been without result. Aretino was not a persona 1 This picture was probably painted at Piacenza on the return journey, or else later. 112 PORTRAIT OF ARETINO grata with that rather provincial despot Duke Cosimo de' Medici, and Florence had entered upon that period when her reputation as an art centre was founded upon a pre-eminence she no longer retained. Florence boasted of Michelangelo, but he remained in Rome. Titian visited the duke, ' offering to take his portrait ' ; the duke, however, did not give himself much trouble in the matter, ' perhaps because he had no mind to offer a slight to the many noble artists of his own city and dominions.' This phrase of Vasari's is of the utmost importance. Confronted with the works of the 'divine Titian' we always feel an afterthought in all his praises. Vasari was a good architect, a man of considerable perception, a bad, an abominable painter, but the nursling of a great tradition to which Titian's tendencies ran counter. If we can imagine some favourite pupil of Ingres striving to praise Courbet because Ingres had declared that Courbet had talent (the case is not an imaginary one) we shall under- stand the subcurrent of perplexity which we find in Vasari's estimate of Giorgione, and even in his praises of Titian. Or let us choose another parallel, and imagine the effort at praise of some friend of Rossetti brought face to face with Whistler's painting, and Vasari's instinctive hostility explains itseK. Good art can be on friendly terms with another form of excellence that opposes it in aim and practice, but between the following of one school and another there is some- thing irreconcilable, and I suspect Vasari himself of having asked Michelangelo the very questions which led to his strictures on Titian's manner in the ' Danae.' In the year 1545 Aretino had presented to Cosimo de' Medici the wonderful portrait which now hangs in the Pitti (Plate xcvii.). In the letter which accompanied the gift Aretino complains of the rough rendering of the draperies in a now famous phrase, ' the satins, velvets, and brocades would perhaps have been better if Titian had received a' few more scudi for working them out!' This picture was painted before the journey to Rome, it remains unsurpassed in the life work of Titian, The canvas unfortunately hangs high in the Pitti, it is darkened by varnish, but I imagine well preserved ; the characterisation of the head is superb, a fierce dignity has been imparted to the powerful and sensual face of the man, full in the Up, broad-nosed, but finely browed. The rendering of the satins and velvets is admirable ; I can find no terms of praise that do not seem thin and conventional ; this is an occasion where Titian defies comparison (as a portrait painter) with Rembrandt, Velazquez, Raphael, or Van Dyck. A certain truculence T.-8 113 TITIAN of effect is here corrected » by a dignity whicli was temperamental in Titian himself, the picture has the colour and tonic quality of the noblest wines. Another ' Portrait of Aretino,' formerly in the Chigi gallery and recently in London (Plate xcviii,), passes by common consent as a later work ; it is far more Uteral in conception, not entirely well preserved, enchanting in the summary and almost Franz Hals-like rendering of the tawny orange sleeve and draperies. I feel some hesitation in expressing my belief that it is the earlier of the two works ; it is lighter in pitch, more careful in the exact transcription of each separate feature, and incomparably less vivid and significant than the masterpiece in the Pitti. Mr. Claude Phillips has suggested that we can discern a reflection of a Tuscan influence in the master's picture of ' St. John Baptist,' now in the Academy in Venice (Plate cii.). I have to confess that no work perplexes me more. It is smooth, not to say academic, in execution, highly wrought, but not engrossing. I should be inchned to place it somewhere about the year 1543 — or at any rate near the period of the ' Ecce Homo ' at Vienna. 114 CHAPTEK XXI 'THE SUPPER AT EMM AUS '—TITIAN GOES TO AUGSBURG BEFORE discussing the works which belong to the period when Titian became pre-eminently the painter of the house of Habsburg, we have the express statement that he painted a ' Venus Reclining ' and also a ' Venus and Adonis,' which are some- times identified with works of this subject now at Madrid. The ' Venus and Cupid ' in the Uffizi (Plate cxv.) hardly belongs to this epoch, and no existing version of the ' Venus and Adonis ' can be ascribed to it ; still less can the ' Venus with a Musician,' sometimes described as ' Farnese and his Mistress,' be assigned to this stage of Titian's development. We are now approaching a period in the painter's practice when variations were made (sometimes by the artist himself) of works for which there existed a constant demand ; one superb repetition, or new version, of the ' Danae ' at Naples was painted in the fifties for PhiUp ii. There followed a constant supply of more or less authentic Venuses and Lavinias carrying dishes ; and the early mention of the ' Venus Reclining ' and ' Venus and Adonis ' probably refers to earlier veirsions of these subjects which now exist in later renderings only. Aretino in a letter to Chancellor Granvella describes the excitement in Venice when it became known that Titian had been called to meet the Emperor at Augsburg. Crowds besieged the house, eager to purchase. ' All firmly believe that his majesty would place their Apelles in a position that would make him exercise his art for him only.' This occasion led to the completion of one work of the greatest importance, namely, the ' Supper at Emmaus,' now in the Louvre (Plate cm.), of which the poet Alessandro Contarini had bought and presented to the Signoria another version which has since been lost. It is usual to consider the Louvre version a replica of the Contarini design, executed for the Duke of Mantua. It passed, with the entire Gonzaga collection, into that of Charles i. of England, 115 TITIAN after whose death it came ultimately into the collections of the French royal house. Whatever may have been the quality of the Contarini version, the picture in the Louvre is of the first rank, and counts among Titian's finest pictures. It reveals to the student, however, the evidence of drastic rehandling or correction (note the second column painted out under the existing landscape), and it shows the trace of two manners in the artist's practice. The central figure differs in type from the Saviour in the ' Ecce Homo ' at Vienna, or in the ' Crowning with Thorns' (Louvre). There is also the evidence of an earlier manner in the treatment of the draperies. In design the entire work harks back to another epoch, the passages which reflect Titian's current method are to be found mainly in the landscape, the page (who might have figured in the ' Ecce Homo '), and in portions of the two disciples. We shall find on one of the disciples the scarf which appears in the ' Entombment,' and the entire central portion of the work belongs to the period when Titian painted for the houses of Ferrara and Urbino. Not only has Titian not given us such a minute rendering of stUl-Ufe for something like twenty years, but no assistant of his would have done so had he been possessed of the ability ; the tradition had become lost. The violets, the borage flowers, the minute pattern of the cloth, the bread, glasses, and artichoke leaves, the white faience salt- cellar, belong, at the latest, to the few years preceding 1530, and I would ascribe the bulk of the painting approximately to the date 1528. The workmanship in the rendering of the table approximates to the unrivalled surfaces of the ' Bacchus and Ariadne ' or ' La Vierge au Lapin.' The wall, landscape, and disciples are executed in the manner of the painter during the forties ; I would suggest that this noble early work had remained unfinished and was completed in 1547 for the house of Mantua. As a painter I would point out that the habits of Titian's brush- work had become completely transformed in the last twenty years. Had he wished to practise the more explicit workmanship of an earher period, the means would not have been the same, there would have been no minute rendering of the diaper on the cloth by a precise and regular relief in impasto, but by some magic of scumble or glaze. The tradition of this earlier kind of handling had become lost ; it has remained lost ever since. Titian was now surrounded by a generation who would not have valued it. The minute workmanship of the ' Pope Paul III.' at Naples is of a different kind ; the sense of contour and degree of relief conveyed in this work by the uses of a wonderfully 116 TITIAN AT AUGSBURG tender pigment produce a totally different impression ; there is an exquisite rendering of things to hand in the dress of the sitter, but the vein of invention in the details of the ' Supper at Emmaus ' recalls the violets and glasses, the capon on a dish in the ' Bacchanal.' It expresses a curiously delicate choice and rendering of simple things, not the more generalised and costly accessories of the last twenty years. Before his departure for Augsburg Titian gave Aretino a replica of the ' Ecce Homo,' which may be the version at Chantilly. On his arrival, Augsburg had become the meeting-place of the imperial family, and numerous princes of the Church were there in the suite of the Emperor, the Duke of Alva, the two Granvellas — father and son. The centre of interest, however, was the Elector John Frederick of Saxony, then a prisoner. Though Titian's relations with the house of Farnese continued to be friendly, he had to choose between the patronage of the Pope and Emperor. He gave up the seals of the Piombo, which had been promised him on the death of Sebastiano del Piombo, and his pension on Milan was doubled by Charles v. If Titian's visit to Rome might be described as the supreme moment of acknowledgment in the career of the artist, the visit to Augsburg was the culminating point in the worldly success of the man. For an historical account of the painter's stay at Augsburg and his deaUngs with Cardinal Farnese, the reader should turn to the pages of Crowe and Cavalcaselle ; the space at my command does not allow of what would be but a watered-down account — our immediate interest is in the pictures which were painted at Augsburg or commissioned there during the two journeys which the painter undertook at the age of seventy. On his arrival Titian sent messages to Aretino describing his reception, and sends his com- pliments to Lorenzo Lotto, longing for his friendly advice ; later on he requests half a pound of lake, his colour supply having run short. The master's activity was enormous. The portrait of the Emperor's counsellor Nicholas Granvella hangs in what would seem a ruined state at Besan9on (Plate cviii.), that of the Duke of Alva, done later, is in private hands at Madrid (Plate cix.) ; both works are unknown to me, but, judging from photographs, both may be terribly damaged originals. Titian, during his two stays at Augsburg, painted all the royalties then present, but these portraits are now lost. There remain, however, the ' Portrait of Charles v.' at Munich, and the famous equestrian portrait, a\. Madrid. 117 TITIAN I will describe the portrait at Munich first (Plate cvi.). All critics, Crowe and Cavalcaselle and Giovanni Morelli, are agreed that the work is heavily repainted ; the latter even mentions the name of Rubens to describe the Flemish character of the landscape. With the exception of the arms of the chair, the hands and some of the black draperies, which reveal the minutely glazed surfaces of Titian, the rest has been summarily overpainted. The red hanging is now northern in colour, the sixteenth-century quality of its pattern impaired, the land- scape with its sharp transparent greens, its rose horizon and lavender greys, and, above all, the character of the trees and the quality of the surfaces display the peculiarities of a single man, Rubens namely. The pigment is no longer Venetian, it is not merely ' like Rubens,' it is by that master. The face is over-modeUed, one feels the restraint of Rubens's hand, a Vetroit,'^ there is a certain coarseness in all the accessories, due probably to a similar reason. The present writer has no hesitation in considering the work in its present condition as freely restored and boldly overpainted by Rubens himself. It would be interesting if research into the antecedents of the picture should result in establishing that it at one time passed through Rubens's hands; this would strengthen my contention, which I have based, however, solely on the evidence of the work itself. "The ' Equestrian Portrait of Charles at the Battle of Miihlberg ' (Plate cvii.) is now a wreck. It has been damaged by fire, and is heavily encrusted with repaintings ; only in the centre of the picture can the lustre of Titian's pigment be recognised. The description given by Crowe and Cavalcaselle of its present state is accurate enough ; yet, despite the fact that we have now little more than a ruin, this does not prevent the work from impressing us greatly ; the design remains, the colour scheme remains, if darkened by smoke and rehandling. It must once have been a masterpiece. Incredible as it may seem, Titian's activity at the court of Charles v. was confined not to a single visit but to two, broken by a return to Venice. He was summoned again to Augsburg to paint the heir, Philip ii., and a letter dated November 11, 1550, describes his second reception by the Emperor. It was to this second stay, probably, that we owe the portrait of the captive Elector Frederick of Saxony, preserved in an admirable condition at Vienna. The former 1 Rubens, a marvellous portrait painter in his compositions, is often below himself within the restricted area of a portrait. In this piece of restoration one feels an even greater chilling of his brushwork within the space left to him in Titian's design. 118 PORTKAITS PAINTED AT AUGSBURG portrait, in which the Protestant prince still showed the scar of the wound he had received at the battle of Miihlberg, has been lost. At Augsburg the quaint Lucas Cranach, the friend of the unfor- tunate Elector, painted a portrait of the superb and successful Titian. All photographs of the ' Portrait of the Elector ' are unsatisfactory (Plate CXI.). As a matter of fact, though exceedingly summary in painting, and designed as if Titian had in mind the quaint ' cut-out ' northern portraits to which the Elector was accustomed, it is, never- theless — notably in the rendering of the head — a remarkably fine and direct piece of painting. Sharp, shapely touches of pigment accent the eyes and nostrils, the colouring being light in pitch. In the delicate grain of the pigment we recognise the qualities characteristic of Titian, yet the conception of the work is singularly northern, and in the loose phraseology with which one is obliged to express unfamiliar impressions, the portrait of the Elector makes one think involuntarily of Lucidel. On Ms first visit to Augsburg Titian had received from Queen Mary of Hungary a commission for three decorative canvases — ' Tan- talus,' ' Sisyphus,' and ' Prometheus ' — the first of which is lost; the two last are preserved in the Prado (Plate cxii.), where they are now very properly ascribed to the master instead of being described as copies by the cold, bad colourist, Sanchez Coello. In these Titian reverts to the bold foreshortening of his Santo Spirito Ceilings. Both have been darkened by the smoke of one of those countless fires which have devastated the collections of the Spanish house, the colour-scheme of the ' Prometheus ' now suggesting the rust of iron. This superb work anticipates the more broken and febrile handling of the following decade, and without documentary evidence I should have been in- clined to ascribe it to a later period. It is difficult to establish the order of large important canvases by their commissions, since the date of final delivery often lags. Titian was employed beyond the scope of his powers. His output during this time was enormous, indeed the painting of the last eight or ten years might have sufficed as the result of a well-employed lifetime. The ' Portrait of Philip ii. of Spain ' now hangs in the Prado (Plate cxvi.), and despite a certain amount of wear and damage it can stand comparison with any full-length portrait ever executed. In distinction and sober excellence of design no portrait equals it, excepting that of ' Charles v. with a Dog ' ; in workmanship it surpasses this last. Once more Titian would seem to wish to captivate a sitter and posterity by a supreme expression of his skill and by an extraordinary 119 TITIAN degree of fusion and finish. The pattern or design of this portrait formed the canon for the court portraits of Antonio Moro; it seems to have been a pattern picture for several of the earlier royal portraits by Velazquez, that is, as far as design is concerned. The modulated whites of the stockings and trunk-hose, though a little tarnished by old varnish, show a power in dealing with this most difficult of sub- stances — white paint — such as Titian alone has had at his command. The palUd face is a masterpiece of characterisation as well as a master- piece of fused and solid painting. We feel convinced that the fece at least was finished from nature ; a preliminary study was probably retained by Titian for later works, for the turn of the head remains practically the same in all the other portraits which the master executed at a later period. Though Titian was not to meet the Emperor Charles v. again, nor his son Philip after his return to Venice, the more important efforts of his brush were hqticeforth executed almost solely for the house of Habsburg. The superb full-length portrait of the Spanish king was sent to England in 1553, during the marriage negotiations with Mary Tudor. The Queen was warned that Titian's workmanship did not bear too close an inspection, 'but that at a proper distance, by adding three years to the Prince's age, she would be able to judge of his present appearance.' The Queen became ' greatly enamoured' of the picture, which, however, had to be restored to its owner, Mary of Hungary. The second version of the sitter, finished by Titian in 1553, now hangs in the Museum at Naples (Plate cxxiii.). Inferior in many respects to the canvas at Madrid, it is, however, a wonderful piece of charac- terisation, and, after all, a masterpiece. The portrait at Naples has darkened and suffers from the effect of small patches, and were it carefully cleaned and placed under glass, it might win a warmer tribute of praise than I have accorded it. A replica of this work with a noble architectural background hangs in the Pitti, — this shows the cold greys and general purplish tone which I associate with some hitherto unidentified assistant of Titian's, in aU probability Orazio Vecelli, since these pictures which I ascribe to him not only possess traits in common but reveal the workmanship of one well trained in Titian's practice. From the praise of the portraits of Philip ii. one turns instinctively to a noble portrait ascribed to Titian, though it has been the tendency of some recent criticism to give it to Tintoretto ; this is ' The Man with a Baton,' at Munich. This superb and highly finished work (Plate cxviii.) counts among the finest portraits in the World; in 120 PORTRAITS reticence of handling and design it is comparable to any of Titian's masterpieces. It is of the rank of the ' Man in Black ' in the Louvre, the 'Portrait of a Young Englishman,' ' Aretino,' 'Paul iii.,' or the ' Man with the Palm.' The large spacing of the work, the grey wall, the sober quality of the greys and blacks of the dress, the delicate grain of the pigment, the sense of plane expressed in the modelling of the head, lit at the angle generally affected by Titian, the shape and rendering of the hands, each and all display his characteristic as well as his noblest skill. The flesh has an unusually pallid tone, such as we find in the ' PhiUp ii.,' which is unusual in portraits by the master, not so the brushwork. This unusual aspect alone warrants a momentary thought of Tintoretto, whose method, or 'handwriting,' whose sense of surface and rendering of plane and tone-transition never at a single time of his career really resembled this work. The surface of the picture here and there has been abraded, and small patches occur in many places, without, however, impairing the effect of the whole, or destroying the delicacy of individual portions. Once again we are brought face to face with a sudden recovery of those very qualities which belong more properly to another epoch of the master's career ; one thinks at once of the ' Englishman ' in the Pitti, one even harks back to the ' Parma ' painted nearly forty years before. Often in the development of Titian's manner, and during the change of temper which has caused this development, we are brought face to face with a work expressing the very central quality of his gift. Yet, within four years or so of the date of this masterpiece, we have to place the curious, and in a sense ostentatious, portrait of ' Giovanni Francesco Aquaviva,' now at Gassel (Plate cxxx.), and the gorgeous, flamboyant ' poesies ' which the master executed for Philip of Spain. A fine portrait — now, alas ! sadly damaged — ^hangs high in the Pitti, this is sometimes described as the likeness of 'Andrea Vesali ' (Plate cxx.), for whose book on anatomy, Calcar, the admirable German imitator of Titian, executed spirited diagrams. Of the present condition of this work it is difficult to form an opinion ; for years it has fascinated me, and it is possible that a painting of the first rank is here obscured under dirt and repaint. I imagine that the design has lost its accent, and the modelling of the face been thrown out of tone by a drastic rehandling of the background (a not uncommon thing in Italy). This I imagine to have once been grey, the present dark brown being the afterthought of some self-satisfied restorer. Some future rehanging of the Pitti may justify my 121 TITIAN impression. I believe the possibility of rescue of damaged pictures in Italy is still to come, and that some day her galleries may become incredibly richer by the rehabilitation of many works which now dis- appoint the eye and distress the spirit owing to rehandling in the past. The ' Portrait of the Legate Beccadelli ' in the Uffizi (Plate cxx.) need not detain us. Whatever the work may once have been, it is now distorted by stippling. The forehead and eyes are thrown out of perspective, and the sensation is a painful one when one detects the pathetic survivals of pieces of Titian's workmanship, such as the hands and paper in the tarnished and laboured surfaces. An attractive picture, the ' Lady in Rose ' at Dresden, which has passed, owing to general hesitation, as a possible Titian, is, in the opinion of the present writer, a good canvas by Moroni. The odd, sudden per- spective of the table, the shape of the hands, the cold, greenish-grey of the background, and the mechanical rendering of the embroideries seem, to me at least, evidences of his literal and provincial workmanship. For some time past we have been tantalized by a contemporary reference to a picture of Venus, and it is usual to give the ' Toilet of Venus ' at St. Petersburg to the year 1550. The picture (Plate cxliii.) is known to me only in photography. I am informed that its tonality is rich, the golden flesh of the substantial goddess being contrasted with the deep ruby velvet gown lined with fur which she has gathered about her hips. I have some hesitation in agreeing with the commonly accepted date. To me the type of the children holding the mirror, and the striped piece of stuff upon which they stand, recall Titian's manner during a later decade ; I am here reminded of details in ' The Magdalene ' at Naples and at St. Petersburg. Possibly an examination of the work may reveal the retouchings of a later date applied to an earlier picture. The ' Venus ' is undoubtedly a masterpiece, but, like the very inferior ' Venus and Musician ' at the Prado, \Vhich is some- times, though erroneously, described as ' Farnese and his Mistress,' I believe both canvases belong to the sixties. The 'Venus and the Musician,' I would hasten to add, is a mere school-piece drastically retouched by Titian. In it we find the rapid and broken technique of the Master enlivening the more cautious workmanship of a good assistant who knew how to paint but who could not draw. The costume of the man in this work belongs to the sixties : to this period I would ascribe the completion of the noble picture at the Hermitage and the shop-piece at the Prado. 122 CHAPTER XXII ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF TITIAN— THE COLOURIST AND THE HARMONIST TENDENCIES IN PAINTING THE first thirty years of the painter's career might be described as a period of ever-growing development, in which the language of painting was broadened and enriched. In his first manner Titian combined great wealth of colour with great delicacy and pre- cision of workmanship, and displayed great freshness of feeling, raciness of observation, and a lyrical vein of emotion. The second period, which we might close roughly with the date 1550, was characterised by a broadening of method, and an increase in the range of his work ; this was combined with a greater tendency to generalised form, a heavier key of colour and tone, and, excepting in his portraits, the change was marked by a weakening of the intellectual fibre of the artist, or, perhaps I should put it thus, qualities of a magisterial order supplanted the nimble and emotional response to finer aims and delicate perceptions. The third phase we are about to study is marked again by a develop- ment in handling, and by a new change in the temper of the man. From the age of seventy onwards there are surprises for the lover of fine painting ; during this period Titian's sense of colour and use of pigment became more experimental, new colour chords were added to the somewhat heavy and sumptuous gold of his middle period ; at times a more agitated spirit pervades the conception of his pictures. We are brought face to face with new researches in colour-invention such as we find in the ' St. Margaret ' and the ' Diana and Actaeon,' till, little by little, the touch of the master crumbles, and his colour burns down to the almost hueless ashes of the superb ' Portrait of the Artist ' at Madrid, or to the tragic greys and blues of the ' Crowning with Thorns ' at Munich. In a lifetime, doubtless greatly prolonged, the master has given us three noble phases in the art of painting, and almost an epitome of its history. He remains unapproachable in the perfect balance of the rarest gifts in the ' Bacchus and Ariadne ' of his first manner ; later 123 TITIAN he establishes the very standard of portrait painting ; in the last phase of all he achieves strange experiments in the very mdtier of the art which anticipate something of the magic of Rembrandt, and the febrile handMng of the latest of the great experimentahsts and magicians of the brush, namely, George Frederick Watts. In his early manner Titian brought together the richest hues and combined them in nobly spaced patterns, and so achieved coloured effects in the art of oil painting which have never been equalled or even approached. Later, he was destined to change or to modify his aims and practice. Let us, for the sake of distinctness and convenience, retain the old-fashioned definition of a ' colourist ' for a man who shows resource in the range and variety in the choice of colours and their combination, whilst we use the word 'harmonist' to describe the faculty which charms and fascinates, not by invention in colour- arrangements, but delights in their modulation and in the transitions from one to another, which may even be achieved in a general hueless scheme, or without recognisable colour-pattern. With the typical colourist the colour sense controls the whole into a definite pattern of manifest colours. If we turn from European painting to the colourist's art revealed in a Japanese print we shall recognise (within the limits of a simpler convention) the faculty for making beautiful patterns by the massing together of a recognisable number of colours, without the many technical problems which complicate ripe European painting. We detect in a Japanese print the cunning pattern made with simple, beautiful tints, not by spacing alone, contrast and quantity, but by the use of tiny secondary quantities of less prominent colours, used in small patterns and details, by which the masses are relieved or enlivened, or brought into contact without jar or discord. In the field of the colourist, proportion in the colour quantities and the skilful use of contrasts count for most. This colour-sense flourishes in the making of fine carpets, china, and in dressmaking. The colourist-sense dehghts first of all in colours, in contrasting and controlling them, in managing their proportions, while retaining the recognisable prominence of certain hues. The Japanese print-maker selects soft paper, the carpet-weaver softly-dyed wools, and the dressmaker tissues of agreeable texture. This choice may seem essential ; as a matter of fact it is not, entirely so, since ' pattern by colour,' which is the aim of the colourist, depends mainly upon proportion and contrast. 124 'COLOURIST' AND 'HARMONIST' In Titian's early life, colour was secured by the choice of the dominant hues, their quantity and spacing being all-important. This corresponds to melodic invention in music. This he would refine upon by the accompaniment of less prominent colours, — sometimes mere fresh passages of white, and an agreeable * quality ' was secured by the regard for the surface or texture of the colours, this preoccupation corresponding to the choice of material in the hands of a skilful dressmaker. In this last preoccupation lies an element of fascination which tends to usurp the place of the ' pattern making ' of the colourist. The love of quality, for its own sake, opens up a new horizon, and may alter the optics of painting. Thus in several works of Titian's later life the subtleties of the ' harmonist ' have ousted the inventions of the ' colourist.' These two elements, which are allied, if you will, tend to become different in their result, and represent in the world of invention two separate aims, such as we find in drawing, for instance, which may devote itself either to line, and so express pattern, or to form, and so express relief. Between the colourist- and harmonist-instinct lies aU the difference which we shall find between the melodist, or man who makes fresh vivid patterns of sound (such as Mozart or Schubert), and the harmonist who weaves infinite but less definite webs of sound (such as Bach or Wagner). It is possible for the harmonist in colour to avoid aU obvious colour invention or coloured effect, to avoid any prominent arrangement or pattern of hues, almost to dispense with colour, and to construct with delicate imperceptible variations of tint only ; and so to work this tendency of his till ' colour pattern ' (the quality of the colourist) not oiily disappears, but what survives may become curiously allied to drawing in one of its phases, namely, to the rendering of plane as it is revealed by tone. The colourist tendency is synthetic, that of the harmonist analytical. Several of Titian's late works reveal both quahties in extraordinary fusion, such as the ' St. Margaret,' and the ' Diana and Actaeon,' but the trend of the painter tends more and more towards developing the quality of the 'harmonist.' I would avoid all pedantry of definition. I would urge that the quality of the man and the quality of the art alone give value to the result. If, however, we recognise in the work of a colourist beautiful pattern - making in recognisable hues, but miss this quahty of pattern in a woik which nevertheless, on close examination, shows a survival of the colourist sense, we recognise a 125 TITIAN change or development of manner ; this change is not the culmination of the colourist tendency, not its triumph, but its partial defeat. 1 have written this in contradiction to some enthusiastic but, I think, unbalanced praise of Titian's last manner, in which we are bid to consider the painter's development as a transfiguration of his aims. It was merely a partial change of front, and when backed by an equally significant or genuine impulse each phase may be equally valuable. There is therefore all the temperamental difference in painting between a ' colourist ' and a ' harmonist ' that there is between the creator of a melody, which appeals greatly to our imaginative emotions, and the weaver of variations on a given theme, who is also able to appeal to our imaginative faculties. If the harmonist sacrifices individual colour for the sake of the 'whole,' the 'whole' has been even more vividly conceived and established from the first by the colourist. Or perhaps I should put it thus : the colourist must invent and foresee, the harmonist faculty can transmute, what was not in its inception a rare or delightful arrangement of colour. The result may be equally precious, but the aim is different. I have admitted that a carpet-weaver or dressniaker, or potter, will secure agreeable surfaces in the materials they choose, and in this choice alone lies a harmonising quality; but, I repeat — for the colourist — pattern and proportion are the essentials. Pattern and proportion secure a certain measure of fine colour in Damascus pottery, for instance, where paste and pigment are often not admirable in themselves ; a weaker grip of design makes insignificant by comparison much Chinese porcelain where texture and pigment are in themselves admirable. From the first Titian, like his forerunners Bellini and Giorgione, had employed good texture and surface. A number of traditional practices made of his pigment a delightful thing, just as we might praise a piece of enamel or velvet. The ' body ' of traditional practices, which he enriched beyond computation, made use of impasto and glaze for effect, impasto under glaze, and painting over glaze ; and in this the quality of the pigment was varied, much as a Chinaman varies his enamels by different firing and the super-imposition of separate glazes of enamel. Professedly to dispense with these processes, as many modern painters are ready to do, argues, I suppose, a balance of other gifts to make up for the disregard of effects and qualities which can be obtained no other way. Painters like Titian, Velazquez, and Rembrandt used glaze over 126 TITIAN'S LATER PHASE impasto to secure the quality of certain colours ; the quality of their pigment, and even a certain oneness of effect. In this way the play of Ught upon the surface of the paint was broken and modified, an inevitable contrast of cool and warm (such as we detect in the texture of velvet or shot material) was even secured by mere warm over-glazing, through which the ridges of the pigment and the canvas grain showed cool. In Titian's later phase, the harmonising by mere/ over-glaze became more drastic than ever, a uniformly broken touch| gives variety to the surfaces, and at times a dark-coloured under-\ ground helped still further to 'foil' the surfaces which he 'fretted'; and blended till we find his practice in the 'Entombment' almost identical with the feverish broken surfaces in Watts 's latest pictures, and, by contrast to his other work and to that of any other Venetian, almost shapeless in touch. 127 CHAPTER XXIII THE PICTURES EXECUTED FOR PHILIP II THE superb 'Christ and Simon of Cyrene' in the Prado (Plate cxxii.) was, doubtless, revised and altered, when the sleeve of Simon w^as rehandled and possibly the grape- coloured draperies of the Christ. This picture has an indescribable fascination for me, though its tonality would seem to have been chilled by recent cleaning. Dare I confess that the period in which I have placed it is perhaps wrong, as it may have been designed in the forties and retouched even at a later period than the fifties ? To be candid, I hardly feel authorised to give an opinion, I do not know when it was painted, it perplexes me as much as the ' Assumption of the Virgin ' at Verona seems to have perplexed the most cautious writers on Titian. Without the assistance of any other criticism I would ascribe the invention of the work to the forties, and its ultimate revision to the fifties. We must now consider one of Titian's masterpieces, the 'St. Margaret ' now in the Prado (Plate cxxi.) which the painter dispatched to Spain. At first sight the design or conception of the work would seem slight or even casual, or I should put it thus : in a preparatory sketch or drawing for it we should merely notice a rock, a slightly rhetorical figure of the saint and dragon; and something of this inherent thinness of invention may still strike the casual observer. In type of face the Saint is not conventional, she contrasts on the whole very favourably with the belles pleureuses who do duty for Mary Magdalenes. All the technical resources at the painter's command are here to secure a masterpiece — a lyrical impulse has added its fascination to the magic of colour and workmanship. We feel that a passionnS like Delacroix would have been greatly moved by this work, that a cautious stage-manager of noble effects, like Poussin, would be less moved, and prone to ask the question why this picture should be so impressive, with so little in it to command attention. The 'St. Margaret' has been skilfully cleaned, and, with the 128 THE TRINITY exception of inevitable patches here and there, it is well preserved. The saint is robed in green, the dragon being lost in a mass of gloom ; beyond the rock stretches a stupendous sky of broken colour and pigment foUed here and there by a space of rich blue. At the horizon a town is swept away by a fire which the sky and water reflect, while at the edge of the picture, on the silence of the water creeps a waiting gondola or boat. To the painter or technician the texture and quality of the pigment afford endless delight, the colourist faculty has here brought together the contrasting hues of the sky, ground, dress and flesh, while the harmonist instinct does not here disintegrate the plastic value of each quantity, but is kept under control. There are endless variations in the tone of the sky, held together by the rest of the design, like an opal in a noble setting. Various glazes and revisions have produced the transitions of tint in horizon and cloud which the deep patches of blue emphasise and control like recurring phrases in a piece of music. From this work we turn instinctively to the great picture of the •Trinity' (Plate cxxv.), which Titian executed for Charles v., and which accompanied the monarch in his retirement at Yuste. Doubt- less the painter has again expended his utmost skill and faculties of invention, yet the first aspect of this picture is disappointing. The beautiful Sibyl in the foreground in her green robe shot with gold, reminds one of the St. Margaret ; the dusky colouring of the evangelists and patriarchs, foiled here and there by recurring passages of blue and gold, forms a setting to the golden space beyond in which the Godhead sits enthroned. The Father and Son are robed in blue, and towards them approaches the blue-robed figure of the Virgin to intercede for the worshipping members of the imperial family, who are brought into the divine presence by palm-bearing angels. The portrait group in the picture is damaged. I may perhaps only express a personal feeling when I declare that, despite the great colourist's invention of the blue Trinity in its space of gold, despite the cunning variations upon the blue and gold theme worked into the garland of dusky saints, I am conscious of an absence of unity of effect, as if the picture were too large for the medium. Some flaw in * orchestration,' if I may use the phrase, spoils for me the beauty of the conception. Many of the figures are grandly invented, some of them powerfully uidividualised, yet the greater variety of emotion expressed in this work does not place it on the same level of pictorial invention with the ' Assunta.' In a more limited space, and with a T.-9 129 TITIAN , more limited range of passion and invention, Titian has not succeeded in controlling and concentrating his design with that force with which Michelangelo has succeeded in controlling and focussing his gigantic ' Last Judgment ' ; and though this last remains irreparably- marred and destroyed by repainting, which is not the case with Titian's picture, the terribilita of the great Tuscan has led only to a confused echo from the great Venetian, and, to me at least, the ' Trinity ' is superb only in parts, notably in the Sibyl and in some of the weather-beaten patriarchs. A rumour of Titian's death had reached the Emperor before the completion of the ' Trinity.' But a reassuring letter of Vargas to Charles, dated June 30th, 1553, mentions the picture which the painter had promised to finish towards the end of September. Of the picture of ' Christ appearing to the Magdalene,' for the Serenissima Queen Mary, only a fragment remains, a head of the Saviour (Plate cxxiv.), rescued from some lumber-room where this shred of painted canvas covered a pot of paint. The fragment afFects us very little, hardly more than a few tesserae from ^ vast mosaic ; it now hangs in the Gallery in Madrid. The ' Danae ' in the Prado is closely related in workmanship to the ' Trinity,' though how different in temper ! Of this dazzling work no reproduction gives the slightest impression, and I feel abashed before the uninteresting print (Plate cxxvii.), which must justify the boundless praises I am about to give to a new version of a picture for which I had felt an instinctive hostility in the variant at Naples. Certainly there has been here no improvement in conception, but distinctly a coarsening of motive ; here, in place of Eros, a hag catches the golden shower with outstretched apron, whilst a yellow-haired woman sprawl- ing on the couch does duty for the sequestered princess, the desire of a god, the mother of Perseus, Danae, that tragic and exquisite figure of Romance, secret, white and chaste. Here she is replaced by a rosy wench of substantial form, accompanied by the inevitable mother and lapdog. Titian has taken us to the slums of Venice, and, contrasted with this work, the quite explicit nudes of Rembrandt are 'naif and full of innocent surprise. This picture anticipates, in fact, the startling canvases we now find in Universal or International exhibitions ever since Manet painted the ' Olympia,' which, contrasted with the ' Danae,' remains trite in intention and modest in aspect. Yet, if this work is a daring excursion into the lamp-lit world of the Venetian ' half- world,' what magic of colour and racy workmanship transfigure the coramon- 130 THE 'DANAE' place conception ! What gusto and brio give sparkle and dash to the subject matter which Forain might indicate in a slight casual and witty modem book illustration! We welcome the absence of the cold, artificial temper in which the Naples picture has been designed, and accept Titian's cynical rendering of a lovely and poetic subject. It is difficult to over-praise the painting of this picture ; brilliant, rich, and varied, it benefits by a fortunate combination of various methods which are capable, each in turn, of splendid results. The hag and the sky behind her are superbly indicated in a brilliant and rapid handling ; the gold-bearing cloud dazzles the eye and sense by a fortunate use of surfaces which Titian found to hand when painting, and which cannot be described. The flesh of Danae shows a more complex technique, notably about the torso, where the most subtle combinations of rich and delicate tones satisfy the sense in the place of beautiful form, or even brilliant execution. The gold, rose, the mauves of the skin are the result of lucky revisions and ' over-paints ' by which the richness of texture and tissue are conveyed, for Titian's contention that flesh can- not be painted alia prima rests on a knowledge of the various layers of superimposed skin upon a vari-coloured basis by which Nature herseK constructs the bloom of human flesh, which emulates the gleam of a pearl, and the luminous grain of a cameUia. The tones of the skin are contrasted with the linen and a forcibly rendered curtain ; this last is simply painted and frankly glazed with crimson. The linen is fumbled in touch and construction ; it presents a fascinating surface of broken and varied touches in which the student will detect delicate rose-tints caught from the neighbouring flesh, a sort of rose or coral in the whites or in the epidermis of the pigment which delights the lover of painting, where the lover of form would note indefinite rendering of fold and plane. Though this picture never came within the range of Vandyck's experience, we are reminded, in a more luminous or blonde pitch of tone, of some of his best qualities ; yet I do not admit for an instant that Titian compasses here the sustained technical accomplishment at Vandyck's command. The quality is different, Titian's touch is more broken, larger and more naif, it is more removed from actual paint, and nearer to the bloom upon fruit and time-worn sUks. The ' muzzy ' pigment of the linen reminds me of the broken touch in Velazquez's latest works; yet contrasted with Vandyck and with Velazquez, the workmanship remains simpler ; it is more luminous and more soft. 131 TITIAN Studio replicas of this design, very different in quality and colour pitch, exist at Vienna and St. Petersburg ; the first, with its latent purples and cold brown, would seem the work of Orazio ; it is badly hung and on a totally different level of accomplishment, and not at all. like the radiant picture at Madrid. Later commissions for Phihp included the ' Venus and Adonis ' now at the Prado, sadly disfigured by restorations, but possibly in its time a gorgeous piece of painting (Plate cxxix.). The sky, with its patches of blue and rays of light, recalls in a way the colour of the * Trinity,' but the two figures are coarsely retouched and marred. A studio variant of this work hangs in the National Gallery, more empty in execution, but at least undamaged ; it is later, however, and possibly, as Crowe and CavalcaseUe have suggested, the work of Schiavone, whose name figures perhaps too often with these authors as the assistant of Titian. Schiavone's touch is not obviously present in the National Gallery version, yet something in the colour brings his manner to mind. The ' Perseus and Andromeda,' also executed for Philip, survives in a version discovered by Mr. Claude PhiUips in the Wallace Collection (Plate CLV.). This important canvas seems to the present writer to be later than the generally accepted date, and to have been painted after 1560 ; it is probably a later variant of the work, and I would place its production somewhere about the year 1565. 132 CHAPTER XXIV PORTRAITS OF LAVINIA— PORTRAITS OF THE MASTER LEGEND has busied itself in identifying the girl in white satin in the large ' Ecce Homo ' at Vienna as Titian's daughter -* Lavinia. Something resembling her type undoubtedly characterises the large 'Venus and Cupid' in the Uffizi (Plate cxv.), which Crowe and Cavalcaselle have imagined a gift of Titian's to the Duke of Urbino, made at the time of the painter's correspondence with the house of Habsburg over the proposed visit to Augsburg. The rumour that a ' Venus ' had been painted had been constant for some years. In the existing picture some sort of reminiscence of Lavinia might have been intended by the artist, or done unconsciously, just as the Helen Fourment type would seem to have found a place in Rubens 's painting long before she had become his wife. Titian returned from his first journey to Augsburg to betroth his daughter to Cornelio SarcineUo, a young man of good family ; the marriage took place in June 1555, the painter providing a handsome marriage portion and, together with other jewellery, a pearl necklace, possibly that which she wears in her several portraits. I am disinclined to ascribe the Berlin version of the ' Girl with a Charger ' (Plate cxxxii.) to a date as early as the period of Lavinia's betrothal. This work formed the pattern picture of several variations done later, when Lavinia had already developed into a matron. Writers on Titian, however, agree in describing the Dresden portrait as ' Lavinia in her Bridal Dress,' the flag-shaped fan aiding in this decision (Plate cxxxi.). I confess that I do not share in the chorus of praise with which the picture has so far met. I fully recog- nise the hand of Titian in the work, yet I would not be surprised if it were but a second version of a more notable original. The picture has sunk and cracked, it is ' tired ' in surface, the hands, the jewels at the wrist, and small puckers and folds at the waist, reveal the beauties of the master's workmanship, yet the copy made by Rubens (Vienna) of an identical portrait contains several details in the dress which have 133 TITIAN disappeared from the Dresden version. On the sleeve Rubens has painted bands of gold embroidery of a strictly sixteenth-century character, round the sleeve occurs a strange trimming of blue and gold beads which is missing at Dresden ; most important of all, in the Rubens copy we shall find a small bay leaf, or, more probably, odorous orange leaf, half hidden between the breasts ; this last touch is so entirely in Titian's vein of invention, that I believe it is a copy of another version of the work. These differences were not made by Rubens, they do not conform to the exuberant variations he might have made, and in the case of the Vienna picture, Rubens has not painted a mere transcript, but, for him, at least, a close copy. I have examined the ' Lavinia ' at Dresden with the wish to find traces of these details under the brush of a restorer, but have not found them. Possibly my disappointment at Dresden may be due to drastic retouching ; this is not unhkely — it is even very probable — the texture of the painting is not satisfactory. Possibly (and to this view I incline greatly) there has been another and more racy portrait of Titian's daughter. Had Titian's touch, when confronted with nature, retained a tighter grasp of things as they are, than was the case in the more experimental workmanship in his subject pieces, where the faculties of the memory are controlled by the creative faculties ? I incline to think so. On several occasions one has been reminded in Titian's portraits of work done in an earlier decade. This was our case before the marvellous * Charles v. with a Dog,' at Madrid, the ' Pope Paul iii.,' at Naples, the ' Philip ii.,' in the Prado. If we accept the date 1555 for the ' Portrait of Lavinia in white,' we have to admit again the presence of an earlier technique, for the tranquil painting of this work recalls nothing of the handling which we admire in the ' St. Margaret,' the ' Trinity,' or the second ' Danae.' The picture of ' Titian's daughter ' reminds me that I have mentioned none of the portraits of the master painted by himself. The superb but unfinished ' Portrait of Titian ' now at Berlin (Plate cxxxvii. ) should therefore be described. It would seem to have been painted between 1558 and 1560. The romantic character of this work is even more deliberate than in the ' Portrait of Aretino,' in the Pitti ; it shares with a later work, ' The Man with the Palm,' at Dresden, in the expression of a sort of heroic mood, and is painted with the more broken and experimental touch which we find in the * poesies ' and religious pictures. The rendering of the head is substantially com- plete, the sleeves are indicated in a way which might be considered 134 PORTEAITS OF HIMSELF final, the gold chain and the hands are mere indications, and, as with the unfinished Farnese group at Naples, the student of the ways and means of painting is still baffled and perplexed by the result. The unfinished portions of Titian's pictures are merely indicated in chance touches of the brush. There is vermilion in the chain round the neck of the painter, but this would seem to be a mere forcible indication done with chance pigment, not a secret practice of the painter, for in no work of his do we find the use of vermilion in the reflections of gold, any more than the whitish indications of the hands illustrate his method for constructing the surfaces of flesh. We therefore are only able to admire and wonder. Of the remaining portraits of the master (the late profile at Madrid (Plate clxi.) alone excepted) there is nothing to be said. One of the versions in the Uiflfizi may be a hopelessly damaged original, all others are specious and worthless, and of interest only to the guide and tourist. 135 CHAPTER XXV DEATH OF ARETINO ON the 21st of October 1556 Aretino died of apoplexy, accord- ing to the certificate of death ; according to tradition he died of laughter. It was at a supper, late in the night, or rather at three o'clock in the morning ; Aretino, convulsed with merriment at a Rabelaisian anecdote told by a friend, rolled back in his chair, this slipped and span upon the floor, and suddenly over the laughing face came the stupor and silence of annihilation. We can see a leaden hue spread slowly over the heavy features, the loll of the large head as the blood trickles through the thin hair, or peeps out at the corner of the mouth. Slowly death takes possession of the focus of the faculties and memories, and seals one by one each separate way of sense, aU, save that one which is unlike the sense of life. Here consciousness is at battle against that irresistible force which freezes, with a touch of ice, the flesh which is now clay with the unelastic weight of stone. But a second before the room rang with laughter, — then came the sudden pause when the breath of a night- wind swelling a curtain or fretting a lamp, that shuddered in its socket like an ebbing life, might be felt as it passed through the room like a new presence. Among the guests gathered in the house the sense of the world had shrunk to nothing more than some chance street sound wafted from without, such as the pulsing of an oar away on the canal, or the swinging of a shutter in the night. Aretino had slipped out of consciousness in a peal of laughter, the jovial face, bright but a moment before with the joy and savour of a jest, had become that tired mask which death draws upon a dying face as a judge puts on his cap. We can imagine a pause, then the sudden clamour in the room, the wild rush for assistance ; if there were women there, some ' beUa Caterina ' or 'Angela Spadara,' she had lapsed into a frightened peasant woman huddling in her silk and tinsel with tlie servants behind some doorway or in some neighbouring room. We can hear the sudden 136 DEATH OF ARETINO childish cries—' Ah Gesii ! Ah Dio I ' of the painted women and the house drudges. A priest had been sent for hurriedly to administer all that was possible of the ritual. Did these grey-faced men place ' the Scourge ' upon the table, or did they leave him on the floor propped against the wall ? A gleam passes through the lids of the dying man like the light of a lamp behind a window, gone in a second ! an eye opens in the leaden face, the lips part and we hear, ' Now that I am oiled, keep me from the rats ! ' Such was the awful jest of the man who had returned from nothingness to face annihilation, to cease like a fly caught by the downward rush of a curtain of steel, rung down at the end of a great comedy. Aretino died of shock, some say of apoplexy. He may not have spoken at all, but Venice talked of his death for a little while, many rejoicing that the great ' Mascarone ' Aretino had given up his soul to Satan. We have here the very words of Antonio Pola, a creature of Ferrante Gonzaga : ' His death will not displease many, who are relieved henceforth from paying tribute to the brute.' Titian must have mourned him greatly; the genial friendship of some thirty years had come to an end, bringing the tragedy of time and change to the mind of the painter, himself a man of many years ; but, if we may judge by his work, still untouched by the numbness of age or the narrowing of life where thoughts, faculties and emotions, go thus far to-day, to fall short to-morrow, in which a new doublet may outlast the man. The Divine Aretino, ' Nature's New Marvel,' the friend and ' The Scourge of Princes,' has since been left to the estimate of generations who have forgotten that laughter is one of the great virtues, and in this Aretino was something of a saint. Against him we have his wicked impeachment of Michelangelo's ' Last Judgment,' but in his favour stands the thirty years' friendship with the great Titian, a silent testimony to essential qualities which discounts the backbiting of his enemies, whom Aretino must have met only in quite shocking places. 137 CHAPTER XXVI DEATH OF CHARLES V.— LEO LEONI ATTEMPTS TO MURDER ORAZIO—' MARTYRDOM OF ST. LAWRENCE '—' DIANA AND CALISTO'— VISIT OF VASARI— LATE WORKS IN the opinion of the present writer the ' Crowning with Thorns ' in the Louvre (Plate cxiv.) must be assigned in part to the period of Titian's return from Rome ; it is, however, usual to place it in the fifties. We hear of an ' Entombment,' now lost, of which possibly we have a studio replica by Orazio in the cold, heavy version at Vienna ; here the introduction of a green robe would seem to confirm my impression that it is anterior to the 'Entombment' at the Prado. Green draperies occur with a certain insistence in works of this period — in the ' St. Margaret ' and the ' Trinity,' for instance. An event which must have greatly affected the artist occurred on the 21st of September 1558, when the Emperor Charles v. died in retirement at Yuste. Charles was surrounded at the last by the works of Titian, and on the verge of dissolution turned to the ' Trinity,' ' upon which he gazed so long as to cause apprehension to his physician.' '^ Without question the patronage of the Emperor had been the most generous and instinctive that Titian had met with. Within a few months of Charles's death Philip ii. caused a dispatch to be sent to the Governor of Milan ordering the payment of all arrears of the pensions granted to Titian, and to Milan Orazio was sent to gather in these welcome moneys. Here a curious event occurred which must also have troubled the veteran artist ; for some cause unknown, greed or jealousy, Orazio's host Leo Leoni fell, with some of his servants, upon Titian's son, who only escaped to the street after he had been severely wounded. The episode remains obscure, despite ample contemporary evidence, and a long rancorous hatred on both sides which took some years to smoulder out. Leo Leoni was fined and banished. A long and engrossing letter of Titian's to Philip ii. is printed in the 1 Crowe and Cavalcaselle. 138 THE 'MARTYRDOM OF ST. LAWRENCE' Appendix to Crowe and Cavalcaselle's book, in which we learn that Leo Leoni had been condemned to the stake for false coining, and condemned to death at Rome, under Paul iii., for the committal of enormous sins, ' enormi delitti ' ! We have to mourn the practical destruction of what must have been one of Titian's most remarkable canvases, namely, the great ' Martyrdom of St. Lawrence,' which now hangs, a space of unrelieved black, in the ugly church of the Gesuiti at Venice (Plate cxxxvi.). I am aware that Dr. Gronau has succeeded in enjoying some sort of trace of the picture ; I have been less fortunate, and have to confess that to me almost nothing remains. The reproduction from a photograph taken by a flashlight yields something, but I would hasten to add that most of it must be given to the enthusiastic ' retouching ' of plate and block, and that, if in Reynolds's time the work looked like a picture seen behind a black curtain, the picture has gone and the black curtain remains. We are here face to face with a canvas through which the tar, with which it was backed, has percolated for centuries, and the ' St. Lawrence ' must be reconstructed by its later variant in Spain, and by the light of the imagination ; it would seem to have benefited by drastic retouches in the time of Crowe and Cavalcaselle, but these have gone in their turn. The fire, the torchlights, and their reflection on the columns and steps of a palace ; the Ught descending from above, and the gleam upon the armour may each have afforded great opportunities to the painter, and furnished endless subjects for imitation to Tintoretto, but the result has passed into the night, and we gaze with more or less interest, just as we might speculate on the shape of a palace now covered by the sea. In the correspondence with Spain concerning the picture of an ' Entombment,' which was lost on the journey, we hear of the ' Diana and Actaeon,' the ' Diana and Calisto,' and the ' Europa and the Bull ' ; the last is now in the wonderful Gardner collection at Boston, and therefore lost to England, which still holds the remaining companion works. In a letter of the master's, of which a full translation will be found in Crowe and Cavalcaselle, and in a previous letter from Garcia Hernandez, we learn how all three ' poesies ' were on hand, that the 'Diana and Actaeon' will be finished in twenty days, that the new version of an ' Entombment ' is of larger size than the lost work, the figures being entire ; this new version I incline to think also lost. We may possibly find traces of it in two old copies, one in the Prado, the other in the Ambrosiana ; these resemble the existing design (done 139 TITIAN later) now actually in Madrid, but are larger by the introduction of a taU landscape with a huge boulder of the same kind as the rock in the picture of ' St. Margaret ' ; above looms an overhanging cloud, from which issues a star-like radiance, such as the painter used in the ' St. Lawrence. ' ^ A prodigiously interesting letter of Titian's, dated Sept. 22, 1559, mentions the ' Actaeon,' ' Calisto ' and the ' Entombment,' and com- pares the king to Alexander, the painter himself to Apelles. Titian demands punishment on Leo Leoni, ' after the custom of your Majesty's justice,' and describes a small work of his son in the following very human phrase : ' My son Orazio (I had almost forgotten) has painted a small picture of " Christ on the Cross " ' ; this his majesty is urged to accept. The pictures were packed and arrived safely together with sundry panes of glass and glass goblets which the king had ordered The ' Actaeon ' and the ' Calisto ' are now replaced by small copies in the Spanish collection. The originals, in the eighteenth century, formed part of the Orleans Gallery, and came into the possession of the Bridgewater family during the French Revolution. Both works must have counted in the evolution of the art of Watteau : I imagine that they formed his standard of the great Venetian. An examination of these ' poesies ' reveals a change in the tonality aflPected by Titian ; the golds have melted into silver, the pinks have a flush of coral, or at times ' the cool sparkle ' of pink crystals. The very fountains doubtlessly strengthened Watteau in his frequent use of them. If I might be allowed as a painter to confess to partiality for any portion of ' Diana and Actaeon ' (Plate cxxxiii.) I would specify the nymph peeping behind the piUar ; I would praise the indefinable quaUty of the grey of the carved stone, the dark steel colour of the water ; here, all Titian's perfect genius as a painter and inventive colourist blazes up perhaps for the last time. Traces of impatience or feverishness may be found in the drawing of the negress and the somewhat casual figure of Actaeon ; the sense of form would seem to be the most difficult quality for an old man to retain. There are adorable pieces of painting, however, in the flesh of the nymphs, the distance among the russet trees, the crystal vase and the skuU nailed to the ruin. The 'Diana and Calisto' (Plate cxxxiv.) suffers from a certain amount of damage ; there are patches here and there of coarse restora- 1 The present writer considers the famous ' Entombment ' still at Madrid to be a third and later version. Despite the obvious conclusion that it is the work included in Titian's memoranda to Philip II., he believes it to be the 'Entombment' seen by Vasari in 1566. 140 THE 'DIANA AND CALISTO' tion, the surface has sunk more unequally, the tonality is less brilliant, though in parts it is hardly inferior to the ' Actaeon ' ; the drawing is less certain, yet in the ' piece,' notably among the nymphs who surround Calisto, drawing and painting are alike admirable. The touch is more broken throughout, nearer in quahty to the technique of the next few years ; this may be due to the fact that the scale of the figures is larger. The picture contains beautiful passages of blue and rose, such as we find again in the more broken workmanship and looser sense of form which characterise the ' Europa.' Despite the incomparable inferiority of the ' CaHsto ' at Vienna, its heavier tone, and tired workmanship, it reveals Titian's hand, at least in part. It would seem to have been finished somewhere in the sixties (Plate cxxxv.). I am possibly placing the admirable ' Madonna and Child ' (Plate cxxxviii.) at Munich somewhat late,' but not greatly so, when I give it to the period which saw the completion of the ' Europa ' and the noble portrait at Dresden, the ' Man with the Palm.' The febrile brush work of the sky and draperies helps us to class it with these works. The noble ' St. Jerome ' in the Brera (Plate cxxxix.) is one of the finest and best-preserved pictures by the master still in Italy ; together with the ' Man with the Palm ' at Dresden, and the ' St. Dominic ' in ; the Borghese Gallery, it represents a survival of the more plastic or constructive manner of the past years, which tends to disappear in the general average of the works still left to describe. Doubtless its preservation is due to its being on panel ; possibly the more direct workmanship is even a result of the surface, for the allegorical figure of 'Wisdom,' begun in 1559 for the library of St. Mark (Plate cxlvii.), already illustrates that disintegration of touch in which Titian antici- pates the broken workmanship of G. F. Watts, and which characterises the ' Entombment ' in the Prado. I would dismiss the ' Descent of the Holy Spirit ' in the Salute (Plate CXXXIX.) with a few words, since it is sunk to a hueless pitch in which touch and form are out of focus, and it would seem, under its blighted condition, to have been drastically repainted. This picture replaced, it wiU be remembered, an earlier work with which the brothers of Santo Spirito were dissatisfied. An ardent apostle with fervent upturned face arrests one's attention, being one of the few remaining portions to praise, but the Virgin is a mere model who 1 The present writer not only considers this picture a work of the master's, but a very fine one. Its influence upon Vandyck would seem to have been very great. 141 TITIAN recurs in several of Titian's later canvases (the ' Fall of Man,' for instance), and in the output of his bottega. We may ascribe to the late fifties or early sixties the ' Fall of Man,' now in the Prado (Plate cxl.). This picture has suffered terribly; the sky is totally repainted, thus throwing the work out of key. It was probably an important effort, and the treatment of the hollyhock and the fruit-laden boughs still shows considerable care and finish. It now stands tarnished, and outshone by the superb free copy by Rubens, which hangs near, with the more virile Adam, and the flamboyant red parrot contemplating the folly of our first parents. I would urge that a study of the facial types and character of the invention should aid in establishing their sequence, though doubt- less many pictures remained on hand for a great while before their final completion. We have Palma Giovine's account of Titian's late method, how canvases were put away and re-considered by the painter, who watched them ' as if they were an enemy ' before revising them. Thus the 'Antiope' in the Louvre (Plate cxli.) was in all probability a much earlier work, rehandled at a late date, when the Adonis-like figure of the hunter, the sitting Nymph and the Cupid were completed. But what remains of this design, which harks back to the period when Titian painted for the house of Urbino, is disfigured by many drastic restorations and repaintings. I would hasten on, since, if we group together the remaining works which I have ventured to place before the year 1560, we can, starting with the ceiling in the Palazzo Reale^ and the 'Entombment' at Madrid, follow step by step the increasing disintegration of form and workmanship which characterise Titian's last phase. Gradually his colour follows a similar course, till we reach the chaotic workmanship and impassioned mood of the ' Transfiguration ' and the famous ' Crowning with Thorns ' at Munich. This development or change in the painter's technique is most noticeable in his subject-pieces; in his portraits the alteration in method is more slow to make itself felt. There is a reason for this, namely, the direct contact with nature presupposed in portraiture, and the more restricted conditions of design. Thus his method in portraiture remained more uniform from first to last, and there is Uttle difference between a portrait painted in 1540 and 1560 — it is after this date only that a change becomes manifest. The ' Cornaro Family,' in 1 The present writer holds that the date usually given to this work is that of its commission, not its completion. 142 THE 'CORNARO FAMILY' the possession of the Duke of Northumberland, is the first work which actually shows something of the more improvised scheme of design, and the looser drawing of the last twenty years of Titian's career, and it is probably for that reason that this work is sometimes ascribed to Tinto- retto. To the present writer there is something unaccountable in any confusion between Titian and Tintoretto. With Titian we shall recog- nise the workmanship of a man working by tone and never failing in his sense of surface or plane, or I should say never forgetting these two elements, even when they are recorded in a faltering or broken way, as is doubtless the case in his latest pictures. With Tintoretto we are never conscious of the study of plane and surface. From first to last a marked ecriture in the painting enlivens the merest rough indications of the major masses. Between Tintoretto's high lights and his darks there is hardly a connecting tone; he is like a man playing always in the highest and lowest octaves. Tintoretto's workmanship is practically without over-painting or scumbling, even in his masterpieces or his most careful portraits, such as the ' Lady in Black ' at Dresden, and the superb portrait at Madrid, No. 412. His plastic sense is slight and the sense of plane incomplete, when compared to Titian. I am here instancing the only two works by Tintoretto which approximate to Titian in effect, though we shall find in them the sharp ecriture which belongs to other fine portraits by Tintoretto in Vienna and Paris. Crowe and Cavalcaselle state that owing to a clerical error in the dating of a letter, the ' Magdalene,' of which two versions exist, one at St. Petersburg, the other at Naples, has been given to the year 1565 (see page 312, vol. ii.), instead of the year 1561. Contemporary gossip declared that the version dispatched to the Catholic King was a replica. In the opinion of the present writer the version at St. Peters- burg is undoubtedly, judging by the photograph (Plate cxlv.), an original of great quality ; that at Naples, if less finely modelled and very inferior in force, is an original also. I have stated that I feel the ' Venus and Mirror' at St. Petersburg (Plate cxliii.) to be contemporary with this work, at least in part, and together with the ' Man with the Palm,' and the ' St. Dominic,' in the Borghese, all three pictures display a closer grip upon form than we shall find in larger and more complex designs. It has recently been suggested by Mr. Herbert Cook, that the 'Man with the Palm' (Plate cxliv.) represents Palma Giovine, and that the box, hitherto described as a medicine-chest, is in fact a paint- box. There is considerable attraction in the idea of a punning motive 143 TITIAN behind this portrait, where it is usual to imagine some doctor holding the attributes of St. Cosimo or St. Damian. The picture is superb ; it would seem a sort of challenge to the agitated manner expressed in the romantic portraits of Tintoretto. The vivid face is detached from a dark grey background, a touch or two of ardent blue breaks through the dusky sky beyond the pilaster, and this is repeated in a patch of intense sapphire upon the sleeve. The black draperies are magnificent in quality, the contour has been secured by several pentimenti. The face has been rehandled, perhaps not with entire good luck (by the master, I believe) ; and though these drastic retouches fall into focus at a distance, they at first sight perplex the eye, just as sometimes one is disturbed by unmodulated retouches upon a dry ground in some of Watts's pictures. The work is noble in eflPect, superb in emotional force ; there is a suggestion of the presence of thunder in the air ; perhaps this is imaginary, yet to me, at least, colour can suggest the presence of electricity, or a breeze or perfume even, and here the colour impresses me with a sense of something threatening or tragic, whilst the colour in the ' Actaeon ' fascinates and enchants me like a sound. I agree with Dr. Gronau in his estimate of * The Transfiguration,' over the high altar of S. Salvatore (Plate clii.), in so far as the conception is concerned, yet I would grant certain incoherences in form which restoration has emphasised ; in gesture, and in the massing of the figures I am impressed by a certain grandeur of mood and a daring staging of the subject, which seems conceived in a spirit of awe and agitation. The colour scheme was once a harmony of broken gold and various tawny hues infinitely modulated. If we imagine, after a blind- ing flash of light, the gliding progress into shape of these ominous figures, gradually focussed by an eye still uncertain of itself, we realise something of the fascination of the picture, which I admit is tarnished by time and drastic repainting. I am unable to defend the 'Annunciation' (Plate cliii.) in the same church, which Titian signed Titianus Fecit Fecit, as if in protest at some rumour of discontent which its appearance had caused, due to the gathering legend that Titian was now too old, and that he left his work greatly to assistants. There are rich passages of ardent yellow and electric blue in the upper portion of the picture, but the rest seems ' snuffy ' and laboured in execution, and not particularly significant in invention. The ' Annunciation ' never furnished Titian with a subject that was truly congenial ; if we turn to the early ' Annunciation ' at Treviso, or to that in the Scuola di S. Rocco, or to this last, in each 144 THE 'LASTT SUPPER' the master is below himself. If this subject proved inexhaustible to the primitives, where the Virgin and Angel were the seal and vessel of an event beyond human understanding, in the sixteenth century the growing importance of Mary, not as the servant or the mother of God, but as the Queen of Heaven, weighs upon all rendering of the scene, in which she becomes the prima donna, conscious of the necessity for deportment in the boring grand opera manner, which the Jesuits developed later in a fashion too popular and flattering in its time to impress us now. In the year 1564 Titian dispatched the 'Last Supper' now in the Escorial (Plate cxlix.) ; this canvas taxed the master's resources to the utmost. Now it is damaged beyond recall, and we watch with interest only the ardent old apostle in a striped scarf to the right of the spectator, who alone strikes one as a man among the mere studio figures grouped round a lifeless Christ. A free imitation of the work by Schiavone hangs at Bridgewater House ; a small version of this last, ascribed to Titian, appeared in the Academy some years ago, showing the large architectural top once belonging to this painting upon which Titian worked for seven years, and which passed in his time as one of his masterpieces. The Ceilings executed for the Palazzo Pubblico at Brescia perished in a conflagration in the penultimate year of the painter's career ; in their time they were the cause of some dispute over his actual share in their execution. The legend had gained ground that the master's touch was not always prominent enough in many works which left his studio, and, as a matter of fact, not only may we imagine that Titian's son Orazio had a share, but there were other assistants known by name — Francesco di Tiziano is often mentioned, and Cesare Vecellio. The workmanship of Palma Giovine now becomes prominent at times, I think notably in the greatly damaged picture in the Ducal Palace of ' Doge Grimani Worshipping the Cross ' held by a figure of Faith. In this work (Plate cliv.) the execution of the grandly designed figure of St. Mark can, I think, be ascribed to Palma Giovine. I grant a cer- tain fineness, a possible authenticity in the kneeling Doge, but under many coats of restoration it is difficult to do justice to the central figure of Faith, who would seem to have been painted at the same time as the ' Transfiguration ' at San Salvatore. I incline, however, to the belief that, in design at least, the work belongs largely to the decade in which it was commissioned.^ Of the execution it is almost impossible ' The canvas was commissioned in 1665. T.— 10 145 TITIAJS to form an opinion, all pleasurable effect is lost by the terrible later additions which flank it on either side. Crowe and Cavalcaselle were the first to doubt the authenticity of • The Woman taken in Adultery ' (Imperial Gallery, Vienna) (Plate CLi.), and to ascribe this admirable work to Varottari. To the present writer this painting seems an original of great quality as far as colour and tone are concerned, if faulty in drawing. The colour is superb in its reticence, and the brushwork unmistakably Titian's own. One work of extraordinary beauty belongs to the first years of the sixties, and reveals, inside self-imposed limitations of tonality and colour, all the noblest qualities of which the master was capable; I mean the ' St. Dominic ' in the Borghese Gallery (Plate cl.). This is one of Titian's noblest canvases, I had almost said portraits. The rich olive greys, tawny whites and blacks are rendered with a broken touch, which at once combines delicacy and force in a different degree from the expression of these two qualities even in the admirable and almost hueless portrait of the artist by himself in the Prado. Before the expression and vital qualities of this painting one becomes forgetful of any limitation due to choice or habit. Since the 'St. Margaret ' and the ' Philip ii. ' Titian has given nothing quite so flaw- less, for the qualities of the very last pictures now left to discuss are beautiful or admirable within limitations that are not always self-chosen, limitations in which the balance of qualities shows some deficit on the side of design, drawing, or perhaps I should say plastic coherence. One hears of the impetuosity of youth : in matters of art impetu- osity and experiment often come late, when the creative instinct strains the resources of a convention which has till then proved sufficient for general purposes. I shall doubtless again offend the admirers of Shakespeare, and above all Beethoven, when I repeat that their later works sometimes lose a large measure of the sense of pro- portion and rhythm once at their control. We appreciate CymbeUne, the Quartet in A minor. Op. 132, by an effort of our imagination still enriched by the steadier qualities expressed in other masterpieces. They add to a stupendous past record, but singly they would not place their authors in the rank which they actually occupy, though it is possible to value these works very greatly upon their own merits. I would compare Titian's decline to that of a fire when the glowing ashes fall in, and the light shoots up, smoulders, or flares again in a different degree of intensity. As the eye watches the glimmer and change, and the birth of new sparks and larger ashes, the mind traces 146 YASARI VISITS TITIAN new beauties in the cinders, and forgets the partial disappearance of the flame and light. The last ten years or so of Titian's career have a similar fascination. The painter, who had controlled all aspects of form, all secrets of colour, all the magic of space, now restricts his range, and in the increasing twilight of his faculties, retains only a portion of his magic. I He grows intenser in mood as his outlook upon the world grows narrower in range. In old age, experience becomes confined within an ever narrowing circle of lessening variety and power of appeal ; if Death grows from within, slowly or rapidly as the case may be. Time puts out one by one the lights in the house of Ufe itself. Or if we return to the ready image of the fire, the narrowing focus of the flame dwindles in the ashes of the past, burns down, illumining a secret world before it finally goes out ; and in Titian's last efforts there are strange returns to old moods, old subjects lit fitfully before the final extinction, which came suddenly at the end of a life of legendary length. The 'Education of Cupid' in the Borghese Gallery (Plate clix.), harks back, in part, to the mood of the ' Davalos Allegory.' In the opinion of the present writer, this work is still unfinished, and in its major surfaces the bold underpaint lacks its final kneadings and glazes. The Allegory of ' Religion succoured by Spain ' (Plate clvii.) was doubtless the early allegory begun for Alfonso, Duke of Ferrara. This is interesting only to the student for the evidence of febrile and unre- lated retouches by the master upon a design which was his only in part. To the later sixties I would also ascribe the retouches upon the ' Salome ' (Prado), which is otherwise a poor studio variant of the ' Lavinia with the Charger,' painted in the fifties. In the year 1566 Giorgio Vasari again visited Venice, and saw several works in the studio of the master ; he saw the (new) ' Martyrdom of St. Lawrence ' for his Catholic Majesty, a ' Christ on the Cross ' between thieves. Titian had commenced the three ceilings for Brescia, there was a picture which was begun for the Doge Grimani, the ' Allegory of Religion,' ' Christ appearing to the Magdalene,' an ' En- tombment,' a ' Madonna,' a ' Portrait of the Artist,' and a figure of ' San Paolo,' ' which is so fine that it may well be the same which was filled with the Holy Spirit.' Other paintings he omitted to describe to ' avoid prolixity,' and probably such works were in Vasari's mind when the ominous phrase occurs later, ' it would have been well if Titian had worked for his amusement alone during these latter years, that he 147 TITIAN might not have diminished the reputation gained in his best days by works of inferior merit, performed at a period of life when nature tends inevitably to decline.' Even in the earlier pictures, such as the ' Actaeon ' and the ' Europa,' Vasari had noticed a change in the painter's mode of proceeding, different from that of his youth, — ' the first being executed with a certain care and delicacy, which renders the work equally effective, whether seen at a distance or examined closely, ' while those of a later period, executed in bold strokes and with dashes, can scarcely be distinguished when the observer is near them, but if viewed from the proper distance they appear perfect. . . . And this method of proceeding is a judicious, beautiful, and admirable one, since it causes the paintings so treated to appear living, they being executed with profound art, while that art is nevertheless concealed.' Such may, doubtless, have been the opinion of Titian himself concerning several later works which Vasari praises in his last visit, but with some arriere pensie which breaks out in the phrase I have transcribed concerning the ' period of life when nature tends inevitably to decline.' We do not endorse Vasari 's opinion in its entirety, since two or three marvels of painting remain for us to consider. But let us avoid the contrary assumption, that these works express the very climax of his tendencies and gifts. Had Titian painted those pictures only which fall between 1560 and the year of his death he would have been a formidable rival to Tintoretto, but not the great Titian, the Father of painting. There is no parallel between Titian's late work and that of Rembrandt ; with this last, certain tendencies had to be outlived before Rembrandt has the right to the kingly place he actually occupies : with Titian the very outlook upon the outer world had dwindled to a self-centred point of limited range, and he shows a feverish power inside that restricted compass only. I would venture to consider the ' Entombment ' now in the Prado (Plate CLVi.) as a third rendering of the subject, later than that mentioned as the second by Titian in his letter to PhiUp ii. of date 1559. Possibly it is the identical work shorn of its background, yet I incline to consider it too late in workmanship, too empirical in handling. It may have been the version mentioned by Vasari in 1566. It remains, however, a superb work, in a sense more moving or dramatic than the magnificent early ' Entombment ' in the Louvre. The Man of Sorrows is lifted into the tomb on which is carved in bas-relief the sacrifice of Isaac, and, if I can trust my memory, the death of 148 THE 'ENTOMBMENT'— THE 'STRADA' Abel. This canvas, with its crumbling surfaces, would seem to perplex the camera, the touch is almost shapeless, the colour scheme on the whole very light and rich, a comparison with some of Watts's latest work is not far-fetched ; in tone, colour, and texture the resemblance is so great that it might hang between canvases by the Englishman without exciting suspicion. The sense of form is more loose, though more realistic, but not more explicit than with Watts. The somewhat forced tonality of the Virgin's robe heightens the impression, the ochreous whites in the landscape again recall the great Englishman. In the case of both painters an impulse to create with a pigment that is broken in surface is contrasted with the forcible introduction of bright colour to give emphasis. The pitch of the ' Entombment ' is not habitual with Titian ; it is lighter than any other work known to me executed before the last decade of the nineteenth century, and might be placed between Watts's ' Riders ' of the Revelation without manifest evidence that it belonged to the sixteenth century — that is, as far as colour and pigment are concerned. About the year 1566 Titian painted the 'Portrait of Strada' the antiquary (Plate CLViii.). This hangs at Vienna, and is a work of extraordinary interest. Let me hasten to add that no reproduction gives an adequate idea of it, that in black and white it even looks as if the master had failed in some habitual magisterial quality in design, and were here a rival to Lotto in his narrative portraits, a certain ornateness of detail reminding one even of Paris Bordone. Before the picture, however, we have no such impressions. The face glimmers and looms out of the strange mottled pigment of the background, the worthless pseudo-antique Venus held in the hands of the antiquary melts into the design, which seems to have been focussed by tone and harmonised by the texture of the pigment, for the whole work, excepting the dim flesh and broken pink sleeves and the green cloth, is a harmony in greenish greys and black, which seem to melt and pulse before the eye with a suggestion in their texture of old tarnished silver brocade. The gold of the chain, the gUmmer of a book or piece of paper are mere incidents, heightening what seems a harmony in monotone. The almost hueless portrait of the painter now in the Prado also defies the powers of photography (Plate clxi.); no reproduction does justice to this work. The dim background and dimmer cloak form a subtle setting to the almost colourless tones of the flesh ; the pigment is very thin, and very broken, an impression of a deep bed of pigment, such as we find in a late picture by Watts, has been 149 TITIAN obtained by a few scratches of pigment, so imperceptibly varied that we cannot detect the moment in which the tones of the flesh merge into the coloured white of the beard. The pigment affects one as we might be affected by the repetition of a musical phrase lapsing into a minor key before it melts into silence. Closely related to this last canvas is the ' Madonna and Child ' in the Mond collection (Plate clxii.), with its pearl-like radiance and tender broken tangle of dim colour, imperceptibly modulated and varied. Was this the Madonna seen by Vasari in 1566, and are we to imagine a period of comparative inactivity during the last seven years of the painter's career ? The works left to us often repeat earlier designs, in part at least, or, shall we say, hark back to the earlier motives such as the • Christ bearing the Cross,' in the Prado : the 'Crown of Thorns' at Munich, the 'Nymph and Shepherd' at Vienna. The ' Salvator Mundi ' and the ' Saint Sebastian ' at St. Petersburg doubtless belong to these last years. Tradition on one side speaks of the painter's heartiness ; on the other hand we have rumours of his increasing senility, and the pictures surviving from the seventies are few. The ' Christ bearing the Cross ' at the Prado reveals Titian's workmanship in sparks of colour and jewel-hke patches of paint upon an under painting, possibly not entirely by the master. I would doubt Titian's personal collaboration in the large picture of ' Philip offering thanksgiving for the Battle of Lepanto ' (Plate clxv,). The design for this work by Coello which fulfilled the wishes of Philip II. had been forwarded to the painter at the king's express wish or possibly brought to Venice by Coello himself ; the canvas itself is hopelessly tarnished and restored. The tragic angel descending with a palm and wreath is well conceived, — Rubens remembered it in his ' FaU of the Damned,' — and it recalls to our mind something of the wolf and eagle-like angels painted by Delacroix under some curious reflex spell caught from Rubens, re-acting upon a character very different from that of the great Venetian; and yet the dark meaningless paint of the actual picture gives little pleasure, and the impassioned or dramatic aspect of this work melts away in the memory of the lover of pictures when he recalls the glittering and absorbing little ' Battle of Lepanto ' by Veronese, or the stately picture of parade by the same artist in the Ducal Palace, which, if cleaned and saved from restora- tions, might prove perhaps the most beautiful Veronese in the world. The great Titian and the romantic Tintoretto are here outclassed for 150 THE 'SHEPHERD AND NYMPH' once, in a field where Veronese might well have proved the hopeless inferior. One of the pleasurable surprises in the Vienna Gallery (so full of pleasant surprises) is the ' Shepherd and Nymph ' (Plate clxvi.). This counts among the very last productions of the master, whilst it reverts in design and temper to his earliest mood. I would not exaggerate the significance of this pleasurable impression, since in countless ways the picture fails in coherence of form and in design. Some sixty years have passed since the master painted ' The Three Ages of Man,' since Giulio Campagnola designed a sleeping nymph in a somewhat similar pose, with, possibly, some sort of design of Giorgione to help him. The return to earlier ideals should not be overstated, for in the treatment of form and space we are well in the sixteenth century. The Shepherd is clothed in the picturesque breeches and the skin cloak of some ruffian out of the 'Crowning with Thorns' or the 'Martyr- dom of St. Lawrence,' and the early silvan landscape has been replaced by an agitated background undefined in its locality and indefinite in colour. The whole work is, in truth, a series of hueless blotches, grouts of paint, and veritably painting ' di macchia.'' The goat leaping up to a bough and the distant hills suggest the return to an earlier mood in invention ; not so their aspect, which recalls to Dr. Gronau (for some reason I cannot fathom) the workmanship and temper of Monet, who works with different brushes and plays with aniline paints. The background is almost hueless; we are face to face with a work largely executed in black, white, red, and yellow, and, as far as the two last are concerned, in earth colours. That Titian considered the right management of these pigments essential to the good conduct of a picture, I am ready to admit, as far at least as the substructure of a painting is concerned, but do not let us forget that to this process was always added the revision by coloured glazes. Time has darkened the ' Shepherd and Nymph,' time has also bleached the local colours out of the landscape and flesh ; neglect and patching have further dis- integrated the work, which does not suggest in its greyness the colour of tarnished silver, but the hues of cinders and ashes. I would even venture to believe that it is still unfinished, in fact, the sole remaining effort in the first or approximately monochrome state, but in this I may well be mistaken, since the 'Nymph and Shepherd ' is in a bad state of preservation. It has perhaps merely decayed down to the underpaint, ust as the bulk of Tintoretto's decorations in the Scuola di San Rocco 151 TITIAN have dwindled to little more than the substructure of the painting from which the glazes have mostly vanished together with the oily medium, leaving to the eye the monochrome basis in the condition of time-worn dust of that which once was pigment. All writers on Titian concur in praises of the ' Christ Crowned with Thorns' at Munich (Plate CLXVii.), which belonged to Tintoretto, who had begged it from Titian as a gift. The rhetorical merits of the earlier picture in the Louvre have here been replaced by a more dramatic vision, and a look of hurried impro- visation has replaced the effective stage management of the earlier work. Traditionally the picture is supposed to be still unfinished. The scene is lit by the flare of lamps, and the sky, architecture, and steps are lost in a fitful changing gloom in which bends the Man of Sorrows, no longer the Laocoon-like figure of the Louvre version. If painting concerns itself merely with effect, this is a masterpiece. If the emotional appeal behind it is adequate, it is again a masterpiece ; if we expect from painting the expression of form and surface, and the beauties of local colour, there is nothing here to praise. If we ask ques- tions, what is the purpose of the young dandy in green, who crouches in the foreground ? what are the executioners about with the poles with which they purpose to bind the crown ? how does the child to the right hold the rods ? what is the intention of this, the significance of that? We again find it difficult to defend a work which pre- supposes, on Titian's part, a great knowledge in the spectator of the legend and of its treatment by himself in the past ; it presupposes also a sympathy on the part of the spectator for certain kinds of ominous effects, such as we find with an added flourish in Tintoretto, and with an added and exaggerated isolation from the world of fact in the extravagant art of El Greco. Viewed as effect merely, the picture holds even the spectator who is indifferent to art ; this is the result of a sense of agitation which it expresses for all to detect, for all to feel. Viewed in its place, and in the development of the painter's career, it gains greater significance. The picture reveals a visionary quality, something which suggests a rival of Rembrandt, and in this case the rival of Rembrandt had been in the past the most self-possessed of all masters, a man of almost boundless fertility and range. The picture seems painted upon the night ; it strikes us as a conquest upon Time wrought out of passion. It is tragic in its signifi- cance, and tragic in its aspect. Titian might have turned firom this 152 'CHRIST CROWNED WITH THORNS' last struggle with his medium, not exactly blinded by the strain put upon him, but as one stunned by the stress of his inner vision ; yet this sentimental supposition is a mere flourish of the pen, for Titian's next canvas, the last left us to discuss, shows the painter still uncon- quered ; we even know that ' The Crowning with Thorns ' hung up in his studio still unfinished till Tintoretto begged it of the master. Was it, then, hastily completed ? Did Tintoretto himself add some latter glazes to the work ? Both suppositions are tenable, for the picture is no longer unfinished, and it has been freely glazed with cold transparent colour, which is a constant practice with Tintoretto. 153 CHAPTER XXYII THE PIETl— DEATH OF TITIAN THE reader must turn to the pages of Crowe and Cavalcaselle for an account of the negotiations of Titian with the brethren for a burial-place almost within sight of the Casa Pesaro altar-piece, the 'Pietk' now in the Accademia (Plate clxviii.) being the bribe ; his final choice of Cadore for a resting-place, his death and ultimate burial in the Frari. On this last work, now in the Accademia, we read the well-known inscription : — ' Quod Titianus inchoatum reliquit, Palma reverenter absolvit Deoq. dicavit opus.' Time, decay, and minute mendings, render an estimate of the degree of Palma Giovine's collaboration a difficult matter to ascertain. I incline to believe it very slight indeed, as far as any essential is concerned, and to be manifest mainly in the statue of the Sibyl holding a cross, the mannered angel holding a torch. Speaking generally, his work is confined to the upper part of the picture. The very shortcomings of the essential group, the ragged hands and vague limbs are characteristic failings in Titian's latest pictures. There are errors of proportion ia the smallness of the Christ, the gigantic Magdalene, and errors of arti- culation and proportion in the St. Joseph of Arimathea and in the children. There is an aspect of improvisation in the design, a feverish elaboration of the pigment, or rather a feverish pidtinement sur place which argues the extreme care of a man painting too closely, or seeing indistinctly owing to too great a fixity of attention upon each part. The central group is backed by a curious niche with a golden mosaic of the Pelican in her piety. Lamps are lit above. On either side stand statues of Moses and the Hellespontic Sibyl, inscribed with Greek inscriptions. On the pedestal of the last, over the arms of the Vecelli stands a small ex voto picture, now dim with decay, in which Titian 154 THE 'PIETA' and his son, or perhaps Palma Giovine, worship an apparition of the Virgin. Time and neglect have further fretted the broken surfaces of the paint, in which occur an infinite number of small modern patches replacing the pigment which has at some time flaked off. The pigment along the edge of the canvas is modern, in the past it had doubtless rotted from its stretcher and so sagged upon itself, thereby producing the infinite cracks and breakages of the surface ; yet despite all this, and the fact that it looks like a picture seen through a black veil, it impresses me greatly. The Virgin is nobly designed and fascinating in workmanship, but the figure of Christ is laboured, and affects one merely as fine in intention. The worshipping St., Joseph of Arimathea is grand in pose, but remains little more than a symbol of a figure in tortured pigment. Turning towards the spectator the Magdalene rushes forward, a colossal figure, ominous as a Sibyl, strangely haunting in aspect and in the strain of the pose. The drawing is mannered, yet there is a curious realism of detail, and this last trait is the most notable in the design. There is a sort of casual or accidental choice in its composing elements. The figures remain abstractions or types, whilst to the symbolism of the background is given a chance aspect, as if these things had not been invented by the painter, but seen and recorded. Indeed the niche might be some real portico to which the statues were added as an afterthought. The tonality of the whole is a greenish grey, focussed by the green robe of the Magdalene, and relieved by the intense blue of the Virgin's veil. Despite its faults and blemishes we are profoundly moved by the ' Pietk ' : the image I have used before of Titian painting upon the Night again recurs to my mind. One feels in the work the fascina- tion of a thing about to disappear, and is reminded in this canvas of the painter in Balzac's story Le Chef-d'ceuvre Inconnu effacing his picture by over labour, and seeing in it what had become invisible to others. The impression is momentary, since the ' Pietk ' is yet manifest, yet about its dark green greys and its tonality as of ashes is some strange hint of the grave — to us at least, for Titian did not die a(3tually of extreme old age. If there had been a gradual and imper- ceptible sinking of his faculties, if in his work death was already a gentle guest closing one by one the ways of outlook upon the splendours of life and the pride of the senses, to which Titian had given the noblest interpretation in the past, we might fancy it here ; 155 TITIAN in reality, the end came suddenly upon the man, the Plague put an end to his career, and made him lay down his brushes. Titian died on the 27th of August 1576. The epidemic had visited Venice with even greater severity than on the occasion when, sixty-six years before, it had carried off Giorgione and brought desolation to the water-ways of the city. The victims are said to have numbered fifty thousand. The visitation had begun in 1575, recurring yearly with increasing force, till a panic ensued in the year in which Titian died, his demise being followed by that of his son Orazio. Extreme measures had been proclaimed by the State, the sick who were merely suspected of the disease were transported to hospitals in the islands of the lagoons, and the effects of the dead burned to prevent contagion. Titian's death was communicated to the authorities, who suspended the action of the new legislation in his case, and allowed the remains of the master a public burial. The Venetian painters even contemplated a sort of triumphal funeral, somewhat in the manner of that which the artists of Florence had given to Michelangelo, but the project remained unreaUsed, and Titian was interred in the Chapel of the Crucified Saviour at the Frari, for which he had painted his last picture. Orazio Vecelli died shortly after in the Lazaretto Vecchio, and for a while no one was left to take care of the painter's property. Thieves broke into the house before the officers of the public security and the worthless heir Pomponio could interfere or take possession, and many relics were thus destroyed or stolen. In a few years the inheritance of pictures and properties had vanished like sand between Pomponio's spendthrift fingers. He died in poverty ; the last mention of him is in 1594. It is within the range of possibility that he was still alive when Rubens visited Venice in 1600, Rubens, the one painter we can compare in his range and force to Titian, the greatest of all painters. 156 CHAPTEE XXYIII TITIAN'S DRAWINGS AND TECHNIQUE GIOVANNI Morelli may be said to have been the first to separate the drawings of Titian from a large mass of imita- tions which passed, and sometimes still pass, as the work of the master. The fact remains that if a few drawings only have come down to us, scarcely exceeding fifteen in all, sketches in Titian's manner abound, which show his influence. These were executed mainly by Domenico Campagnola ; later we have to reckon with imitations by Verdizotti. There remaia the pasticdos of his pen-work which were executed by eclectic masters in the seventeenth century. In the fifteenth century the restricted compositions of the Venetian masters had rendered the building together of a picture by cartoon to some extent unnecessary ; yet, even in this conclusion we may have been served a bad turn by the effects of neglect, and the caprices of collecting, since what has come down to us in the way of early Venetian drawing is far from justifying the generally accepted conten- tion that, unlike the Florentines, the Venetians hardly drew at aU. The true ancestor of the Venetian school, Jacopo Bellini, is known to us mainly as a draughtsman. His two precious sketch-books would form an invaluable asset in the life work of any early ItaUan master, such as Masolino or Paolo Uccello, and I think we are right in sur- mising the loss, not the non-existence, of drawings by Giovanni Bellini, who remains related in much of his practice to Mantegna. The four or five drawings by Gentile BeUini which are known to me express the draughtsman's faculty in its very essence. They would have charmed Ingres. Carpaccio's drawings are more numerous than the rehcs of many a great Tuscan draughtsman, and I think we should be as much at fault in assuming that drawing was only occasionally practised by the Venetians, as we should be were we to imagine that Masaccio and Piero deUa Francesca were not draughtsmen owing to the loss of their studies and sketches. 157 TITIAN With the advent of Giorgione in Venetian art we are brought face to face with the presence of a temperament to whom drawing might have been foreign, and this impression is so far justified by the two or three pen sketches which are sometimes ascribed to him. I would hesitate, however, before committing myself to this assumption, since his frescoes doubtless required some sort of cartoon. We imagine Giorgione's influence upon the few designs and plates of GiuUo Campagnola. We are probably right in tracing a survival of his manner in the early sketches of Titian and the early drawings of Domenico Campagnola. The works of this last reveal, as a rule, the increasing influence of Titian, they even ultimately develop into what would seem to have been a separate trade article, i.e. drawings done to be sold as such. This is not the case with Titian, whose few surviving sketches were made in preparation for some special purpose. It would be a hasty conclusion to imagine that if Titian often painted directly from the model this practice excluded the making of separate studies of individual parts. We may even imagine that the many portraits he executed without constant reference to the sitter were based on a preliminary sketch, done sometimes in oils or some- times in chalk. The fact that huge prints were prepared in his lifetime from his designs, such as the early ' Triumph of Faith,' and the ' Pharaoh Lost in the Red Sea,' argues a facility with the point. A vivid and vivacious pen-drawing is preserved in the Ecole des Beaux-Arts (Plate clxix.), which we are justified in imagining the preparatory sketch for the ' Murder of a Woman ' in the fresco of the Scuola del Santo at Padua. It, however, does not correspond to the design as it now exists, but reveals a slighter and more casual render- ing of the incident. Vivacious in handling, sHght in structure, but full of racy characteristics in workmanship, it shows a coloured use of line which is fuU of spring and curve. In the strokes of the pen we note a frequent use of converging strokes forming V forms here and there, this is most noticeable in the rapid lines of the shading. Perhaps this clumsy description of a trick in ecriture is best explained by the statement that a look of unpremeditation characterises these strokes, which fall together sharply, making slight blots and blurs where they converge, and this we shall not find in the more cautious drawings of Domenico Campagnolo, who scratches and stipples his surfaces with the instinct of an engraver, catching Titian's manner, but not his sense of colour and exaggerated shorthand by which his work gains sparkle and movement. 158 TITIAJN IS DRAWINGS Our next documented drawing is preserved in the Louvre. This (Plate CLXXiii.) is a rapid preparatory sketch for the 'Assunta,' also more in the nature of a premiere pens^e than a study. The pen strokes have become more flowing or cursive, the touch bounds over the paper, becoming fuller, and as the lines converge, produces (may I use the expression ?) the V forms in the folds of the draperies and in the more cursive indications. In aU these drawings the hatching is fresh and elastic, and a little empirical. Somewhere between the execution of the two sheets in Paris which I have mentioned, we are able to place the beautiful design of the ' Judgment of Paris,' in the Louvre, not usually allowed (which Morelli has given to Campagnola), also a drawing of a ' St, Hubert,' preserved in the British Museum. I would point out that the racy design of the ' Judgment of Paris ' (Plate CLxx.) is on a different level of invention from that achieved by Campagnola, that the lateral bend forward of the goddesses corre- sponds to a frequent habit in the early designs of Titian, that the blots and variations in the direction of the lining, notably in the tree-trunks, point to him (I have not found them in the more staid workmanship of Campagnola). I believe that this design is contemporary, or possibly slightly anterior to the sketch for the Paduan fresco already described. The 'St. Hubert' (Plate clxxii.), which is generally accepted, will help to bridge the space between these two last and the sketch for the 'Assunta.' Each and aU of these works establish the fact that if slight, Titian's drawings are essentially racy and masterly in execution. The hands are small, the feet are also small and a little flat in the instep, both characteristics being an unconscious survival from the time when Titian studied the manner of Giorgione. These peculiarities remained in the shorthand or cursive convention of the artist when he was not in direct contact with nature, for these drawings are sketches, not studies. Were all Titian's drawings ever thus, mere preliminary sketches for paintings executed with dash and accent, and must we give up the hope of more explicit transcripts from nature such as we find in the two superb heads on blue-grey paper, by Savoldo, now in the Louvre, and once ascribed to Titian ? From time to time we come across Venetian drawings on grey-blue paper carefully executed in chalk and heightened with white, these studies being variously ascribed to Savoldo and to Lotto. I incline to the belief that this fashion 159 TITIAN in drawing was also practised by Titian, and that one of these has survived in the superb study in chalks in the Uffizi (Plate clxxi.). This lovely work has been cut down, we have therefore lost those interesting half-conscious touches outside the more finished parts of the design, in which it is often easier to detect the individual habits of the draughtsman than in the more consciously finished portions, for in the study of drawings nothing yields a more fruitful crop of small indications than the character or mannerisms of the ' under- sketch,' the individual shorthand comes out most in these faux traits. The angle of the shading and character of the cross touches are also of great use, and these two characteristics should be looked for when the more obvious peculiarities of form fail to give sufficient evidence. In this drawing at the Uffizi I feel myself reduced to a general impression difficult to analyse. I recognise a resemblance in tj^e to tiie Crespi portrait (cf. Plate vi.) and to the matronly women inthePaduan frescoes. I think I detect something of Titian in the regular fold of the upper lid, in the general amplitude of the flesh surfaces, and in the slightly notched workmanship of two lower folds in the sleeve ; in fact I do not know any other Venetian who could have done it. I even feel that the perpendicular touches in the background forcing the flesh into light also point to Titian. If I have succeeded in convincing any other than myself that this superb work is an early masterpiece by Titian, belonging (here the costume will assist) to the flrst decade of the sixteenth century, I feel that a beautiful chalk study in the lonides collection should also fall to his share. This is a racy and realistic sketch of great quality, there ascribed to the master, in which the rich sense of volume and texture and the sense of colour reveal the temper of Titian. It is early in date, not later than 1515. The sanguine study (preserved in the Uffizi) for the ' Baffb ' in the Casa Pesaro picture is, in my opinion, an original, but the supposed sketch for the composition preserved at the Albertina is a free transcript by a later hand. In it we shall find the position of each compositional element precisely as it is in the picture, including even the shadow on the pedestal. The general aspect of the workmanship points to the seventeenth century at the earliest. The Uffizi claims the possession of the greatest number of drawings by Titian. The not particularly admirable or interesting design for four saints in pen is genuine (Plate CLXXiv.). I also accept the rapid 160 TITIAN'S DRAWINGS AND TECHNIQUE sketch for a Peter Martyr (Plate CLxxv.). This, like the Lille studies, probably bears on the great picture of 1530, now lost. The sketches at Lille (Plate clxxvi.) speak for themselves, they form our standard for the remaining drawings that are later in date. A large and racy study of a Helmet in the Uffizi passes as a sketch for the helmet in the Delia Rovere portrait. Both drawing and picture are in the same gallery, but they do not correspond. This drawing is not by Titian, it is later than the portrait by many years. I am advised that it may be ascribed to Tintoretto, but I do not feel justified in giving an opinion. I do not recognise sufficient essential quality or boldness in the sketch of ' St. Jerome ' in the British Museum, ascribed to Titian by Morelli. It is possible that as years increased the habit of making preliminary studies or drawings dwindled in Titian's practice. This is possible, but not certain. The space at my disposal and a certain cowardice make me hesitate to ascribe to him more than a few typical works which will furnish a standard for his performance as a draughtsman. Morelli has allowed the large landscape in the Chatsworth Col- lection. This is a powerful drawing, full of revisions, and display- ing a great variety of Uning, including bold perpendicular strokes. I think it sufficiently ' sharp ' in touch, sufficiently ' improvised ' in handling to belong to the master. Domenico Campagnola had with time become an absolute imitator of Titian's drawings. I even incline to the behef that he at times copied them for sale or for engraving. He therefore adopts certain variations in the master's later workmanship, but a latent dryness of tone always characterises his efforts, however close they may be to Titian's manner. The picturesque landscapes of Verdizotti, mentioned by Vasari, revert in part to the workmanship of Campagnola, to whom they are often ascribed. In his method the tree-forms are more differentiated, without, however, being more individualised, and his hatching is drier and more lozenged than in the works he imitates. Drawings by Verdizotti are preserved in the Uffizi. I am aware that Orazio, who is known to have prepared the cartoons for the S. Marco mosaics, must have left studies in the Titian manner. The students who prepared the cartoons for the Church of Cadore may have been draughtsmen, but their work, if it still exists, is merged in the mass of derelict Venetian drawings. I would instance a large and beautiful late drawing by the master formerly in the possession of T.-ll 161 TITIAN Alphonse Legros, now in America. This has been described and illus- trated by Mr. Phillips. I think the racy varied pen- work on the large tree-trunk, the sharp-pointed workmanship in the figures, show all the characteristics of Titian's handling, and serve to mark the difference between his work and that of his later imitators. A superb and quite late drawing is preserved at Chatsworth. This represents St. Jerome outside his cave. This sketch was probably executed within the last twenty years of the painter's career; it recalls in its accent and somewhat mannered style the characteristics of Titian's later works, and may date about the year 1558. TECHNIQUE We now have to consider the all-absorbing question of the processes used by Titian to obtain the tranquil glow and tender lustre of his best preserved pictures. The (oil or varnish) method brought to Venice by AntoneUo da Messina might be described as a semi-transparent method of painting over a luminous ground. The work was begun with a thin brown under- paint indicating the outline and shadows, thus leaving the general colour of the panel-preparation to give luminosity to the flesh and the portions of the work that required a greater body of pigment. The new secret consisted not in the mere practice of oil painting, but in the retention of semi-transparency in the pigment, and, above all, in the use of over- glazes to strengthen local colour and to supply a transparent overtone. We might therefore describe this method as painting by superimposed layers of semi-opaque and transparent pigment. The earlier method of pure tempera consisted in starting in flat colour relieved by cross- hatching to produce tone and quaUty. We know that the new process spread as a fashion or secret in Venice, but it was destined to obtain generally by a compromise between the two methods, in which the new process was superimposed upon the earlier one. In the late pictures of Mantegna we flnd the survival of the tempera process without the use of glazes, but with Bellini the use of a transparent medium or semi- opaque layers of pigment became employed, thereby obtaining new effects of transparency and fusion. I do not consider th6 description of Antonello's method {ie. the Flemish secret of painting with glazes) invariable even in his case ; it will describe the • Salvator Mundi ' and the ' Portrait of a Man,' both in the National Gallery. I believe he in turn practised a compromise 162 TITIAN'S TECHNIQUE between the two traditions, notably in the superb ' St. Sebastian ' at Dresden, where we see him influenced by Gentile Bellini, The glaze-process tended to a development unsuspected by the Flemings ; this consisted in the use of a richer body of pigment (per- haps tempera) under the over-glazes. In the hands of Giorgione and Titian a much bolder underpaint was employed, and a more drastic use of superimposed glazes ; this utterly transformed the outer aspect of the process as it had been practised, with more or less solid substruc- tures of tempera or even oil paint, by Giovanni Bellini, by Cima, and, above all, by Carpaccio. In pure tempera painting a thin wash of terra verde was used for the first drawing and tone indication ; this was invariably the case with Mantegna, a traditional practice based on a thirteenth-century method which had been handed down possibly from classical times.-' The new glaze process not only developed the possibilities of luminous surfaces by superimposed layers of transparent colour ; the painter availed himself also of the draughtsman's substructure of trans- parent brown. This tendency has obtained generally with painters until the end of the nineteenth century, when the tradition became finally lost. The unfinished ' Pietk ' in the Uffizi, formerly ascribed to Bellini, and now given to Basaiti, illustrates a survival of the earlier terra verde underpaint. I think we may assume that both processes continued at times in a compromise between the two. With the sixteenth century the Venetian painters tended more and more towards richness of texture and surface, the Antonello-method obtaining only in works executed on panel, where the pigment remains more transparent and more easy to control. The principal variation made by Giorgione and Titian upon the technique of their immediate forerunners consisted in the development of impasto to give volume and expression to the pigment, which was to be further enriched by superimposed glazes and paintings. If we examine the little ' Adoration of the Magi ' in the National Gallery, there properly ascribed to Giorgione, we might describe the semi-transparent brown of the architectural background as a survival of the general brown substructure, and we can detect the presence of semi-opaque local colours in the holy persons slightly heightened by transparent glazes, whilst in the picturesque attendants and sky ' This process is still employed in the ' Virgin and Angels ' by Michelangelo^ in the National Gallery. 163 TITIAN beyond, the pigment has become thicker in body, more rich in touch, more kneaded in its very substance, glazes being added — ^not merely to give richness to the colours, but to 'enamel' the various ridges made by the pigment which we call impasto, the whole being gently toned down by a thin warm over-glaze. The process used in this picture is merely emphasised in the larger and more important ' Philosophers ' at "Vienna, and, as we approach Titian and the later works of Giorgione, the tendency increases to employ a more solid substructure of impasto, enriched by over-glazes or superimposed washes of colour and tone.^ I repeat, that the works executed on panel always showed a greater reliance upon the luminous quality of the ground and the first indica- tion in transparent brown, and thereby approximate more to the Flemish or Antonello-process. This is the case with the 'Madonna with the Cherries,' at Vienna, and the ' Tribute Money,' at Dresden. Broadly speaking, a picture would be painted first in solid pigment in a lighter and flatter scheme of colour and tone ; it would then be enriched by glazes of transparent and semi-transparent colour, the general scheme of shadows being emphasised by superimposed glazes. This would correspond to the process of AntoneUo, applied, with some modification, on the top of a painting which was a development of the earliest method of all, namely, a direct laying on in opaque or semi- opaque pigment, possibly tempera. An enormous element of progress lay in the rich, varied surfaces of this underpaint, and from the first Titian may be said to have controlled this practice even more effectively than Giorgione, whose pigment has less body, and remains more thin ; Giorgione tended to rely too much upon a transparent over-shading by glaze to obtain modelling and fusion. In Titian's use of blue throughout his life, in all Titian's crimsons, golds, and greens, the spectator is not in front of these colours put on and left, but established in a slightly different tone or combina- tion of tones, then deepened by a glaze of transparent colour. About this there can be no doubt, no room for discussion ; we are entitled to differ in opinion merely on the degree of actual local colour used by the master in his 'preparation.' Was this underpaint rich soft oil pigment or rich soft tempera ? I incline to the belief that it was largely the last, since this process would be more rapid, the underpaint becoming soon dry enough for the glazes, whilst oil paint in impasto takes longer to set — but this is a 1 The unfinished ' Madonna, St. Anthony and St. Dominic/ by Giorgione at Madrid still lacks some of the final glazes. 164 TITIAN'S TECHNIQUE mere surmise. Before the edges of the impasto in Titian's pictures, and the quality of the transitions in his brush work I am disposed to think that the medium was largely tempera, for the edge of oil pigment is sharper, more varied, and capricious, and the most successful copies of Titian's pictures I have seen have been done in tempera and glazed in oil paint. The idea that the ' preparation ' of Titian's paintings was some sort of grisaille or monochrome kneaded out of black, white, red and yellow, need not detain us when considering the bulk of the master's work : this process may have been practised by him late in life — it was adopted by the Bassani, by Tintoretto and by El Greco, but even with them the term ' grisaille ' or ' monochrome ' must not be accepted literally. The substructure of their works would be as coloured as Titian's 'Nymph and Shepherd' at Vienna. A cool underpaint would allow for drastic local glazes and for drastic connecting over- glazes, leaving a cool substructure to shine through the final surfaces, and this fashion obtained more with Tintoretto and El Greco than with Titian. Titian, as a rule (that is, till 1550), affected a richly primed canvas. On the smooth surfaces much of the painting which seems rich in body may therefore have been thin in substance and very direct in execution, and it is mainly in the rich folds of a robe or upon the larger surfaces of the flesh that Titian kneads a solid body of pigment. In the rendering of thin white linen he paints largely in pate sur pate, thereby building his folds by variations in the pigment. The texture of flesh is produced by more experimental means. This varies with the chances of the brush, but behind his rendering of flesh lay the convic- tion that the colour, grain and bloom of this noble substance could not be obtained alia prima. It therefore varies greatly in its quality, even in the same picture, various layers of opaque, transparent, and semi- transparent pigment having been placed one above the other, just like the many layers which vary the outer appearance of the human skin, which is also based on a vari-coloured substructure. Broadly speaking, I imagine that the guiding principle he em- ployed in finishing his work consisted in more or less transparent layers of pigment superimposed upon the established design, some to heighten local colour, others to deepen the tone. The real secret of success depended less upon the process than upon some instinctive sense of how far the underpaint was to resemble the final effect of the work, how many degrees lighter it was convenient to make it. 165 TITIAN I incline to the belief that Titian used a thicker oil, one more allied to varnish than any which is current just now, and was thereby saved the perplexing alterations of colour which are brought about by slow drying. In the painting of the eyes and flesh of the httle faun in the ' Bacchus and Ariadne,' the glazes have been softened with the finger tips — this softening process was also practised by Leonardo,^ In the statement made by Palma Giovine that Titian painted almost as much with his fingers as with his brushes, we probably have a testimony to his use of the finger in later life to break the pigment and to control or soften a surface. Between the years 1530 and 1550 there is no serious change of means other than a development of his earliest methods, but from this date onwards his processes become more experimental and less easy to define. Before the ' Prometheus,' and the ' St. Margaret,' we are made to speculate on some probable change of foundation for the painting, possibly a toned canvas, but I think this was merely a free use of transparent brown under the existing pigment, into which it has sunk in the very process of painting. In these pictures the over-glazes are very varied. We may assume in his later works that the substructure of his painting was less methodical, and from time to time we suspect a cool or comparatively colourless preparation. This process is con- stant in the works I have ascribed to Orazio, such as the ' Philip ii.' in the Pitti, the 'Addolorata' in the Uffizi, the 'Entombment' at Vienna, the ' Caterina Cornaro ' in the Ufiizi, which do not resemble Titian in their surfaces. These frigid pictures are flatly glazed over a grey underpaint and done by rote. With the development of Bassano and the advent of Tintoretto, we find among Venetian artists an increasing use of a very dark prepara- tion coloured with very forcible glazes. In several of his last designs I believe that Titian employed a partially monochrome basis, but the master differs in his processes from his contemporaries (be they early or late) by the instinct which made him vary their use ; in this he is unlike Palma, who works in Titian's early method by local glazes without hesitation or revisions, and unlike Bonifazio Veronese, who adopted the more developed method without hesitation or revisions, and unlike his later contemporary, Tintoretto. We must not imagine an invariable rule with Titian, or a set of rules, any more than with Rubens, Rembrandt, Vandyck, or Velazquez. 1 See 'La Gioconda' and the flesh in 'The Madonna of the Rocks' in the National Gallery. 166 TITIAN'S TECHNIQUE There is a greater uniformity in the processes of his portraits than in his pictures, these resemble each other for a considerable number of years. In all of them I suspect a greater simplicity of method. For the pose and lighting of the face he employed a general guiding prin- ciple. In the planning and contrasts of dark and light there is a certain uniformity, and I imagine that we shall find his processes here at their simplest, and therefore all the more difficult to detect. I believe that Titian's explicit statement that an artist should learn to control white, black, red and yellow, refers solely to the sub- structure of his latest pictures, that it refers mainly to the development of his last manner. That the proper proportion to be observed in these pigments would greatly affect the ultimate success of the work, I am ready to admit. But this confession was made to another painter. It expressed the individual preoccupation of the master. To another craftsman Titian's management of browns, transparent and opaque, warm and cool, might seem more important still, and his marvellous use of blue most essential to the ultimate effect; Yet the absolute receipt or process of any of Titian's pictures without his brain would not, in all probability secure a hke result. What concerns us most is this, namely, that the quality and surfaces of his work were obtained by superimposed layers of opaque, transparent, or semi- opaque and semi-transparent layers of pigment of varying body or consistency ; that Titian obtained his unmatchable colour, quality, and softness of tone by the use of different layers of colouring substances, and not by direct, flat, forcible painting. POSTSCRIPT ON TITIAN'S DRAWINGS. Since the chapter on Titian as a draughtsman was written two years ago, the following important drawings have been published and exhibited. For some years the collection in the Christ Church Library has been difficult of access ; this collection contains an early design in sanguine of a Madonna and Child under a baldacchino, together with some decorative details for her throne ; this design shows the influence of Giorgione, and can be ascribed approximately to a period between 1505 and 1508. An alteration in the hanging of the drawings in the Louvre has brought within the range of vision a pen study of dancing children. No. 2291 (His de la Salle collection), which may well have been made in preparation for the ' Garden of Loves' at Madrid, and three unnumbered sketches, rightly ascribed to Titian have lately been exhibited. The earliest of these, a Madonna and Child under a canopy in a landscape, seen behind a ledge, may belong to a period as early as 1515. The two other sketches (in one frame) are preparatory for the Peter Martyr, and belong in all probability to the year 1528. Both these drawings were formerly in the Crozat and Mariette collections. 167 CHAPTER XXIX CONCLUSION I CAN scarcely hope to give a definition of Titian's genius ; to do this a mind of his calibre would be necessary, and a literary gift equal to express it. I shall only strive to enumerate some of his characteristics, which account, when taken together, for something in his unique achievement. Titian was a giant in a generation of giants ; he helped in the work of a period which has remained unsurpassed, which we call the Renaissance or New Birth of the human consciousness of power. In this new sense of force or predestination — as of a people to whom the classical inheritance had been promised — lies, perhaps, the secret of success which distinguishes the work of the Renaissance from the beautiful efforts which had preceded it in earlier centuries. But if a genius of Titian's greatness enriches a period, his pictures have to stand the test of epochs other than his own. With men of his stamp something remains always for a new generation to discover. To his contemporaries Titian's painting was more powerful and resourceful than any seen hitherto in Venice. Later generations have praised I him as a colourist, but this quality forms only a part of his art ; it is as insufficient to express it as the gift of form is insufficient to describe the imaginative and emotional forces behind the design of Michelangelo. To praise Titian's gift as a colourist carries us only a little way towards the definition of his genius, just as the praise of Shakespeare's lyrical gift helps us to express a notable element among his many gifts ; to the magic of colour we must add his unrivalled range of outlook and his success in finding new means of expressing it Titian may be said to have remodelled the language of painting, just as Dante established the language of Italy; there remains also the richness of emotion which expresses the man behind the work. If feUcities of diction and the gift of rhythm impart memorableness and beauty to the creations of the poet, but are not the sole secret of 168 CONCLUSION poetry, so colour and technical facility are insufficient to express the beauty of Titian's pictures. The tragic art of Michelangelo rules in the kingdom of the mind ; to the great Venetian the aspect of the outer world counted for more. The traditional meaning of legend and history found in Titian a generous interpreter, his was the faculty to order things with the power of selection which belongs to the poet, to whom a few chosen elements are sufficient to express the whole ; his gift of selection in the storehouse of Nature is so great that we are liable to forget the limitations and conventions which had existed before him ; he found Venetian painting mainly devoted to the rendering of persons seen upon one plane in a kind of 'frontal' design, with an accessory or partially conventional background. Titian made a new convention, in which man's relation to sky and land has been subjected to a new valuation. I might say outright that he opened the windows in the palace of Art upon the wealth of Nature, but this would not fully state the case, since he has shut them upon many details which earlier masters had noted. His power Ues in the grasp of larger facts, such as the solidity of the ground, the breadth and movement of the sky, the individuality in the structure of trees, the balance and breadth in the construction of the human figure, and the moving mystery in light and shade. The designs of Carpaccio, and even those of the great Florentine primitives, affect us by comparison as scenes upon a stage, where sky, trees, and buildings are represented at full size, yet actually dwarfed by comparison to their scale in nature. Titian reduced the ; size of his ' theatre,' and chose facts that would fall readily into relation. / Yet in the past, wonders had been done with an entire sacrifice of fact, as with Giotto, for instance, whose figures are seen against an abstract background of rich blue. Yet so poignant and emphatic are they in conception that we forget the absence of an environment just as we forget time and place in some supreme moment in a Greek tragedy. It is with some difficulty that we realise in Giotto's ' Salutation ' and ' Marriage of the Virgin ' the presence of unconvincing symbols doing duty for naturalistic surroundings. Something of Giotto's 'bas-relief type of design was reinvented by Michelangelo in such designs as the ' Creation of Eve ' and the ' Noah,' but with all his added power of representation, in an environ- ment chosen for its simplicity, just as a dramatist might choose a mere doorway or sheer wall as a symbolic background to a scene of momentous interest. But the success of Giotto and Michelangelo is 169 TITIAN different from that of Titian. With the last the selection of an environment was ever varied and not deliberately abstract, and he brought a new element to give magic, mystery, and concentration to the economy of his designs in the use of light and shade. In the discovery of the conventions by which the movement of light can be expressed, Titian is an inventor, and, as far as Venice is concerned, even the rendering of movement may be ascribed to him. Where could we place the flying cloak and leaping Bacchus of Titian (National Gallery) in the static pictures of Bellini, or Titian's floating clouds and swaying trees in the paintings of Carpaccio ? Something of this had been anticipated in a smaller way by Giorgione in his conven- tion for bending trees and fluttering garments, but with him it remained formal and conventional, at least by comparison to Titian. We realise the wealth of the master's resources when we find a part of them sufficient for the requirements of contemporary painters. The gift of melodious colour belonged to Palma, but without the depth and resonance which characterise Titian, and beyond this one • quality we shall not discover a hint at the plastic sense, or the passion and variety of invention which are constant in the master. Again, Bonifazio Veronese succeeds in a partial realisation of Titian's rich colour harmonies, but without any other masterly quality to enforce it, or, indeed, any adequate use of this one gift. Movement, and the magic of light and shade haunted Tintoretto, but without the plastic sense or the varied palette and brush of Titian. Veronese surpasses Tintoretto in the plastic sense — in some degree he stands alone in European art as a combiner of rare colours, but his plastic sense is abstract and lacking in variety, vitality, and delicacy. When compared to Titian, Veronese's sound professional handling is that of a scene painter. A master's work has to conquer the future and stand the contrast and test of other forms of excellence; it must seem sufficient to generations who feel differently. The immediate and novel appeal his work once had, must stand the test of other aims and fashions and a more composite standard of perfection. If Titian outclassed his con- temporaries, he has had to justify his aims against three centuries of painting. From the first most masters have been on his side, Rubens, Velazquez, Vandyck, Watteau, Reynolds ; his fame has undergone no serious eclipse ; even arbitrary and /eactionary fashions in art have left his reputation untouched. I know of no opposition which does not imply some limitation in his opponent. Blake condemned him among 170 CONCLUSION the 'voluptuous demons,' but was unacquainted with his work; Delacroix preferred Rubens and Veronese : we are astonished and then recognise a professional confession more than a criticism. In his old age Whistler departed from a respectful hostility to rank ' L'Homme au Gant ' above the slighter paintings of Velazquez ; there remains the angry treble of Mr. Ruskin, but his was the cry of the pelican in the wilderness of Victorian England. On the whole, the consensus of approval has been more constantly on the side of Titian than on that of any other artist. Can we recognise the man behind the master- piece ? we can divine something of his aims and habits, nothing more. Titian's supreme gift was his great breadth of vision ; but this is not all, there remains the lucid power which he brought to its expression. Other artists have seen as much, or possessed an even greater power of imagination, but not a greater gift in ordering their experience into a compact pictorial formula. With him a divine facility concealed a great power of concentration. There are many qualities in his work which in other channels of human endeavour would have made for success, in fact they helped him in the ordering of a singularly successful life. The vitaUty of the man, which enabled him to paint throughout a life of legendary length, endowed his vision with a ,' constant energy and relish for life. Most great masters tower in the possession of some rare combination of gifts ; with Titian the range is so vast, that we must turn to the qualities of a nation to find their equivalent. Viewing the major portion of his work, one is struck by the constant affirmation of splendid faculties, of a sort of optimism which colours his outlook. If the unique quality in the art of Raphael might be described as an unfailing sense of rhythm, the rhythmic sense, though great in Titian, is crossed by a greater hold upon realities which he marshals into a rhythmic whole, without Raphael's tendency to transmute them into the terms of his own convention. Titian's art is ardent and sensuous, but without the feverishness which such qualities would imply in a man of lesser faculties ; unlike Michelangelo, Titian is wholly of this world, and by comparison untroubled by the sense of any other ; at least this is true of the i master's work before the age of seventy. Have I overstated the case ? I thiijk not, if we turn from the self-questioning and effort which twist Michelangelo's giants in their marble fetters to the St. Sebastian or the ' Cristo della Moneta ' of Titian. There is something Latin in the fibre of Titian, in his sense of reality and sense of control. The 171 TITIAN magisterial quality of his portraits lies deeper than their success, he belongs to a patrician people to whom experience is met by the force equal to control it successfully. We know a great deal about his life and circumstances, but these reflect the man of the sixteenth century, not the master. He was received with honour by the princes of the world and the Church enjoying easily what was best in life. The surprise sometimes evinced at his long friendship with Aretino need not perplex us, for the mental sanity of Titian was equal to withstand any contagion, just as perfect good health withstands the influence of disease. We know that he was fond of money, which in itself is a good, not to say a noble thing, like health or genius even. The statement that he was avaricious has been made by some contemporaries, but doubtless by those who prized wealth even more; Titian has turned his ill-paid pensions and gratifications into such pictures as the ' Gloria,' the ' Danae,' and the ' Entombment,' which have actually helped to enrich the nation into whose possession they have passed ; his accusers have left nothing. Titian's letters tell us nothing of the inner man, they are mostly records of affairs, couched in the terms then usual among the persons to whom they were addressed. When old, his hospitable house was still open to the world of intellect and action. Almost to the last his tremendous vitality rendered him stiU receptive and capable long after the age when a man's faculties have become almost dead to all impression from the outside world. What is there more to say which can add anjrthing of value which we shall not find better expressed in the master's paintings ? Beauty /of fact, beauty of invention, beauty in the method of interpretation, each is present in his pictures, wealth and power and order, the expression of each is constant in his art. We may hint at something essential in his art when we allow — that like the culture of the Latin races it is sane, central, and sensuous. I might gain a ready agreement with me were I to say that Titian is the most typical figure of the Renaissance, and that his paintings best express its aim, but that movement was too complex to be contained even in the range of the master ; he does not typify it in its entirety, his genius remains more I local, more Italian. There are ardour, richness, ease — all the gifts of the sun in his work ; in temper he is the most Latin among the great Italian masters. He translated into the terms of painting something characteristic of the race to whom we owe the pattern of civility and the grammar of our arts. If the frescoes of Raphael express a 172 CONCLUSION profound harmony of character and the range and richness of the culture of the Renaissance, Titian's paintings reflect the vitality of the race to whom that culture was acceptable. Greatness in art has been defined as ' strength tempered by sweetness,' and if we recognise in the unrivalled art of Michelangelo (to whom this definition has been applied) a superhuman strength, tempered by a sense of something beyond power, and by a sense of compassion .equal to his strength, with Titian there is no such contrast in aim, we leave the abrupt mountain world of thought for happier tablelands spreading out beneath the light under which it is good to live ; his art is rich as Italy, profound and tranquil as the Mediterranean, his power has its roots in the wealth of a nature outwardly placid, yet varied and strong with the strength of perfect sanity and health ripened by the richness of the sun. 173 AUTHENTIC PICTURES BY TITIAN IN PUBLIC AND PRIVATE GALLERIES AND CHURCHES Pictures are marked (B.) when executed before 1530. The letter (L.) designates works painted after 1550. I have retained the description 'painted on panel' when this has been the case before a transference to canvas at a later date. AMERICA Boston. — Mrs. J. L. Gaednee. Rape of Europa, Canvas, 69i x SOJ (L.). See p. 139. AUSTRIA Vienna, Impeeial Gallery. Gipsy Madonna. Panel, 26j x 33 (E.) ; surfaces abraded and patched. See p. 29, Plate ii. The Little Tambourine-Player. Canvas, 20^x20 (E.); overcleaned and patched. Titian's authorship of this work may be questioned, it is probably by Francesco Vecellio. See p. 29, Plate iv. Madonna with the Cherries. Panel, 32 x 39J (E.) ; admirable condition. See p. 49, Plate xxviii. Portrait of an Elderly Man (Parma). Canvas, 44 x 33 (E.) ; admirable condition. See p. 54, Plate xxxvii. Madonna and Child, Saints Stephen, Jerome, and Maurice. Canvas, 43^ x 54J (E.) ; entirely repainted. See p. 50, Plate xxxi. Portrait of Isabella d'Este. Canvas, 40j x 25^, cirea 1536 ; totally repainted. See p. 88, Plate lxvii. The Girl in a Fur Pelisse. Canvas, 34 x 27J ; poor condition. See p. 93, Plate lxxvi. Ecce Homo. Canvas, 103 x 141 j, signed Titianus Eques. Ces. F. 1643; damaged by repainting. See pp. 103-106, Plate xc. Portrait of John Frederic, Elector of Saxony. Canvas, 43^ x 33 ; good condition. See p. 119, Plate cxi. Portrait of Fabrizio Salvaresio. Canvas; 44 X 34J ; signed M.DLVIII, Fabricius Salvaresius, Annv Aoens i,, Titiani Opus ; repainted. 175 TITIAN Portrait of a Man (Benedetto Varchi). Canvas, 45| x 36^ (L.) ; signed Titianus F. ; repainted. Woman taken in Adultery. Canvas, 41| x 54 (L.) ; unfinished. See p. 146, Plate oli. Diana and Calisto. Canvas, 71j x 79 (L.) ; Titian's in part. See p. 141, Plate cxxxv. Portrait of Jacopo Strada. Canvas, 49J x 37i (L.) ; signed Titianus F. 1568. See p. 149, Plate clviii. Shepherd and Nymph. Canvas, 60j x 73^ (L.) ; probably unfinished. See p. 151, Plate olxvi. The ' Entombment ' is a copy by Orazio Vecellio of a lost original ; the other works ascribed to the master in this gallery are copies and shop variants. Vienna, The Academy. Cupid. Canvas (E.) ; genuine, but flayed, patched and damaged. See p. 40. Count Czernin. Portrait of Doge Andrea Gritti. Canvas, 60J x 40^ ; signed Titianus E. F. Liechtenstein Gallery. Madonna, St. Catherine and St. John the Baptist. Canvas, 26^x36 J (E.); good condition, the Madonna and Child are by Titian, the rest of the picture shows the collaboration of Francesco Vecellio. BELGIUM Antwerp, Gallery. Jacopo Pesaro doing homage to St. Peter. Now on canvas, 67 x 72 (E.) ; partly impaired by repainting. See p. 30, Plate v. BRITISH ISLES London, National Gallery. Portrait of a Man (Ariosto). Canvas (E.) ; signed Titianus T. V. over early signature V. V. ; the earlier signature probably stands for Vecellio Veneziano ; face retouched and damaged. See p. 31, Plate vi. Holy Family with a Shepherd. Canvas, 41^ x 56 (E.) ; damaged by over-cleaning. See p. 44, Plate xxv. Noli Me Tangere. Canvas, 42^ x 35^ (E.). See p. 45, Plate xxvi. J Bacchus and Ariadne. Canvas, 69x75 (E.); signed Ticianus F., finished in 1623; admirable condition See p. 66, Plate xtix. The Virgin and Child with St. Catherine and St. John the Baptist. Canvas, 39| x 56j ; signed Tician ; good condition. See p. 83, Plate lix. 176 LIST OF WORKS Christ and the Tribute Money. Canvas, 48 x 40 J (L.) ; signed Titiano F. This admirable work was first doubted by Crowe and Cavalcaselle, it shows traces of the collaboration of Palma Giovine in the Pharisee, but in substance it remains a fine and genuine picture, and it should be placed on the line. The superb ' Portrait of a Poet ' sometimes called Ariosto, now ascribed to Titian, is a work of rare merit by Palma ; the grain of the pigment, the cool colour and more abstract sense of form point to him ; it is lacking even in a superficial resemblance to the work of Titian. The 'Rape of Ganymede' is by Palma Giovine. The 'Venus .and Adonis' is a late studio replica of the original at Madrid. London, Wallace Collection. Perseus and Andromeda. Canvas, 70^ x 77^ (L.). See p. 132, Plate olv. Buckingham Palace. Landscape. Canvas, 46 x 38|. The Marsuess of Bath. The Flight into Egypt. V Panel, 26x19 (E.) circa 1509-1612. R. H. Benson, Esa. Madonna and Child. Canvas, 18x22 (E.) ; good preservation (sometimes ascribed to Giorgione). See p. 29, Plate iii. Bridgewater House. The Virgin with St. John the Baptist and Donor. Canvas (E.) ; good condition. See p. 41, Plate xx. The Three Ages of Man. Canvas, 41f x 71 J (E.) ; admirable condition. A late school variant is in the posses- sion of Sir William Farrer. A well-known copy with slight variations ascribed to Sassoferrato hangs in the Borghese Gallery ; there would seem at some time to have been several versions of this work. See p. 41, Plate xxi. vj Venus with the Shell. Canvas, 29 x 23 (E.). See p. 53, Plate xxxv. Diana and Actaeon. Canvas, 75 x 81^ (L.) ; signed Titianus F. ; good condition ; unrivalled in quality by any late picture by the master. See p. 140, Plate cxxxiii. Diana and Calisto. Canvas, 75 x 81|^ (L.) ; signed Titianus F. ; condition less satisfactory than the sister picture. See p. 140, Plate oxxxiv. - Sir Hugh Lane. Portrait of a Young Man in a Red Cap. Canvas, 31 x 27 (E.) ; sGiorgionesque work ; good preservation. See p. 46, Plate xxvii. - Mrs. LuDwiG MoND. The Virgin and Child. Canvas, 29 x 24^ (L.) ; admirable condition. See p. 150, Plate clxii. T. — 12 -| nr^ TITIAN London, Sir Julius Wernher, Bart. Portrait of Giacomo Doria. Canvas, 46 x 39 ; signed Ticianus. Hampton Court. Portrait of a Man (described as Alessandro dei Medici). Canvas, 33 x 28J (E.) ; saving a patch on the brow this work is in good condition ; it has few rivals among Titian's portraits. See p. 54, Plate xxxvi. Portrait of a Man in Black. Canvas, 41 x 34 ; inscribed AN. XXV. 1646. On the whole I think this a genuine work, the date and background have been repainted. Alnwick Castle. The Cornaro Family. Canvas, 80 x 111^ (L.). See p. 143. Cambridge, Fitzwilliam Museum. Venus and Musician. Canvas, 68 j x 76 J (L.) ; a shop work retouched in the landscape by the master. Kingston Lacy. Portrait of a Young Man Holding Gloves. Canvas (E.); a Giorgionesque work of supreme quality. See p 46. Richmond, Sir F. Cook, Bart. Laura de' Dianti (?) 1523. See p. 70, Plate lii. FRANCE Paris, The Louvre. The Virgin with Three Saints. Canvas, 42|fX 52 (E.); a slightly later version of the same composition at Vienna See p. 50, Plate xxxii. Laura de' Dianti. Canvas, 37| x 30 (E. ) ; darkened and retouched. See p. 53, Plate xxxiv. The Entombment. Canvas, 58j x 84j (E.) ; good condition, but restored along the edge ; piece of sky above the seam in the canvas ; a modern addition. See p. 72, Plate li. The Holy Family and St. John. Canvas, 32 x 42j (E.). In the opinion of the present writer this good picture is the masterpiece of Francesco Vecellio. There exists a later version in the possession of Lieut.-Col. Holford, London. See p. 84, Plate clxxviii. L'Homme au Gant. Canvas, 39| X 35 (E.); signed Ticianus F. ; fairly good condition; canvas has been added to. See p. 64, Plate xlvi. Portrait of a Man in Black. Canvas, 46^ x 36 J (E.) ; this superb work has darkened ; it is not damaged ; the edges have been added to. See pp. 59, 64, Plate xlvii. La Vierge au Lapin. Canvas, 27Jx 33 (E.); signed Ticianus F. ; good condition. A contemporary work with the ' Bacchus and Ariadne,' and like it of incomparable quality. See p. 69, Plate i» 178 LIST OF WORKS St. Jerome by Moonlight. Canvasj 31 J x 40 ; probable date circa 1534 ; good state of preservation. See p. 83, Plate i-xi. . The D'Avalos Allegory. Canvas, 47J x 39} ; condition unsatisfactory. See p. 87, Plate lxvi. Portrait of Francis i. Canvas, 42| x 31J ; good condition. See p. 96, Plate lxxviii. The Supper at Emmaus. Canvas, 66^ x 96 ; signed Ticianus F. In the opinion of the present writer this is an early work finished in 1643. See p. 115, Plate cm. Portrait of a Man (with a black beard) Resting his Hand on a Pilaster. Canvas, 39 x 32J ; good condition. See p. 101, Plate lxxxvii. The Crowning with Thorns. Panel, 119 x 71 ; signed Titianus F. Ascribed to the year 1559, but in the opinion of the present writer earlier by many years. See p. 138, Plate cxiv. J Jupiter and Antiope (Venere del Pardo). Canvas, 77 x 161 J; of uncertain date ; condition unsatisfactory. Seep. 142, Plate cxu. The Louvre has on loan a portrait of a man in armour with a page holding a helmet. This work, which belongs to Count Potoki, has been ' chilled ' by over-cleaning. It may probably represent some gentleman of the House of Urbino, and was painted in the later thirties or early forties. The ' Portrait of Isabella d'Este ' in the possession of M. Leopold Goldschmidt has not been seen by the present writer ; judging from a photograph it does not look like an original. BESAN90N, MuSEE. Portrait of Nicolas Granvella. Canvas, 48x36^; this work is unknown to me, but judging from a photograph its condition is too unsatisfactory to form an opinion upon it ; it may be a ruined original or a damaged copy. See p. 117, Plate cviii. GERMANY Berlin, Kaiser Fkiedrich Museum. Portrait of the Admiral Giovanni Moro. Canvas, 32| x 26J ; circa 1638 ; good preservation. See p. 91, Plate lxxii. Portrait of a Young Man. Canvas, 37 x 28j^ ; good condition. See p. 96, Plate lxxvi. Daughter of Roberto Strozzi. Canvas, 45j x 38J ; signed Titianus ; dated MDXLII. ; condition unsatisfactory, abraded, and over-cleaned. See p. 101, Plate txxxv. Idealised Portrait of ' Lavinia ' Holding a Charger filled with Fruit. Canvas, 40 x 32J (L.) ; poor condition. See p. 133, Plate cxxxii. Portrait of Titian. Canvas, 37} x 29J (L.) ; unfinished ; condition good. See p. 134, Plate cxxxvii. TITIAN Cassel, Royal Gallery. Portrait of the Duke of Atri. Canvas, 87} x 37f (L.)- See p. 121, Plate cxxx. Dresden, Royal Gallery. The Tribute Money (Cristo della Moneta). Panel, 29jx22 (E.); signed Ticianus F. ; good condition; a work of supreme perfection. See p. 61, Plate xxix. Madonna and Child with Saints. Panel, 64^ x 75j (E.) ; superb condition. See p. 51, Plate xxx. Lavinia in White (as a bride ?). Canvas, 40 x 34 ; date uncertain ; condition unsatisfactory. See p. 133, Plate cxxxj. Lavinia as a Matron. Canvas, 40jx34(L.); signed Lavinia Tit. V. F. Ab. Eo. P. ; signature indistinct; darkened and retouched. Man with a Palm. Canvas, 54^ X 45J (L.); signed MDLXI. . . . Titianus Pictor et Aeques Caesaris. See p. 143, Plate cxi.iv. ' Lady in a Red Dress ' ; in the opinion of the present writer this is a first rate Moroni. 'The Girl with a Vase' may at one time have been a work by Orazio Vecellio. Frankfort, Staedel Institute. Fragment of a Portrait of a Young Man. Panel, 7i x 6 (E.) ; this work is unknown to me ; it may be a fragment of an original circa 1610. Munich, Royal Pinakothek. Vanitas. Canvas, 38^ x 32J (E.) ; a superb work, damaged and impoverished by over-cleaning. See p. 62, Plate xxxiii. Portrait of a Man in Black. Canvas, 34^ x 29 (E.) ; admirable condition, one of the master's finest portraits. Madonna and Child, with St. John and Donor. Canvas, 28|x36i (E.); doubted by Morelli, but an original of marvellous quality, slightly anterior to ' The Bacchanal ' at Madrid. See p. 57, Plate xl. Portrait of a Nobleman holding a Staff. Canvas, 56 x 46J ; a superb work of the first rank, sometimes doubted, patched in places. See p. 120, Plate cxviii. Portrait of Charles v. Canvas, 78} x 46J ; signed Titianus F. MDXLVIII. Almost totally repainted by Rubens. See p. 118, Plate cvi. Virgin and Child. Canvas, 67} x 61| (L.) ; signed Titianus Fecit. See p. 141, Plate cxxxvm. The Crowning with Thorns. Canvas, IIOJ x 71^ (L.). One of the master's last works, said to be unfinished. See p. 162, Plate clxvii. I am unacquainted with the present whereabouts of two unfinished studies for Francis i. and Philip ii., formerly in the possession of F. Lenbach at Munich. 180 LIST OF WORKS ITALY Rome, Borghese Gallery. Sacred and Profane Love (Venus and Medea). Canvas, 42J x 104|^ (E.) ; damaged at the base and patched in several places ; it wants careful cleaning ; as a design it has few rivals in the history of painting. See p. 43, Plate XXIII. St. Dominic. Canvas, 38ix30| (L.); a masterpiece in the late manner, dirty, but in first-rate condition. See p. 146, Plate cl. The Education of Cupid. Canvas, 46| x 73 (L.) ; probably unfinished ; bad condition. See p. 147, Plate clix. The Capitol Gallery. Baptism of Christ, with the portrait of donor, Zuan Ram. Canvas, 45jx36 (E.); darkened in part, condition otherwise good. See p. 42, Plate XXII. — Doria Pamphili Gallery. Salome. Canvas, 68|x67i (E.) ; probably once on panel, slight abrasions, condition other- wise good. See p. 36, Plate xvi. Spain coming to the Rescue of Religion. Canvas (L.) ; a school replica of the painting at Madrid. Gallery of the Vatican. Portrait of the Doge Niccolo Marcello. Canvas 41^ x 35 (E.). See pp. 30, 32, Plate vii. Madonna and Child, with six Saints (Madonna di San Niccolo de' Frari). Panel, 166| x 103J ; date uncertain ; signed Titianus Faciebat ; darliened and repainted. See p. 71, Plate lvi. ANCONA. S. DOMENICO. Altar-piece of the Madonna and Child, with St. Francis, St. Blaise, and donor. Panel, 123x80f (E.); signed M.D.XX Titianus Cadorinus pinxit. See p. 63, Plate xLv. Gallery. Christ on the Cross, with the Virgin, St. John, and St. Dominic. Canvas, 147^ x 78| (L.). Brescia. — S. Nazaro e Celso. Polyptych. 'The Resurrection' in centre, 109x47i; top, 'Annunciation,' each 30 X 24| ; left wing, SS. Nazaro e Celso, with kneeling Bishop Averoldo ; right wing, St. Sebastian; each 66jx24j. Panel, signed Ticianus Faciebat. M.D. XXXI. See p. 64, Plate xLvm. Florence, Uffizi. Flora. Canvas, 31 x 24| (E.); sadly impaired and retouched. See p. 54, Plate xxxix. Madonna and Child, with St. Anthony. Panel, 31 x 45 J (E.); in part a very early work (see landscape and St. John) finished or recast about 1520 ; signed Titianus F. ; condition good. See p. 63, Plate xLiv. 181 TITIAN Francesco Maria della Rovere. Canvas, 44jx39^; signed Titianus F. ; circa 1536-1538; damaged in places. See p. 90, Plate Lxx. Eleonora Gonzaga, Duchess of Urbino. Canvas, 43| x 40 ; painted between 1537-1538 ; fairly good condition. See p. 90 Plate liXxi. Venus of Urbino. Canvas, 4Jo^ x 65| ; condition unsatisfactory. See p. 92, Plate lxxv. Venus and Cupid. Canvas, 53^ x 76 ; darkened and probably patched. See p. 133, Plate cxv. Portrait of Beccadelli. Canvas, 46 x38J(L.); signed Titanius Vecellius faciebat. Venetiis M.D.LII, Mense Julii : ruined by stippling and repainting. See p. 122, Plate cxx. The remaining works in the UiBzi sometimes ascribed to Titian are school-pieces and copies. The fragment of the ' Battle of Cadore ' is a copy. The ' Giovanni dei Medici' (delle bande nere) is a ruined copy. The 'Caterina Comaro' and the ' Addolorata ' are, in the opinion of the present writer, by Orazio Vecellio. The ' Madonna and Child and St. Catherine * is an unfinished school-piece. Florence, Pitti. The Concert. Canvas, 42^ x 48 (E.) ; this famous work is still often ascribed to Giorgione ; it has been badly damaged in part, and the top has been added to. See p. 38, Plate xviii. Tommaso Mosti. Canvas, 33J x 26 (E.) ; repainted and damaged. See p. 64, Plate xlvii. Salvator Mundi. Panel, 30| x 21| ; retouched. See p. 83, Plate i,x. St. Mary Magdalene. Panel, 33i x 26|. See p. 82, Plate lviii. Cardinal Ippolito dei Medici. Canvas, 54J x 41 j, circa 1633 ; darkened. See p. 87, Plate lxv. The Adoration of the Shepherds. Panel, 36^ x 44 ; a total wreck. La Bella di Tiziano. Canvas, 39J x 30 ; surfaces abraded and retouched. See p. 89, Plate lxviii. The Young Englishman. Canvas, 43^ x 36| ; small patches here and there, otherwise in good condition. See p. 86, Plate lxiv. Alfonso I. (leaning on a Cannon). Canvas, 61 x 56J ; old copy ascribed to Dosso Dossi of a lost original. See p. 86, Plate txix. Portrait of Aretino. Canvas, 42^ x 30 ; 1545 ; a superb work, in good condition. See p. 113, Plate xcvn. Portrait of Diego de Mendoza. Canvas, 69J x 44 ; if this fine design is by Titian it has been repainted ; it is darkened and sunk ; present condition unsatisfactory. See p. 100. 182 LIST OF WORKS Philip II. Canvas ; in the opinion of the present writer this fine design or partial replica was executed by Orazio Vecellio ; condition poor. See p. 120. Portrait (Andrea Vesalius). Canvas, 50jx38j; damaged, the background having been painted brown when it probably once was grey. See p. 121, Plate cxx. Florence, Pitti Palace, State Rooms. Portrait of the Duchess of Urbino. Panel, 43J x 33J ; (not seen by author). I am informed that it is unfinished. Genoa, Balbi Senarega Palace. Santa Conversazione. Canvas (E.). Medole, Church of St. Maria. The Virgin in Adoration of the Saviour. Canvas, 108^ x 78 (L.). Milan, Brera. Portrait of Antonio Porcia. Canvas, 46J x 35^ ; signed Titianus ; totally repainted. St. Jerome at Prayer. Panel, 92jx49 (L.); signed Titianus F. ; superb work, dirty, but otherwise well preserved. See p. 141, Plate cxxxix. Two studies of heads of old men sometimes ascribed to Tintoretto ; the man in the cap is by Titian ; the other is by Bassano. SiGNOR B. Crespi. Caterina Cornaro (?). Canvas, 46x38^ (E.); signed T. V. ; important early work, sometimes ascribed to Giorgione. See p. 30, Plate vi. Naples, Gallery. Portrait of Paul iii. Canvas, 42 x 32| ; this superb work was probably painted at Bologna in 1543 ; good condition. See p. 107, Plate xciv. Paul III. with Ottavio and Alessandro Farnese. Canvas, 79 xBS^ ; unfinished. See pp. 108, 111, Plate xcix. Danae. Canvas, 47J x 67| ; painted in Rome ; greatly damaged. See p. Ill, Plate c. Pier Luigi Farnese. Canvas, 41| x 32J, circa 1546 ; darkened and dirty. See p. 112, Plate ci. Philip II. Canvas, 74 x 39J ; signed Titianus Eques Caes. F. ; dirty and patched. See p. 120, Plate cxxiii. Mary Magdalene. Canvas, 50 J x 40 (L.) ; signed Titianus P. There remain several works ascribed to Titian. The portrait of Alessandro Farnese 183 TITIAN is a prim picture by Moroni. The other two versions of Paul in. are too damaged for an opinion to be possible. The damaged head and shoulders of Charles v. may at one time have been an original. Padua, Scdola del Carmine. The Meeting of Joachim and Anna. FrescOj 114x149^ (E.); done in 1611 and now greatly damaged, in this work Domenico Campagnola was Titian's assistant. See p. 34, Plate viii. Padua, Scuola del Santo. Three Miracles of St. Anthony of Padua. Frescoes, painted about 1511. These works show the influence of Giorgione. According to Dr. Gronau the modern restorations are in oil. These three mural paintings are greatly damaged by restoration and decay. 1. St. Anthony giving Speech to an Infant. 124J X 130i. See p. 35, Plate ix. 2. St. Anthony cui'ing the Young Man's Leg. 128^ X 86^. See p. 36, Plate x. 3. St. Anthony restoring the Woman Murdered by her Husband. 128^ X 72. See p. 36, Plate x. Serravalle, The Duomo. Altar-Piece of the Virgin and Child, with Angels, St. Peter and St. Andrew. Canvas, 167 x 83 ; signed Titian, rest of signature defaced by careless restoration. Treviso, The Duomo. The Annunciation. Panel, 94^ x 67} (E). See p. 53, Plate xxxviii. Urbino, Gallery. The Resurrection, The Last Supper. Both on canvas, each 64 x 41 See p. 102, Plates lxxxviii. and lxxxix. Venice, Accademia. The Assunta. Panel, 270 x 142 (E.); signed Ticianus. Painted for the high altar of the Frari, where it was placed on the 19th May. 1518. Retouched, but not seriously impaired. See p. 59, Plate xliii. Presentation of the Virgin. Canvas, 136 x 305. Finished 1538. Greatly damaged by repainting. See p. 97, Plate Lxxix. St. John the Baptist. Canvas, 77^ x 63J ; signed Ticianus. See p. 114, Plate on. Pieta. Canvas, 138 x 163. Titian's last work, finished by Palma Giovine. Damaged and patched. Signed, quod Titianus Inchoatum Reliquit, Palma Reverenter Absolvit, Deoque Dicavit Opus. See p. 164, Plate clxviii. Ducal Palace. St. Christopher. Fresco, 116 x 71 (E.) ; damaged and repainted. See p. 70, Plate uv. 184 LIST OF WORKS La Fede. Canvas, 149J x 197 (L.) ; commissioned in 1655, still unfinished in 1566 {See Vasari). Painted by Titian with the collaboration of assistants, it shows evidence of the style of both decades. Condition very unsatisfactory. See p. 145, Plate cliv. Venice, San Giovanni Elemosinaeio. S. Giovanni Elemosinario giving Alms. Canvas, 137| x 59 ; painted in the thirties, it would seem to have been retouched in the fifties. It has darl^ened and is difficult to examine. See p. 88, Plate lxvii. Church of the Fkaei. The Pesaro Madonna. Canvas, 193 x 106 (E.) ; commissioned in 1519, finished in 1526. See p. 71, Plate lv. Church of the Gesuiti. The Martyrdom of St. Lawrence. Canvas, 216^x118 (L.); signed Titianus Vecelius Aeques. F. ' Now practically invisible owing to the percolation of the tar from the back of the canvas, put there to protect it from the damp. See p. 139, Plate cxxxvi. San Lio. St. James of Compostella. Canvas, 118 x 55 (L.) ; by Titian in part, dirty and difficult to examine. San Maecuola. Bambino between St. Catherine and St. Andrew. Panel, 45J x 59 (E.) ; in the opinion of the present writer this is a good early work by Francesco Vecellio. See p. 33, Plate olxxvii. San Maeziale. Tobias and the Angel. Canvas, 78| x 67 ; not an early work, as stated by Vasari and endorsed by Morelli, but painted in the forties. It is darkened, damaged, and difficult to see. See p. 99, Plate Lxxxi. Royal Palace (Old Library of St. Mark's). Allegorical Figure of Wisdom. Canvas, octagonal, 66J in diameter (L.) ; commissioned in the year 1659, probably finished later. See p. 141, Plate cxlvii. Church of San Rocco. Christ bearing Cross. Canvas (E.) ; sometimes ascribed to Giorgione. The lunetta to the frame is by Francesco Vecellio. Greatly damaged and impaired. See p. 31. ScuoLA Di San Rocco. The Man of Sorrows. , Canvas, 21 x 31, (E.) ; generally considered Titian's earliest known work. Damaged. See p. 28, Plate i. The Annunciation. Canvas, 63J x 102| ; finished in the forties. See p. 99, Plate lxxxii. S. Maeia della Salute. St. Mark Enthroned, with Four Saints. Canvas, 108 x 67 (E.) ; originally painted together with the following later works for Santo Spirito in Isola. Good condition. See p. 39, Plate xix. 185 TITIAN Eight Medallions of the Evangelists and Fathers of the Church. Panel (?); placed too high for examination. Three ceiling paintings — Cain and Abel, 118x118; The Sacrifice of Isaac 145| X 118 ; David and Goliath, 118 x 118. Canvas ; entirely repainted. See p. 102, Plates xci. and xcii. The Descent of the Holy Spirit. Canvas, 197 x 98^ (L). ; abominable condition. This picture is said to have been painted in 1544. It must have been rehandled much later, and recalls the manner of about 1560. See p. 141, Plate cxxxix. Venice, San Salvatoee. The Transfiguration. Canvas, 78} x 118 (L.) ; superb in conception, totally ruined by damage and repaint- ing. See p. 144, Plate clii. The Annunciation. Canvas, 157Jx78| (L.) ; signed Ticianus Fecit. Fecit. Greatly darkened. See p. 144, Plate cliii. San Sebastiano. St. Nicholas of Bari. Panel (?), 69 x 36^ ; signed Titianus P. Probably by Orazio. * The ' Tobias and Angel ' in the church of Santa Caterina is a copy of a lost original. See p. 31. Verona, The Duomo. The Assumption of the Virgin. Canvas, 155J x 86 ; upper part repainted. See p. 99, Plate lxxx. RUSSIA * The pictures in Russia have not been seen by the present writer. St. Petersbukg, Hermitage. Pope Paul III. Canvas, 38^ x 31 ; a later version of the portrait at Naples. See p. 108, Plate xcvi. The Toilet of Venus. Canvas, 48f x 41 (L.). See p. 122, Plate cxliii. St. Mary Magdalen. Canvas, 47 x 38J (L.) ; signed Titianus P. ; circa 1561. See p. 143, Plate oxlv. Salvator Mundi. Canvas, 38 x 31j (L.). See p. 150. St. Sebastian. Canvas, 80 x 45J (L.). See p. 160. SPAIN Madrid, The Peado. Santa Conversazione. Panel, 34 x 61 (E.) ; the St. Bridget has been retouched, otherwise the work is well preserved. See p. 36, Plate xvii. 186 LIST OF WORKS The Garden of Loves. Canvas, 67f x69 (E.); over-cleaned and sky repainted. See p. 67, Plate xu. Bacchanal. Canvas, 69 x 76 (B.) ; one of Titian's noblest works, damag^ed by general over- cleaning and in some places by repainting. See p. 57, Plate xlii. Portrait of a Man in Blue (Alfonso d'Este). Panel, 49x39 (E.); probably the pendant to the 'Lady in Blue' in the Cook collection, Richmond ; damaged by stipple and restoration. See p. 70, Plate mi. Charles v. with a Dog. Canvas, 75j x 43J, circa 1533. See p. 86, Plate lxhi. The Allocution. Canvas, 87f x 66, circa 1541 ; totally injured by fire and repainting. See p. 100, Plate Lxxxiv. Portrait of the Empress Isabella. Canvas, 46 x 38^, 1545 ; totally repainted. Ecce Homo. On slate, 27 x 22 ; signed Titianus ; damaged. Charles v. at the Battle of Miihlberg. Canvas, 130^ x 110, drca 1648 ; damaged by fire and repainting. See p. 118, Plate cvii. Prometheus. Canvas, 99J x 85|. See p. 119, Plate cxii. Sisyphus. Canvas, 93J x 85. See p. 119, Plate cxu. Philip II. Canvas, 76 x 43|, circa 1660-1651. See p. 119, Plate cxvi. St. Margaret. Canvas, 95 x 7li (L.); probable date, 1552; signed Titianus; good condition. See p. 128, Plate cxxi. Venus and Adonis. Canvas, 73j x 81^ ; 1554 ; damaged and retouched. A late shop replica of this work is hung in the National Gallery. See p. 132, Plate cxxix. The Trinity. (La Gloria.) Canvas, 136 x 94j (L.) ; signed Titianus P. See p. 129, Plate cxxv. Danae. Canvas, 50^x70 (L.); circa 1554; superb work, in fine condition. See p. 130, Plate cxxvii. Mater Dolorosa. On slate, 26| x 21 (L.); 1554; much damaged. Christ bearing the Cross, and St. Simon. Canvas, 38J x 46^ (L.) ; a superb work. See p. 128, Plate cxxii. Noli Me Tangere. Canvas, 26} x 24J (L.) ; fragment of a lost picture. See p. 130, Plate cxxiv. Portrait of a Knight of Malta. Canvas, 48 x 39| (L.) ; damaged. 187 TITIAN The Fall of Man. Canvas, 94^ x73j (L.); signed Titianus F. ; damaged and repainted in part. See p. 142, Plate cxl. The Entombment. Canvas, 54x69 (L.)j signed Titianus Vecellius Eques. Caesaris. Ascribed to the year 1559, but in the opinion of the present writer painted about 1566. See p. 148 Plate cLvi. Spain coming to the Rescue of Religion. Canvas, 66 x 66 (L.) ; signed Titianus F. Seen by Vasari in 1566 and described by him as an earlier work retouched. Not entirely by Titian. See p. 147, Plate clvii. Salome. Canvas, 34jx31J (L.); studio version of the Lavinia motive, retouched by Titian late in the sixties, poor condition. See p. 147. Christ Bearing the Cross. Canvas, 26^ x 30J (L.). See p. 150. Portrait of Titian, by Himself. Canvas, 34x26 J (L.); superb work executed in the late sixties or early seventies. See pp. 135, 149, Plate clxi. Allegory of the Battle of Lepanto. Canvas, 132 x 108 (L.) ; signed Titianus Vecelius Aeques. Caes. Fecit ; finished in 1575. By Titian only in part, damaged by fire and repainting. See p. 150, Plate clxv. The present writer considers the 'Venus Reclining' and the 'Venus and a Musician ' good shop works retouched by Titian (notably the last). The ' Flight into Egypt ' also reveals Titian's late workmanship in part. The portrait of the ' Duke of Alva ' in the possession of Count Huescar, Madrid, has not been seen by the present writer ; if by the master it is sadly damaged. See p. 117, Plate cix. EscoEiAL, Refectory. The Last Supper. Canvas (L.) ; finished in 1664 ; damaged and repainted. See p. 146, Plate cxijx. Chapel. The Martyrdom of St. Lawrence. Canvas (L.); a later version of the picture in the church of the Gesuiti, seen by Vasari in 1566. 188 INDEX Note. — The titles ofviorhs by Titian are printed in italics. Abraham and Isaac, 102, 103. Accademia, Venice, the, 16, 62. Adoration of the Shepherd, the. See Holy Family with the Shepherd. Adorno, imperial envoy, 59. Agnello, Benedetto, 82. Alamauus, Johannes, 10. Albertina Collection, the, 160. Alessandro de' Medici (so-called), 46, 54, 64. Alfonso d'Este, Duke of Ferrara, 48, 51, 65, 66, 66, 66, 68, 72, 73, 86, 93, 147. Alfonso of Ferrara, Portrait of, 69, 85, 96. Allegory, the d'Avalos, 87, 88, 147. Allori, 83. Alnwick, pictures at, 56, 178. Ahia, Portrait of the Duke of, 117. Anoona Altar-piece, the, 68, 69, 63, 64. Angelico, Fra, 2, 6. Anna, Giovanni d', 103. Annunciation, the (Treviso), 29, 63, 144 ; (Venice, S. Salvatore), 144, 145 ; (Venice, Scuola di S. Rocco), 99, 144. Anonimo, the, cited, 16, 22, 42. Antiope, 142. Antonello da Messina, 12, 162. Aquaviva, Portrait of Giovanni Francesco, 121. Aretino, Pietro, 70, 81, 95, 100, 102, 105, 107, 109, 112, 113, 116, 117; his birth and character, 81, 82 ; his first meeting with Titian, 81 ; his friendship with Titian, 82, 137 ; letter to Titian in Rome, 110 ; his death, 136, 137. Aretino, Portrait of (ex-Chigi Collection), 114 ; (Pitti), 113, 134. ' Argonautica ' of Statins, the, 43. 'Ariosto,' the ' Gobham ' (so-called), 31, 46. Arundel, the Earl of, 106. Asmmiptvm, the (Verona), 99, 100, 128. 'Assunta,' the (Accademia), 66, 67, 58, 69-63, 67, 72, 129 ; sketch for, 159. Augsburg, 115, 117, 118, 119, 122. Avalos, Alfonso d', 87. Bacchanal, the, 7, 41, 64, 65, 56, 57, 59, 67, 69, 117. Bacchus and Ariadne, 41, 65, 59, 63, 66-69, 72, 116, 123, 166. ' Baffo,' the. See 'Madonna di Gasa Pesaro.' Balzac, 155. Bankes Collection, the, 24. Baptism of Christ, the, with Zuan Ram, 42. Barbari, Jacopo, de', 12, 16, 19 ; his influence on Giorgione, 19 ; his ' Concert ' in the Salting Collection, 19. Basaiti, 12, 23 ; his ' Pieta,' 163. Bassano, 166. Battle of Cadore, the, 14, 79, 95, 96, 106. Beceadelli, Portrait of the Legate, 122. Beethoven, 76, 146. Bella, La, 64, 89, 90, 91. Bellini, Gentile, 3, 4, 11, 12, 13, 16, 16, 25, 98 ; his drawings, 167. Bellini, Giovanni, 16, 17, 19, 25, 47, 48, 49, 74, 157 ; character of his art, 3, 6, 11 ; development of his art, 11, 12 ,• his 'Bacchanal,' 66; his Frari 'Madonna,' 12, 16, 19 ; his S. Zaccaria ' Madonna,' 14, 17, 19; panels in the Accademia, 16; his 'Transfiguration,' 2. Bellini, Jacopo, 11, 12 ; his drawings, 11, 157. Bembo, Cardinal, 47, 93, 100 note, 109. Benson Collection, the, 29. Berenson, Mr. Bernhard, cited, 91. Bergamo Gallery, 22. Berlin Museum, pictures in the, 21, 91, 96, 133, 134. Bissolo, 23. Blake, 170. Bologna, 85, 107. Bonifazio Veronese, 88, 170. Bordone, Paris, 149. Borghese Gallery, pictures in the, 41, 141, 146, 147. 189 TITIAN Boston^ pictures in the Gardner Collection, 21, 139. Bourbon, Constable de, 75. Bramante, 110. Brera Gallery, 141. Breccia Altar-piece, 69, 63, 64. Brescia, Ceilings for the Palazzo Pubblico, 145, 147. Bridgewater House, pictures at, 36, 41, 53, 55, 140, 145. Brunelleschi, 3, 13. Bucino, 110. Buckingham, the Duke of, 106. Busseto, 107. C ADORE, 14, 154. GtBsars, the (lost), 93, 96, 96. Cain and Abel, 102. Cambray, League of, 33. Campagnola, Domenico, 34, 157, 158, 161. Campagnola, Giulio, 161, 158. Capitoline Gallery, Rome, 42. Cariani, 22 note, 24, 26, 40, 50. Carpaccio, 3, 4, 5, 12, 13, 15, 20, 25, 97, 98, 104, 163, 169; his drawings, 167; his S. Ursula Series, 19. Catena, 21 note, 23, 40. Catullus, 68. Ceilings for Santo Spirito. See Santo Spirito. Chantilly, pictures at, 117. Charles i.. Collection of, 72, 93, 115. Charles v., the Emperor, 85, 86, 107, 115, 116, 129, 130, 138 ; his death, 138. Charles V. at the Battle ofMiihlberg, 117, 118. Charles V., Portrait o/ (Munich), 117, 118. Charles V. with a Dog, 86, 119, 134. Chatsworth Collection, 161. Chigi, Agostino, 81. Chigi Collection, 114. Christ and Simon of Gyrene, 128. Christ appearing to the Magdalene (fragment), 130. Christ bearing the Cross (Prado), 150; (Church of S. Rocco, Venice), 31. CigoH, 83 ; his copy of the ' S. Peter Martyr,' 74. Cima da Conegliano, 12, 97, 163; his 'Pre- sentation,' 97. Cobham 'Ariosto,' the, 31. Coello, Sanchez, 119, 150. Colour in Venetian pictures, 1. 'Colourist' and 'Harmonist,' defined and explained, 124-126. Concert, the, 24 note, 31, 36, 38, 45. 190 Constable, 7. Contarini, Alessandro, 116. Conversation pieces, 39, 60. Conversazione Santa (Prado), 39. Cook Collection, pictures in the, 70, 107 note. Cook, Mr. Herbert, cited, 143. ' Cornaro, Caterina, as St. Catherine,' by Orazio Vecelli, 101, 112. Cornaro, Caterina, Portrait of, 30, 46. Cornaro Family, the, 142, 143. Cornaro, Giorgio, 96. Comoro, Giorgio (so-called), 96. Cornaro, Giovanni, 67. Corot, 62. Correggio, 60, 102. Courbet, 17, 113. Covos, imperial secretary, 86. Cranach, Lucas, 119. Crespi Collection, the, 30, 35. Crista della Moneta, 49, 61, 62, 67, 164. Crivelli, 3. Crowe and Cavalcaselle's ' Life of Titian,' 15, 23; cited, 33, 39, 47, 49, 60, 66, 69, 70, 86, 86, 88, 96, 97, 99, 100 note, 102, 107, 109, 112, 117, 118, 132, 133, 138, 139, 143, 146, 164. Crowning with Thorns, the (Louvre), 116, 138 ; (Munich), 123, 142, 162, 163. Cupid, 40, 45. DanaS (Naples), 110, 111, 116, 130 ; (Prado), 92, 130, 131, 134 ; studio replicas of, 132, D'Annunzio, Gabriele, 38. David and Goliath, 102. Delacroix, 128, 160. Descent of the Holy Spirit, 102, 141, 142. Diana and Actaeon, 123, 125, 139, 140, 148. Diana and Calisto (Bridgewater House), 139, 140, 141 ; (Vienna), 141. Doge Grimani worshipping the Cross, 145, 146. Doge Niccolb Marcello, Portrait of, 30, 32. Dolce, cited, 16, 22. Donatello, 3, 7, 11, 12 note, 13. Doria Gallery, pictures in the, 36, 41. ' Dorothea,' by Sebastiano del Piombo, 42 note. Dossi, Dosso, 23, 66, 68, 86, 91. Drawings by Titian, 167-162, 167 note. Dresden Gallery, pictures in the, 24, 60, 51, 87, 97, 122, 133, 134, 143. Ducal Palace, Giovanni Bellini's work in the, 48; Titian's work in the, 47, 48, 66; fire at the, 48. Diirer, 60. INDEX Eece Homo, 102, 103-106, 116, 133. Education of Cupid, the, 147. 'Eikonon' of Fhilostratus, 6S. Elector John Frederick of Saxony, 117 ; his Portrait, 118, 119. Empress Isabella, Portrait of the, 107, 108. Englishman, the Young, 86, 87. Entombment, the (Louvre), 69, 63, 72, 73, 81, 116, 148; (Prado), 140 note, 141, 142, 148. Este, Isabella d', 56, 88. Europa and the Bull, 139, 141, 148. Evangelists, the, 102. Fall of Man, the, 142. Famese and his Mistress. See Venu^ with a Musician. Farnese, Cardinal Alessandro, 107 ; his Portrait, 108. Famese, Portrait of Pier Luigi, 112. Famese, Portrait ofRanuccio (lost), 107. Fathers of the Church, the, 102. Ferrara, 48, 66. Fiammingo, 11, 57. Filippo Lippi, Fra, 2. Flesh-painting of Giorgione and Titian, 4. Flora, 62, 53, 54, 89. Florentine and Venetian Art contrasted. See under Venetian Art. Fondaco dei Tedeschi, decorations of the, 22, 23, 30, 34 ; their influence, 23. Fontana, 95. Forain, 131. ' Fornarina, La,' 42 note. Francia, 88. Frankfort Gallery, 46. Frari, Church of the, 71. Garden of Loves, the, 55, 56, 57. Garofalo, 56. Gentile da Fabriano, decorates Ducal Palace, 10 ; his pupils, 11. Giorgione, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 12, 16, 17, 18, 19-27, 39, 80, 104, 113, 158; his char- acter, 26 ; his colour, 164 ; his influence on Titian, 17, 18, 55, 169, 167 note; in- fluenced by Barbari, 19; influenced by Titian, 25 ; his influence on art, 23 ; his 'Adoration of the Magi," 21, 163,-164; his ' Adrastus and Hypsipyle,' 21 ; his Castel- franco Altar-piece, 21, 22, 25, 29, 40; his ' Christ,' 21, 26, 31 ; his ' Concert Cham- petre," 20, 24, 26, 41 ; his designs for the Fondaco dei Tedeschi, 22, 23 ; his ' Judg- ment of Solomon,' 21, 24; his 'Judith,' 21 ; his ' Knight of Malta,' 24 ; his 'Madonna and Saints' (Madrid), 24, 35, 164 note ; his ' Ordeal by Fire,' 19, 21 ; his 'Orpheus and Eurydice,' 22; his 'Philo- sophers,' 21, 164 ; his ' Portrait of a Man ' (Berlin), 21 ; his ' Shepherd ' (Hampton Court), 22 ; his ' Sleeping Venus,' 24, 40, 92; his 'Three Ages of Man,' 38; his ' Woman taken in Adultery,' 24, 36. Giorgionesque manner, the, 7, 20. Giotto, 2, 3, 6, 13, 169. Giovanelli Collection, the, 21. Girl in a Fur Pelisse, 93. Girl with a Charger, 133. ' Girl with a Vase,' by Orazio Vecelli, 87. Glasgow Gallery, pictures in the, 24, .36, 41, 84. Goethe's ' Faust,' 76. Goldschmidt Collection, the, 89. Gonzaga, Federigo, 70, 72, 73, 83, 93. Leonora, Duchess of Urbino, 92 ; her Portrait, 90, 91. Goujon, Jean, 92. Granvella, Cardinal, 115 ; his Portrait, 117. Greco, El, 162, 165. Gritti, Doge, 70, 71. Gronau, Dr., cited, 39, 46 n/)te, 87 note, 97, 99, 139, 144, 151. Guariento's ' Paradise,' 10 note. Guercino, 83. Guidobaldo ii., Duke of Urbino, 91, 109. Hampton Coubt, pictures at, 22, 46, 54, 93. Henry iii. of France, 106. Hollar, 22. Holy Family and St. John (Bridgewater House), 35, 41, 42. Holy Family with the Shepherd (National Gal- lery), 43, 44, 58. Homme au Gant, L' , 64, 69, 64. Hunt, Holman, his ' Rienzi,' 17. ' Idylls' in Venetian art, 6. Infant Saviour between St. Andrew and St. Catherine, 33. Ingres, 113, 167. lonides Collection, 160. Ippolito de' Medici, Portrait of, 87. Isabella d' Este, 56, 88. Isabella, Portrait of the Empress, 107, 108. Jacobello del Fiore, 3. Japanese prints and their colour value, 124. 191 TITIAN Jeahus Husband, the. See Murder of a Woman, the. Judgment of Paris (drawing), 169. Keats' ' Endymion ' quoted, 68. ' Lady in Rose ' (Dresden), 122. Lando, Portrait of the Doge (lost), 100. Lane Collection, the, 45, 46. Last Supper, the (Escorial), 146 ; (Urbino), 102. Laura Dianti (Cook Collection), 70 ; (Louvre), 63, 54. Lavinia in Bridal Dress, 133, 134. LefebM, engravings by, 31, 41, 99, 103. LeigMEon, Collection of Lord, 74. Leonardo, 13, 17, 166. Leoni, Leo, his attack on Orazio Vecelli, 138, 139, 140. Lille, drawings at, 161. Lorraine, Cardinal de, 93. Lotto, Lorenzo, 23, 24 note, 26, 33, 40, 88, 117, 149, 169. Louvre, pictures in the, 24, 41, 60, 63, 64, 59, 63, 64, 69, 72, 73, 83, 87, 101, 116, 116, 142, 162, 159. Lucidel, 119. Maclise, 17- Madonna and Child (Mond Collection), 160; (Munich), 141. Madonna and Four Saints — ' Conversation piece ' (Dresden), 50, 61, 52. Madonna and Six Saints (Vatican), 59, 71. Madonna and Three Saints (Louvre), 50. Madonna and St. Catherine (National Gallery), 69, 83; replica by Francesco Vecelli in Pitti, 84. Madonna and Child with St. John and St. Anthony Abbot, 63, 64. Madonna and Child with St. Bridget and St. VI- phus, 29. Madonna, St. John and Donor (Munich), 57. Madonna di Casa Pesaro, 30 note, 6, 8, 59, 71, 72. Madonna with the Cherries, 49, 51, 52, 164. Madrid, pictures at, 24, 29, 32, 36, 36, 39, 67, 70, 73, 86, 100, 107, 115, 117, 119, 122, 128, 130, 132, 134, 138, 139, 143. Madruzzo, Portrait of Cristoforo, 100. Magdalene, the (Hermitage), 143 ; (Naples), 143 ; (Pitti), 82, 83 ; (Prado), 122. Malatesta, 83. Man in Black (Louvre), 64, 69, 64. Man in Blue (Prado), 70. * 192 Man with a Baton, 120, 121. Man with a Glove (Temple Newsam), 45, 46 • and see Homme au Gant, L'. Man with a Hawk, 96 ; and see Cornaro, Giorgio Portrait of. Man with a Palm, 134, 141, 143, 144. Man with a Bed Gap, 45, 46. Man, Portrait of a (Louvre), 101. Man of Sorrows, the, 28. Manet, 17, 130. Mantegna, 32, 37, 157, 163 ; his influence on Giovanni Bellini, 11, 12 ; his work, 12. Mantua, 86 ; Marquis of, 69, 81, 93. Mariette, cited, 34. Martyrdom of St. Lawrence, the, 139, 140. Mary of England, Queen, 120. Mary of Hungary, Queen, 119, 120, 130. Masaccio, 3, 13, 167. Masolino, 11, 157. Medea, 43. Medici, Cosimo de', 107, 113. Meeting of Joachim and Anna, 34. Mendoza, Don Diego, Portrait of, 100. Michelangelo, 7, 13, 74, 76, 76, 8S, 103, 109, 110, 111, 113, 130, 163 note, 169, 171. Miracle of the Child, the, 36, 38, 41, 46 note. Monet, 151. Morelli, 57, 99, 100, 118, 157, 158. Moro, Antonio, 120. Moro, Portrait of Giovanni, 91, 96. Moroni, 100, 108, 122. Morto da Feltre, 23. Mosti, Portrait of Tommaso, 64. Munich, pictures at, 46, 52, 64, 67, 117, 118, 120, 142. Murano, the school of, 10. Murder of a Woman, the, 36, 42 note ; sketch for (.?), 168. Naples, pictures in the Gallery at, 107, 108, 109, 120, 130, 136. National Gallery, pictures by Giorgione in the, 21 ; by Titian, 31, 43, 44, 68, 69, 83, 97 ; by others, 19 note, 76, 96, 132. Noli Me Tangere, 40, 42, 44, 46. Norfolk, Portrait of the Duke o/ (so-called), 86, 87. Nude, the, in Venetian art, 4. Oil-painting in Venice, 1, 12. Padua, the Scuola del Santo at, 34 ; Titian's frescoes in, 18, 22, 34-37, 46, 98. INDEX Palma Giovine, 67, 142, 143, 145, 154, 156, 166. Palma Vecchio, 23, 61, 76 ; characteristics of his work, 39, 40, 46 ; his death, 82. Pantoja della Cruz, 86. Parma, Portrait of, 46, 64, 69, 108. ' Pastorals,' 39. Pater, Walter, 38. Perino del Vaga, 110. Pesaro Attar-piece. See Madonna di Oasa Pemro. Pharaoh drovmed in the Bed Sea, 106, 158. Philip II., 116, 118, 138 ; Portrait of, 86, 119, 120, 121, 134 ; version of, at Naples, 120. Phillips, Mr. Claude, cited, 28, 39, 69, 72, 83, 97, 114, 132, 162. Philostratus, 66, 68. Piero della Francesca, 157. Pietd, 164, 156. Pinturicchio, 23. Piombo, Sebastiano del, 23, 26, 33, 42 note, 107, 110. Pisanello, employed in Ducal Palace, 10 ; his influence, 11. Pitti, pictures in the, 24 note, 38, 59, 64, 82, 83, 84, 86, 86, 87, 113, 120, 121, 134. Pizzolo, his 'Assunta' in the Eremitani, 60 note. ' Poesies,' painted, by Giorgioue and Titian, 6, 56, 140. Polidoro Veneziano, 84. Pope Aleaiander VI. presenting Jacopo Pesaro to St. Peter, 30, 46. ^P£P-Eaul "I-, 107, 108, 109, 139; his portrait, 107, 108, 116, 134. Pope Paul III. with Ottavio and Cardkml F{ir- nese, 1^ 1 09. 111. 112 ^ Pordenone7^5, 88, 95. Portrait of a Man (Munich), 46, 54. Poussin, 67, 76, 128. Presentation of the Virgin, the, 14, 97, 98, 103, 106. Prometheus, 119. Raphabi,, 7, 13, 66, 60, 80, 104, 110, 112, 171. Religion succoured by Spain, 93, 147. Rembrandt, 5, 7, 60, 80, 105, 124, 126, 130, 148, 162, 166, Renaissance, the, in Venice, 2, 9, 13, 23. Resurrection, the (Ancona), 64 ; (Urbino), 102. Reynolds, 7, 54, 62, 67, 139, 170. Roberti, 19 note. Rocco, Scuola di S., 28. Romaniuo, 60, 88. T.— 13 Romano, Giulio^ 93. Rome, 47, 66, 75, 100. Rossetti, 113 ; quoted, 26. Rovere, Francesco Maria della, 84, 93 ; his Portrait, 90. Rubens, 6, 7, 67, 69, 67, 75, 82, 93, 96, 118, 133, 160, 170; his copies of pictures by Titian, 89, 133, 134, 142 ; his restoration of the Munich ' Charles v,' 118. Ruskin, 171. Sacred and Profane Love, 7, 30, 40, 41, 42, 43, 46, 61, 64, 66, 67, 68. Sacred Conversation (Madrid), 36. St. Anthony healing a Youth, 36. St. Christopher, 70. St. Dominic, 141, 143, 146. S. Giovanni Elemosinario giving alms, 88. St. Hubert (drawing), 159. St. Jerome (drawing, British Museum), 161 ; (drawing, Chatsworth), 162 ; (Brera), 141. St. Jerome at Prayer (Louvre), 83. St. John Baptist, 114. St. Margaret, 123, 126, 128, 129, 134, 138, 140, 146. St. Mark and Saints (Salute), 29, 36, 38, 39, 46, 63, 72. St. Peter Martyr, 56, 74, 76, 102. St. Petersburg Gallery, pictures in the, 21, 108, 122, 143, 150. St. Sebastian, 150. Salome, 36, 38, 41, 44, 147. Salting, Mr., 19. Salvator Mundi (Pitti), 83 ; (St. Petersburg), 150. Salvator^ Rosa, 76. Sansovino, 70, 82, 96, 110. ' Santo Spirito,' ceilings for the, 102, 103, 119. Sarto, 60. Sassoferrato, 41. Savoldo, 23, 26, 84, 169. Schiavone, 132, 145. Sforza, Francesco, Portrait o/(lost), 93. Shakespeare, 76, 104, 146. Shepherd and Nymph, 151, 152. Signorelli, 23. Sisyphus, 119. Solyman, Portrait of Sultan (lost), 100. Squarcione, 12 note. Statius, his ' Argonautica,' 43. Stevens, Alfred, 74. Strada, Portrait of, 149. Strozzi, Portrait of Daughter of Roberto, 101, 108. 193 TITIAN Snpper at Emmaus, the, 106, 106, llSj 117. Tambourine Player, the, 29, 30. Tantaltis, 119. Tebaldi, 66. Temple Newsam, pictures at, 45, 46. Three Ages of Man, the, 41, 42, 46, 64, 56, 57, 161. Tintoretto, 69, 80, 96, 106, 120, 121, 139, 143, 144, 148, 150, 151, 162, 168, 161, 166, 170. Titian, his birth and parentage, 14, 15 ; his apprenticeship, 16, 16 ; petitions for re- versal of Broker's patent, 17, 47 ; arrives in Venice, 17 ; his earliest work, 17, 18 ; his frescoes at Padua, 18, 22 ; his co-opera- tion with Giorgione, 22, 40; early paint- ings by, 28-32 ; his Paduan period, 32 ; his Palmesque period, 32 ; leaves Venice, 33 ; goes to Padua and Vincenza, 33 ; his work at Padua, 34-37 ; invited to Rome, 47 ; works in the Ducal Palace, 47, 96, 96 ; his hostility with Giovanni Bellini and his faction, 47, 48, 50 ; his journey to Ferrara, 48, 55 ; his work for Alfonso of Ferrara, 48, 56 ; his association with the Court of Ferrara, 66 ; his correspondence with Alfonso, 66, 67 ; friction with the Francis- cans over the "^Assunta," 69; lost work in fresco, 66 note ; his work for Doge Gritti, 70, 71 ; his friendship with Aretino, 81, 82, 137, 172 ; death of his wife, 82 ; his collaboration with Francesco Vecelli, 83, 84, 145; meets the Emperor Charles v., 85; works for Charles v., 86, 93, 129; his portraits of the Emperor, 86, 117, 118; with the Emperor at Asti, 93; his letter to Federigo Gonzaga, 94 called on by Signoria to refund money, 96; his private affairs, 100; again meets the Emperor, 100 ; works for the Farnese family, 107-109, 111-112, 117 ; meets Pope Paul III. at Bologna, 107 ; paints portraits of him, 107-109, 111, 112; goes to Rome, 109 ; passes through Florence, 112 ; with the Emperor at Augsburg, 115, 117, 118; works for Queen Mary of Hungary, 119 ; his daughter Lavinia, 133, 134; letter to Philip II. regarding attack on Orazio, 138, 139 ; his letters, 139, 140, 148 ; his assist- ants, 145 ; decline of his powers, 146, 147 ; his death and burial, 154, 166. his special achievement in art, 2, 3, 4, 76, 77; as an inventor in art, 6, 7, 169; his genius and influence, 7, 96, 168-173; 194 development of his art, 76, 77, 78-80, 123- 127, 142, 146, 147, 148, 149 ; his debt to Giorgione, 18, 19, 30, 37; Giorgionesque elements in his work, 32, 34, 36, 36, 39, 41, 43, 46, 63 ; influence of Palma, 39 ; his eff^orts in the grandiose manner, 103; type of dress in early works, 42; his rendering of eyes, 31, 91 ; his use of por- traiture in subject pictures, 36, 39, 104, 105 ; landscape in his work, 42, 45, 74, 98 ; his painting of flowers and shells, 43 ; his stUl-life painting, 116; his brush- work and handling, 116, 117, 120, 121, 123-127; his use of colour, 62, 97, 106, 123-127, 129, 131, 135, 138, 140, 141, 144, 146, 149, 151, 164, 165, 167, 168; his drawings, 157-162, 167 note ; his technique, 162-167; lost portraits by, 93, 100, 107, 117 ; lost works by, 93, 100, 119, 138, 139, 146 ; contrasted with Michelangelo, 76, 76, 103, 111, 130 ; contrasted with Rem- brandt, 106 ; contrasted with Tintoretto, 143. Portrait of, by Lucas Cranach, 119 ; Por- traits of himself, 123, 134, 136, 149, 160. Tizianello, his Life of Titian, 16. Tobias and the Angel, 31, 99. Toilet of Venus, the, 122. Transfiguration, the, 144, 146. Tribute Money, the. See Cristo delta Moneta. Trinity, the, 129, 130, 132, 134, 138. Triumph of Faith, the, 31, 32, 37, 158. 'Triumvirate,' the, 82. Tuscany, Art in, 2, 3, 5, 6. UocELLO, Paolo, 11, 12 note, 167. Udine, Giovanni da, 107. Uflizi, pictures in the, 21, 24, 42 note, 62, 63, 54, 63, 78, 96, 101, 112, 115, 122, 133, 134. Urbino, 102. Duke of, 82, 133, and see under Rovere. Vandyok, 7, 45, 67, 75, 93, 131, 141 m>te, 170. Vanitas, 52, 53, 56, 63, 78. Vargas, 130. Varottari, 146. Vasari, 113 ; acts as cicerone to Titian in Rome, 109; visits Titian in Venice, 147; influence of his work in Venice on Titian, 102, 103 ; cited, 17, 18, 23, 24, 31, 39, 61, 62, 71, 96 110, 113, 140 note, 147, 148, 161. INDEX Vasto, del, Governor of Milan, his relations with Titian, 100. Vatican Gallery, pictures in the, 32, 69, 71, 74. Vecelli, Cesare, 146. Conte, 14. Francesco, 14, 16, 31 note, 33, 44, 83, 84 ; his ' Holy Family ' (Louvre), 84 ; his 'Madonna with Saints Dorothy and Jerome ' (Glasgow), 84 ; his ' Nativity,' 33, 84 ; his replica of Titian's ' Madonna and St. Catherine ' (Pitti), 84. Gregorio, 14. Orazio, 87, 101, 107 note, 112, 120, 132, 138 ; attacked in Milan, 138 ; his death, 166, 161. Pomponio, 83, 107, 166. Tiziano. See under Titian. Velazquez, 6, 7, 67, 120, 126, 131, 170. Venetian Art, its development, 3, 4, 6, 6, 7, 8, 11, 26, 75. Venetian Painting, characteristics of, 1-4, 104; as contrasted with Florentine, 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 167 ; as influenced by Giorgione and Titian, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 23, 26. Venice, direction of her energies, 9 ; her trade and power, 9 ; life in, in Titian's day, 16 ; local conditions as aifecting her art, 2, 3, 9, 10. Venus and Adonis, 132. Venus and Cupid (Uffizi), 116, 133. Venus of Ostia, the, 56. Venus of UrUno, 78, 79, 90, 91-93. Venus vdth the Mirror (St. Petersburg), 143. Venus with a Musician, 115, 122. Vemis with the Shell, 63, 64, 66, 56. Verdizotti, 161. Veronese, Paolo, 88, 96, 97, 98, 150, 170. Verrocchio, 17. Vesali, Portrait of Andrea, 121. Vienna Gallery, pictures in the, 21, 22, 29, 40, 46, 49, 60, 54, 59, 88, 93, 103, 108, 116, 118, 133, 138, 141, 146, 149, 151. Vierge au Lapin, La, 69, 67, 69, 116. Vivarini, Alvise, 10, 12. Family, the, 10. Vorsterman, 89 note. Wallace Collection, the, 132. Watteau, 7, 140, 170. Watts, G. F., 66, 67, 124, 127, 141, 144, 149. Whistler, 113, 171; his 'Portrait of his Mother,' 108. Wickhoff, Dr., his interpretation of the Sacred and Profane Love, 43. Wisdom, 141, 142. Woman taken in Adultery, the, 146. Wotton, Sir Henry, 106. Young Englishman, the, 86, 87. Young Man in Black, the (Berlin), 96. Zanetti, prints by, 22, 24. Zingarella Madonna, the, 29, 31, 42. Zuccato, Sebastiano, Titian's master, 16. 195 Printed by T. and A. Constable, Printers to His Majesty at the Edinburgh University Press PLA TE I lue, Sciiola di San Rocco THE MAN OF SORROWS CIRCA 1500 PL A TE II PLATE 111 PLA TE IV Vttnna, I mptriai Gallery THE LITTLE TAiMliOURlNK PLAVKR CIRCA 1506 PLATE V O O < PLATE VI U 5 a PLATE VII Rome, Vatican Gallery DOGE NICCOLO MARCELLO CIRCA 1509-1512 PLATE VIII PLATE l.\ , .^ :"^"^';^-: .... .■,..v.;5is^f:|f. 1 plpi %--, i ' .»— »^^ 4irm^^ ^ ^^'{^^IH^^^^H Ij^p -'-''^''^''-'-^^^i^ii^ .„ "* ^^^"'^'^^^'^^^^^ 5| '^^ ^-^m\ ?; z >• o E H PLATE X PLATE XI PL A TE XII PLA TE XJII fLA TE XIV PLATE XV a X PLATE XVI Rome, Doria Fatnphili Gallery SALOME CTRCA 1509-1512 PLA TE XVII H W O C 5 (XI Q D X ►J P < o n < PL A TE XVI II PL A TE XIX Venice, Sea. Maria deiia Saluie ST. MARK ENTHRONED 1512 PLA TE XX '^m.J^ ^^^^K ^^fmj^Kk ' J^'^- ' < . ^ M ifly^^^^p^ 1 < 1 ^^^BBKf'' «(*-"■ . w. w a < H PLA TE XXI u* o w V f{ lo w < w Pi M H W E H PLATE XXn Rome, Capitoline Gallery THE BAPTISM OF CHRIST CmCA 1512-1514 PL A TE XXI n > O 2; 5 PLA TE XXIV VW.I/ TiTI/.NVs\icELLIVS , C AD, lNVENT & ^-' , ; .""PJ^^;- -V ^ J r^' ;** -S^-- ■'■l^,,. ' > o w PLATE LX.XIV PLA TE LXXVII Germany MAN WITH A HAWK (GIORGIO CORNARO?) CIRCA 1538 PLATE LX.XIV PLATE LXXVIl MAN WITH A HAWK (GIORGIO CORNARO?) CIRCA 1538 PLATE I.XXVIIl Paris, Louvre FRANCIS I CIRCA 1536-1539 ^ :>'■ .'■ PLA TE LXXIX S 2; o < H Z PL A TE LXXX ASSUMPTION OF THE VIRGIN CIRCA 1538-1540 PLATE LXXXI VtHice, S. Marzxale TOBIAS AND THE ANGEL CIKCA 1540 PLATE LXXXII PLATE LXXXIII Vienna, Czernin Colieclion DOGE ANDREA GRITTI CUICA 1541 PLATE LXXXIV Madrid, Prado ALLOCUTION OP THE GENERAL DliL VASTO ■54' PLA TE LXXXy Berlin, K. Friedricli Mllseitin DAUGHTER OF ROBERTO STROZZI 1542 PLATE LXXXVI London, Sir Julius IVernher, Bart. GIACOMO DORIA CIHCA 1543 PLATE LXXXVll Paris, Louvre PORTRAIT OF A MAN cinCA 1543 Pl.A TE LXXXVlir VrbiHo, Mnseo Civico THE LAST SUPPER PLA TB T.XXXIX Vrbino, Mtiseo Crvico THE RESURRECTION 1542-1544 PLA TE XC PLA TE XCI PLATE XCll ^^^^^H^->^^^X' ^^J^ipinillllllll III! ■.»^^^^^H^j^^ft« ^^^^^^^m ^K^^ ^^^kSk^^v / ,^v" > , L ^^F ^|K 'i^"''*'""^p ifll i^'C^'4^IK ^fi imH^^^^^I^^^^^^I HHiflRvi'~ "^^1 ^^^^^^^H #^&^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^l I'enice, Sia. Maria della Salute DAVID AND GOLIATH IS43-IS44 PLA TE XCIII PLATE XCIV Na/les, Miiseo NazionaU POPE PAUL III 1543 PLATE XCV Madrid, Prado THE EMPRESS ISABELLA _ 1543-1544 PLATE XCVr PLATK XCni Florence, PiUi PIF.TRO ARETINO 1545 PL A TE XCVIII PIETRO ARETINO Nciplcs, Miiseo Nazii^iaU PAUL III, OTTAVIO AND CARDINAL FARNESE '54S (unfinished) p*^* ^^^i ^^ HHH^^^^I B^^^^^^H ^■1 I ^r 5P ^^pm H^H 1 SI &»*»' • iflBkj ^ ■^iiS^ ^H l^^j^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ^»i^ HHljIF 1 J^^ 1 ri.AI'E CI PIER LUIGI FARNESE 1546 PLA TE C!l ^^■ik' '>'' ^■^■■■■1 f k: * "E ^v w> Wm'.^ ■■ i 9 -x. ^vmlb'^. ■ ^, f 1 g.^ p" ^B K 1 k' ■■' J. / ^ ^^^^H^^EUP^^ Lj '»P '^^v -^^^^^K ra m^F Br Pm^^e ■.,tM m^^^ ^^^^H ■ 1- ^^^ wm- '■*S^ - ['^■Fr; ^£^?^^^-^-- HKi^ii J 1 ^■^V ' ^^SfiJP' ■'*'. Venice, Acadetny ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST CIRCA I543-1546 PLATE cm PLATE Cir Seyravalk, Duomo Canvas iMAUONNA IX (JLORV WlTll SS. I'ETER AND ANDREW '547 PLA TB CI • ChattttUyt Mitsc't Coiid^ ECCE HOMO 1547 PLATE ClI Munich, Alte Pinakotkek CHARLES V 1548 PLATE CVII Madrid, Piado CHARLES V AT THE BATTLE OF MUHLBERG 1548 PLATE CVIIl ijLi^on G.iUci'V NICHOLAS ORANVELLA 1548 PLATE CIX ^iadrid. Count I-Iiiescar DUKE OF ALVA 1548 PLATE CX Madrid, Prado MATER DOLOROSA 1548 PLATE CXI yienna. Imperial Gallery THE ELECTOR JOHN FREDERICK OF SAXONY 1548-1550 PLATE exit PLA TE CXIII Hampton Court PORTRAIT OF A MAN DATED 1545 ? 154S PLA TE CXIV Pans, Louvre THE CROWNING WITH THORNS CIUCA 15 13-1550 MISSING PAGE MISSING PAGE Pai IS, Louvre THE CROWNING WITH THORNS CIRCA 1513-1550 PLATE CXVII PHILIP II 1550 ? 1560 PLA TE CXVUl Miiiikh, Alte Puiakotluk MAN WITH A BATON CIUCA 15H-1550 PLATE CXIX Vieitna, liiipcyiai GalUty BENEDETTO VARCHI 1550 PL A TE CXX < u PLA TE CXXI Madrid, Prado ST. ArARGARET 1550-1552 PLA TE CX.XII P ■1 ^^V (?-JI ■ P^^^l ^MI^^^^^^K? Tr tfJfnMB ^^^1 ^\S^B^^^^^^^H ^^^^F^ 1 g «!b « ^TB ..«;i^ 4i fl-jS >r ^ Btoa&^lliMBB^^^^f "^fes^^^ ^ ^■- k UMMttL --!;iA2L>^.',..:%^->;:^^>;' ^ ^^^ 1 r ^ k fl ^^H^p ^ ^'>^^K^m w- F 'fl ^ JM M c i J /^^H A Qg ^ J r ? ^^^^^^^^^^^^^1 '''''f ^^^^^^^^^1 f , s Wm 'iS^fsk i . , ''^^lA ^^!*?*' ^ ^1,-^. X PBy aR=^ K*39^^^^Hi , 't%^ il 2 KS. ' k 9. 'f1 riffiff €.a i""'"!?^, „ . 4 K ' ^cfjrejber .^^> c/f^'- ' " ^»- •■.:• .- ■■■?T':.iit. Berlin, A- FrzedfiOi AUiseitm LAVINIA HOLDING A CHARGER CIRCA 1558-1560 PLA TE C XXX in Londojt, firidt^eniater House DIAN"A AND ACTAEON 1555 PLA TE CXXXIV Loildull, Hridj^ivjaey House UIAMA AND CAl.IbTO 1 5513 PLATE CXXXV Vienna, Imperial Museu/i. DIANA ANJJ CALISTO CIRCA 1559-1562 PLATE CXXXVI yenict, Gesniti MARTYRDOM OF SI'. LAWRENCE CIKCA 1558-1560 FLA I'E CXXXVIl Berlin, A'. Friedrich MuseufJ. PORTRAIT OF TITIAN (unfinished) CIUCA 1558-1562 PL A TE CXXXVIII Munich, A lit PinakoChek MADONNA AND CHILD CIRC\ 1360 PL A TE C XXX IX J O H *• O U "1 H PLATE CXL Madrid, Prado THE FALL OF MAN CIKCA 1560 PLATE CXLI o H o u < = .-,.. .-&JSIS 1 ,jl V ■ - i :^mR^Bs^^^ ^^ ^^■- ;;« '. r ,,»■■■ ■ ^^^^^^^^m MP r M.^'W ^ _ \^^^^- ^ & ..Sg*'- ■•?■■■'' _. . '■ HI'- '^Sl^^l • ^J ^ ■ IP ■iB '^' K i k^^^Bhh^. ''*'' ^^^^^P <*■'. ■^■; IP MISSING PAGE MISSING PAGE PLATE CXLV St. Peiersbiii-g, Hirinitagi ST. MARY MAGDALENE 1561 PLATE CXLVl AncojLa Gallery CRUCIFIXION 1561 Fi.ATE cxi.yn Venice, Palazzo Reals VVISDOil (CEILING) CIKCA 1559 ? 1562 PLATE CXLVni PLATE CXLIX PLATE CL Rome, Bor^hise ST. DOMINIC CIRCA 1560-1565 PL A TE CLl I 'I'exfia, Imperial Gallery THE ADULTERESS BEFORE CHRIST UNFINISHED CIRCA I555-1562 PLATF. CLIl PLA TE CLin Venice, S. Salvalore THE ANNUNCIATION CIKCA 1560-1565 PLATE CLIV H K H O Z o < o PLATE CI.V w M-M^ ^^ J^lr ^■"' %, "1 " London, Pf^allace Collection PERSEUS ANij. ANDROMEDA CIRCA 1562-1565 PLATE CL]'! PL ATE CLVIl Madrid, Prado RELIGION SUCCOURED BY SPAIN 1530-1566 PLATE CLVni yien}ta, hnferial Gallery JACOPO STRADA 1^66- r 568 PLATE CLIX W' ■■P^^^^H ■ ^^^^^^^^^^V ^^ift^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^K^^^^^^^^^^^ j 1 1 1 ^^pH^^I u fa o o H < c PLATE CLX St, PeUrsbtirg, Hermitage SALVATOR MUNDI CIRCA 1568 ^ PLATE CLXI Madrid, Prado PORTRAIT OF TITIAN CIRCA 1566-1570 PL A TE CLXJI London, Dr. L. HJond MADONNA AND CHILD 1566-1570 PLATE CLXIII 'Madrid, Prado CHRIST BEARING THE CROSS 1570-1573 PLATE CLXIV .*k. ' ■':■'■>., w^^ ^^^^^H \«fc.^ 'i'^i-''V ^^1 '^SHn ^HB w^^^ H Hi a p. |fli^ ^^^ ^^^^4 i %:■ Ji k "'"'-^ hl^-: b ^k i ■ ifl y ■^■' ' ,%, i 4^ 1,^ .t^r^l^Ki:, -S^I^P' ^^^K^^ ) ,. ,*- F^ ^^^^^^l(||^^HBH 1 •a.L. ;! r^^^^^^ W^l^ ,.., > 's • # ^ i Jm ? 'P^|^^^^»*^:.?:|:;:Si $-'■■', *' 1 y ^ r^ A 1 S£ 1 r 11 .. Jmb^J:-- . 1 ■ K 1 ^' ■' fel^^P^" ■^^^ -*S-'-^'' ^r ^H ! :- 1' .^•" .^,f*x. jfeaK-y- ' ^^ '^^ ^^^^1 JWs ,%fr ^^^^^H ; ^i^^^HP^^'"' i ■ . ,.^ |k.4-Q[^ %^ 1 ^ St. Petersburg, /lennifage ST. SEBASTIAN CIKCA 1570-1573 MISSING PAGE Mmiieh^AUiPiuakulhtk CHRIST CROWNED WITH THORNS cmCA i^7P^?4 MISSING PAGE Si.Petersburg^Uermimse ^^ SEBASTIAN CIRCA 1570-1573 PLA TE CLXVII Munich, AlU Pinakothek CHRIST CROWNED WITH THORNS CIKCA 15; PLATE CLXVIII Venice, Academy riETA 1573-1576 PLATJL clxjx Paris, Ecole des Beaux Arts MURDER OF A WOMAN PLATE CLXX Pans, Louvre JUDGMENT OF PARIS PLATE CLX.M Floyetice, Uffisi STUDY OF A WOMAN PLATE CLXXIl I'l \ wfmm tf w m i^ \ €1 PLA IE CLXXIII is P E- O u B t'LATE CLXXIV Florence, UJfizi SKETCH OF FOUR SAINTS, ETC. PLATE CLXXi' Florence^ Ujffizi SKETCH rOR THE "ST. PETER MARTYR" PL A TE CLXXVl t-i. w s H Si o PLATE CLXXVIl H < s PLATE CLX?(VIII Vienna^ Liecft/eiisleiii Gallery MADONNA, ST. CATHERINE AND ST. JOHN THE BAPJIST BY TITIAN AND FRANCESCO VECELLIO, CIRCA I516 Paris, Louvre MADONNA, ST. JOSEPH AND ST. JOHN FKANCESCO VECELLIO PLATE CLXXIX -W^ PLATE CLXXX j -.„. „ . „..,,. ^.i^i^- ■' ■■ w^ '- 'f- E. .-;" ■■-■..,; IL m^ ■ fltt £ i^ ^'^ ^^ SgM^tHK^S^ ^.JV j^,/ ^^^m IK..^ ^^ In- K -■^ ?!-— ^..^.,i:«^l ^ '^JliW*'" r k.T. 1. ' *' 'll/ *-- ["V < r ■ 'i .y Jf V f I' ^ ^|||MMg||j^ ' ..MHiRSti M||^0 1^, Paris, Louvre MADONNA ST. CATHERINE AND ST. JOHN THK BAPTIST FRANCFSCO VECELLTO, CIRCA 154O CLASSICS OF ART UNDER the above title Messrs. Methuen are publishing a new Library of Art, which will be specially distinguished by profuseness and completeness of illustration. There are already many series dealing with Art before the public, but the Library which Messrs. Methuen have planned presents features which render it tinique, and give it special claims to the attention of the student and lover of Art. The Library is divided into two sections. The first deals with Great Artists. The text, by highly competent critics, is concise but sufficient, and there are Chronological Tables, a Bibliography, and such Lists and Gatalogues as a student may require. The Illustrations, for the most part full page plates, will be printed with the greatest care, and will be very numerous ; reproduc- ing all the Master's pictures, as far as that is practicable. Tlie first volumes in this section are ' Velazquez,' ' Titian,' and ' Rubens,' and the number of illustrations assigned to each volume will show that the promise of lavish illustration has been fulfilled. The second section deals with various Arts or branches or periods of Art, and the books are all written by men of recognised authority. In these the literary matter will comprise a general survey of the Art in question, with a sketch of its origin, development and affinities, and a ?isystematic and complete account of its various departments. A Bibliography and Chronological Tables and Lists, if necessary, will also be given. The Illustrations will include typical and famous examples chosen to represent different periods and styles, and Draw- ings and Diagrams explanatory of technical processes will find a place. The first volumes in this section are ' The Art of the Greeks ' by H. B. Walters, and ' Florentine Sculptors of the Renaissance ' by Dr. Bode of Berhn. The volumes are handsome in appearance, of the size of this Prospectus, the illustrations are as large as is consistent with con- venience, and the type is shown in the specimen page. Despite their size, and the unusual scale of illustration, the books are published at a comparatively low price. They are under the editorial supervision of Dr. J. H. W. Laing. GREEK ART In order to acquire this knowledge it is necessary also to examine such visible monuments of its life as have been handed down to us, not only in the shape of works of art strictly so called, but of every, object which can be regarded as evidence of its productive capacity or as an illustration of its every-day life. To collect, classify, and interpret such material is the work of Archgeology. Now this material has been handed down to us partly in spoken language and written documents, partly in manners and customs, partly in remains of architecture, sculpture, and painting, and the subordinate, decorative arts, such as vases, coins, or gems, and it is with the latter class that the study of Greek Art; is concerned ; with what Sir, Charles Newton has styled the Monumental branch of Archaeology. It may indeed be argued in a utilitarian age that such a study has no practical justification, inasmuch as it can do notliing to solvfe modern problems, social, political, or intellectual ; but ' knowledge comes ' if * wisdom lingers,' and the feeling is universal that Pope was right in insisting that ' the proper study of mankind is Man.' And so we desire to know not only ourselves but our forefathers ; not only our own capacities and limitations, but theirs ; human knowledge is not complete unless it traces out the past to its utmost limits and in all its achievements. The study of Greek art, then, needs no apology from its advocates ; and all around, in universities, in schools, and in olhe™ systems of education, it is beginning to find a recognised place ; nor must we forget that it appeals in a high degree to the artist, he dilettante, and the connoisseur. The present work cannot indeed claim to satisfy all these demands ; its objects, will be sufficiently, obtained if the professed student finds in it an adequate account of the rise and development of each branch of Greek art ; the ama'^^ur a selection of monuments illustrative of the chief characteristics which each period and each branch of the subject exhibits ; and the technical inquirer a brief account of the processes of working in the different materials. It may meanwhile best serve the end of imparting, to what m.iy seem to some a dry record of facts, more intelligibility and interest, if it is prefaced by a few remarks of a general character. In this opening chapter some attempt will be made to point out the feati es which mark off' Greek art so strongly from that of all other nations, both ancient and modern, and combined to produce the most wonder- ful creations the world has ever witnessed. It must not be ignored 21 [Specimen Page}