_School of Titian_ (Venetian). _See under next picture._
The young man in the red velvet cap plays on the violoncello;
the other on the oboe, of which only the reed is visible. The
other three are vocalists. The master is keeping time, and is
intent on the boy pupil. The young girl, with her hand on her
husband's shoulder, is waiting to chime in, and looks far away
the while to where the music takes her. "In Titian's portraits
you always see the soul,--faces 'which pale passion loves.'
Look at the Music-piece by Titian--it is 'all ear,'--the
expression is evanescent as the sounds--the features are seen
in a sort of dim _chiaroscuro_, as if the confused impressions
of another sense intervened--and you might easily suppose some
of the performers to have been engaged the night before in
Mask or midnight serenade
Which the starved lover to his mistress sings
Best quitted with disdain."
(HAZLITT: _Criticisms on Art_, edition 1843, p. 10).
Perhaps it is indeed a travelling party of musicians practising for
a serenade. Certainly one thinks of this picture as one reads of a
supper party at Titian's house. "Before the tables were set out, we
spent the time in looking at the lifelike figures in the excellent
paintings of which the house was full, and in discussing the real
beauty and charm of the garden, which was a pleasure and a wonder to
every one. It is situated in the extreme part of Venice upon the sea,
and from it may be seen the pretty little island of Murano, and other
beautiful places. This part of the sea, as soon as the sun went down,
swarmed with gondolas adorned with beautiful women, and resounded with
varied harmonies--the music of voices and instruments till midnight"
(Priscianese, describing a visit to Titian in 1540: cited in Heath's
_Titian_, "Great Artists" series, p. 53).