_Titian_ (Venetian: 1477-1576). _See 4._
A picture of the evensong of nature and of the evening of a life's
tragedy. "The hues and harmonies of evening" are upon the distant hills
and plain; and whilst the shadows fall upon the middle slopes, there
falls too "the awful shadow of some unseen Power" upon the repentant
woman who has been keeping her vigil in the peaceful solitude; at the
sound of her name she has turned from her weeping and fallen forward
on her knees towards him whom she now knows to be her master. "The
impetuosity with which she has thrown herself on her knees in shown
by the fluttering drapery of her sleeve,[127] which is still buoyed
up by the air; thus with a true painter's art telling the action of
the previous moment" (_Quarterly Review_, October 1888). She stretches
out her hand to touch him, but is checked by his words; as Christ, who
is represented with a hoe in his hand because she had first supposed
him to be the gardener, bids her forbear: "Touch me not," "noli me
tangere," "for I am not yet ascended to my Father:" it is not on this
side of the hills that the troubled soul can enter into the peace of
forgiveness.
This beautiful picture was bequeathed to the National Gallery by Samuel
Rogers. It is usually ascribed to Titian's earlier or "Giorgionesque"
period. "The Magdalen is, appropriately enough, of the same type as
the exquisite golden-blond courtesans--or, if you will, models--who
constantly appear and re-appear in this period of Venetian art" (C.
Phillips: _The Earlier Work of Titian_, p. 52).