TITIAN.

"If I were required," says Mrs. Jameson, "to sum up in two great names

whatever the art of painting had contemplated and achieved of highest

and best, I would invoke Raphael and Titian. The former as the most

perfect example of all that has been accomplished in the expression of

thought through the medium of form; the latter, of all that has been

accomplished in the expression of life through the medium of color.

Hence it is that, while _both_ have given us mind, and _both_ have given

us beauty, _Mind_ is ever the characteristic of Raphael--_Beauty_, that

of Titian.

[Illustration: TITIAN.]

"Considered under this point of view, these wonderful men remain to us

as representatives of the two great departments of art. All who went

before them, and all who follow after them, may be ranged under the

banners of one or the other of these great kings and leaders. Under the

banners of Raphael appear the majestic thinkers in art, the Florentine

and Roman painters of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries; and Albert

Duerer, in Germany. Ranged on the side of Titian appear the Venetian, the

Lombard, the Spanish, and Flemish masters. When a school of art arose

which aimed at uniting the characteristics of both, what was the result?

A something second-hand and neutral--the school of the Academicians and

the _mannerists_, a crowd of painters who neither felt what they saw,

nor saw what they felt; who trusted neither to the God within them, nor

the nature around them; and who ended by giving us Form without

Soul--Beauty without Life."

Ruskin says, "When Titian or Tintoret look at a human being, they see at

a glance the whole of its nature, outside and in; all that it has of

form, of color, of passion, or of thought; saintliness and loveliness;

fleshly power and spiritual power; grace, or strength, or softness, or

whatsoever other quality, those men will see to the full, and so paint

that, when narrower people come to look at what they have done, every

one may, if he chooses, find his own special pleasure in the work. The

sensualist will find sensuality in Titian; the thinker will find

thought; the saint, sanctity; the colorist, color; the anatomist, form;

and yet the picture will never be a popular one in the full sense, for

none of these narrower people will find their special taste so alone

consulted as that the qualities which would insure their gratification

shall be sifted or separated from others; they are checked by the

presence of the other qualities, which insure the gratification of other

men.... Only there is a strange undercurrent of everlasting murmur about

the name of Titian, which means the deep consent of all great men that

he is greater than they."

Strong praise indeed!--"the deep consent of all great men that he is

greater than they;"--strong praise for the tireless worker, of whom

Ludovico Dolce wrote, who knew him personally, that "he was most modest;

that he never spoke reproachfully of other painters; that, in his

discourse, he was ever ready to give honor where honor was due; that he

was, moreover, an eloquent speaker, having an excellent wit and a

perfect judgment in all things; of a most sweet and gentle nature,

affable and most courteous in manner; so that whoever once conversed

with him could not choose but love him thenceforth forever." He was

remarkably calm and self-poised through life, saying that a painter

should never be agitated. And yet he was a man of strong feelings and

tender affections.

Titian, the lover of the beautiful, was born at Arsenale, in the Valley

of Cadore, in the heart of the Venetian Alps, in the year 1477. His

father, Gregorio Vecelli, was a brave soldier, a member of the Council

of Cadore, inspector of mines, superintendent of the castle, and, though

probably limited in means, was universally esteemed for wisdom and

uprightness. Of the mother, Lucia, little is known, save that she bore

to Gregorio four children, Caterina, Francesco, Orsa, and Titian.

In this Alpine country, with its waterfalls and its rushing river,

Piave, with its mountain wild-flowers, its jagged rocks and nestling

cottages, the boy Titian grew to be passionately fond of nature; to

idolize beauty of form and face, and to revel in color. The clouds, the

sky, the cliffs, the greensward, were a constant delight. In after years

he put all these changing scenes upon canvas, becoming the most famous

idealist as well as the "greatest landscape-painter of the Venetian

school."

The story is told, though it has been denied by some authorities, that

before he was ten years of age he had painted, on the walls of his home

at Cadore, with the juice of flowers, a Madonna, the Child standing on

her knee, while an angel kneels at her feet. The father and relatives

were greatly surprised and pleased, and the lad was taken to Venice,

seventy miles from Cadore, and placed with an uncle, so that he might

study under the best artists.

His first teacher seems to have been Sebastian Zuccato, the leader of

the guild of mosaic-workers. He was soon, however, drawn to the studio

of Gentile Bellini, an artist seventy years old, noted for his knowledge

of perspective and skill in composition. He had travelled much, and had

gathered into his home pictures and mosaics of great value: the head of

Plato, a statue of Venus by Praxiteles, and other renowned works. What

an influence has such a home on a susceptible boy of eleven or twelve

years of age! Gentile was a man of tender heart as well as of refined

taste. Asked to paint portraits of the sultan and sultana, the aged

artist went to Constantinople in 1479 and presented the ruler with a

picture of the decapitation of St. John. The sultan criticised the

work, and, to show the painter the truth of the criticism, had the head

of a slave struck off in his presence, whereupon the artist, sick at

heart, returned at once to Venice.

The young Cadorine studied carefully the minute drawings of Gentile

Bellini, but, with an originality peculiar to himself, sketched boldly

and rapidly. The master was displeased, and the boy sought the studio of

his brother, Giovanni Bellini, an artist with more brilliant style, and

broader contrasts in light and shade.

Here he met Giorgione as a fellow-pupil, who soon became his warm

friend. This man studied the works of Leonardo da Vinci, and became

distinguished for boldness of design and richness of color. Titian was

his assistant and devoted admirer.

Another person who greatly influenced the early life of Titian was Palma

Vecchio of Bergamo, eminent for his portraits of women. Perhaps there

was a special bond between these two men, for it is asserted that Titian

loved Palma's beautiful daughter, Violante. Palma had three daughters,

whom he frequently painted; one picture, now at Dresden, shows Violante

in the centre between her two sisters; another, St. Barbara in the

church of Santa Maria Formosa in Venice, Palma's masterpiece, and still

another, Violante, at Vienna, with a violet in her bosom.

Titian's earliest works were a fresco of Hercules, on the front of the

Morosini Palace; a Madonna, now in the Vienna Belvedere, which shows

genuine feeling with careful finish; and portraits of his parents, now

lost. His first important work was painted about the year 1500, when he

was twenty-three, "Sacred and Profane Love," now in the Borghese Palace

at Rome.

Eaton says of this, "Out of Venice there is nothing of Titian's to

compare to his 'Sacred and Profane Love.'... Description can give no

idea of the consummate beauty of this composition. It has all Titian's

matchless warmth of coloring, with a correctness of design no other

painter of the Venetian school ever attained. It is nature, but not

individual nature; it is ideal beauty in all its perfection, and

breathing life in all its truth, that we behold."

Crowe and Cavalcaselle, who have studied the more than one thousand

pictures to which the name of Titian is attached, say in their life of

the great painter, "The scene is laid in a pleasure ground surrounded by

landscape, swathed in the balmy atmosphere of an autumnal evening. A

warm glow is shed over hill, dale, and shore, and streaks of gray cloud

alternate with bands of light in a sunset sky. To the right, in the

distance, a church on an island, and a clump of cottages on a bend of

land, bathed by the waters of the sea; and two horsemen on a road watch

their hounds coursing a hare. To the left a block of buildings and a

tower half illumined by a ray of sun crown the hillside, where a knight

with his lance rides to meet a knot of villagers.

"Nearer to the foreground, and at measured intervals, saplings throw

their branches lightly on the sky, which, nearer still, is intercepted

in the centre of the space by a group of rich-leaved trees, rising

fan-like behind the marble trough of an antique fountain. Enchanting

lines of hill and plain, here in shadow, there in light, lead us to the

foreground, where the women sit on a lawn watered by the stream that

issues from the fountain, and rich in weeds that shoot forked leaves and

spikes out of the grass.

"Artless (Sacred) Love, on one side, leans, half-sitting, on the ledge

of the trough, a crystal dish at her side, symbolizing her thoughts. Her

naked figure, slightly veiled by a length of muslin, is relieved upon a

silken cloth hanging across the arm, and helping to display a form of

faultless shape and complexion. The left hand holds aloft the vase and

emblematic incense of love; the right, resting on the ledge, supports

the frame as the maiden turns, with happy earnestness, to gaze at her

companion. She neither knows nor cares to heed that Cupid is leaning

over the hinder ledge of the fountain and plashing in the water.... Not

without coquetry, or taste for sparkling color, the chestnut hair of the

naked maiden is twisted in a rose-colored veil; the cloth at her loins

is of that golden white which sets off so well the still more golden

whiteness of her skin. The red silk falling from her arm, and partly

waving in the air, is of that crimson tone which takes such wonderful

carminated changes in the modulations of its surface, and brings out by

its breaks the more uniform pearl of the flesh."

To this figure of Sacred Love, into which the young painter evidently

put his heart, he gave the beautiful and half-pensive face of Violante.

Did he intend thus to immortalize her, while he immortalized himself?

Very likely.

"Sated (Profane) Love sits to the left, her back resolutely turned

towards Cupid, her face determined, haughty, but serene; her charms

veiled in splendid dress, her very hands concealed in gloves.... A

plucked rose fades unheeded by the sated one's side, and a lute lies

silent under her elbow.... She seems so grand in her lawns and silks;

her bosom is fringed with such delicate cambric; her waist and skirt, so

finely draped in satin of gray reflexes; the red girdle, with its

jewelled clasp, the rich armlets, the bunch of roses in her gloved hand,

all harmonize so perfectly."

For the next six or seven years, while Venice was engaged in wars with

the French and the Turks, little is known of the young Titian, save that

he must have been growing in fame, as he painted the picture of the

infamous Caesar Borgia, the son of Pope Alexander VI., Jacopo da Pesaro,

Bishop of Paphos, who had charge of the Papal squadron against the

Turks, and other paintings, now lost. The picture of Pesaro was owned by

Charles I. of England. In 1825 William I., King of the Netherlands,

presented it to the city of Antwerp, where it is highly prized.

In 1507 the State of Venice engaged Giorgione to fresco the new Fondaco

de' Tedeschi, a large public structure for the use of foreign merchants,

which had two halls, eighty rooms, and twenty-six warehouses. A portion

of this work was transferred to Titian. Above the portal in the southern

face of the building, Titian painted a "Judith," the figure of a woman

seated on the edge of a stone plinth, in front of a stately edifice. In

her right hand she waves a sword, while with her left foot she tramples

on a lifeless head. Two other grand frescos were painted by him, all now

despoiled by the northern or "Tramontana" winds.

Says one writer, "Whilst Giorgione showed a fervid and original spirit,

and opened up a new path, over which he shed a light that was to guide

posterity, Titian exhibited in his creations a grander but more equable

genius, leaning at first, indeed, on Giorgione's example, but expanding,

soon after, with such force and rapidity as to place him in advance of

his rival, on an eminence which no later craftsman was able to climb.

Titian was characterized by this, that he painted flesh in which the

blood appeared to mantle, whilst the art of the painter was merged in

the power of a creator.

"He imagined forms of grander proportions, of more sunny impast, of more

harmonious hues, than his competitors. With incomparable skill he gave

tenderness to flesh, by transitions of half-tone and broken contrasted

colors. He moderated the fire of Giorgione, whose strength lay in

resolute action, fanciful movement, and a mysterious artifice in

disposing shadows contrasting darkly with hot red lights, blended,

strengthened, or blurred so as to produce the semblance of exuberant

life."

It is said by some writers that Giorgione never forgave Titian for

excelling him in the frescos of the Fondaco; but, however this may be,

when the noted artist and poet died, soon after, at the age of

thirty-four, Titian completed all his unfinished pictures. Giorgione

loved tenderly a girl who deserted him through the influence of Morto da

Feltri, an intimate friend, who lived under his roof. The latter was

killed in the battle of Zara in 1519, after his friend Giorgione had

died of a broken heart at the loss of his beloved.

Between 1508 and 1511 Titian painted several Madonnas, one in the

Belvedere at Vienna, one in Florence, one in the Louvre, and the

beautiful "Madonna and St. Bridget" now at Madrid.

"St. Bridget stands with a basin of flowers in her hand, in front of the

infant Saviour, who bends out of the Virgin's arms to seize the

offering, yet turns his face to his mother, as if inquiring shall he

take it or not. Against the sky and white cloud of the distance, the

form of St. Bridget alone is relieved. The Virgin and the saint in armor

to the left stand out in front of hangings of that gorgeous green which

seems peculiar in its brightness to the Venetians. With ease in action

and movement, a charming expression is combined. The juicy tints and

glossy handling are those of Titian's Palmesque period; and St. Bridget

is the same lovely girl whose features Palma painted with equal fondness

and skill in the panel called Violante, at the Belvedere of Vienna....

Titian shows much greater fertility of resource in the handling of flesh

than Palma, being much more clever and subtle in harmonizing light with

half-tint by tender and cool transitions of gray crossed with red, and

much more effective in breaking up shadow with contrasting touches of

livid tone, yet fusing and blending all into a polished surface, fresh

as of yesterday, and of almost spotless purity, by the use of the

clearest and finest glazings that it is possible to imagine."

Titian was now thirty-four, with probably the same love for Violante in

his heart, but still poor, and struggling with untiring industry for the

great renown which he saw before him.

At this time Titian painted one of his most noted works, thought by some

to be his masterpiece, "The Tribute Money," now in the museum at

Dresden. It was painted at the request of Alfonso d'Este, Duke of

Ferrara. Scanelli, who wrote in 1655, tells this story concerning the

picture.

"Titian was visited on a certain occasion by a company of German

travellers, who were allowed to look at the pictures which his studio

contained. On being asked what impression these works conveyed, these

gentlemen declared that they only knew of one master capable of

finishing as they thought paintings ought to be finished, and that was

Duerer; their impression being that Venetian compositions invariably fell

below the promise which they had given at their first commencement.

"To these observations Titian smilingly replied, that if he had thought

extreme finish to be the end and aim of art, he too would have fallen

into the excesses of Duerer. But, though long experience had taught him

to prefer a broad and even track to a narrow and intricate path, yet he

would still take occasion to show that the subtlest detail might be

compassed without sacrifice of breadth; and so produced the Christ of

the Tribute Money."

Crowe and Cavalcaselle say, "Vasari reflects an opinion which holds to

this day, that the 'head of Christ is stupendous and miraculous.'" It

was considered by all the artists of his time as the most perfect and

best handled of any that Titian ever produced; but for us it has

qualities of a higher merit than those of mere treatment. Single as the

subject is, the thought which it embodies is very subtle.

"Christ turns towards the questioning Pharisee, and confirms with his

eye the gesture of his hand, which points to the coin. His face is

youthful, its features and short curly beard are finely framed in a

profusion of flowing locks. The Pharisee to the right stands in profile

before Jesus, holds the coin, and asks the question. The contrast is

sublime between the majestic calm and elevation and what Inandt calls

the 'Godlike beauty' of Christ, and the low cunning and coarse air of

the Pharisee; between the delicate chiselling of the features, the soft

grave eye and pure-cut mouth of the Saviour, and the sharp aquiline nose

or the crafty glance of the crop-haired, malignant Hebrew....

"The form of Christ was never conceived by any of the Venetians of such

ideal beauty as this. Nor has Titian ever done better; and it is quite

certain that no one, Titian himself included, within the compass of the

North Italian schools, reproduced the human shape with more nature and

truth, and with greater delicacy of modelling. Amidst the profusion of

locks that falls to Christ's shoulders, there are ringlets of which we

may count the hairs, and some of these are so light that they seem to

float in air, as if ready to wave at the spectator's breath. Nothing can

exceed the brightness and sheen or the transparent delicacy of the

colors. The drapery is admirable in shade and fold, and we distinguish

with ease the loose texture of the bright red tunic, and that of the

fine broadcloth which forms the blue mantle. The most perfect easel

picture of which Venice ever witnessed the production, this is also the

most polished work of Titian."

In 1511 Titian was called to Padua and Vicenza, where he executed some

frescos, principally from the life of St. Anthony, returning to Venice

in 1512.

He was now famous, and Pope Leo X. naturally desired to draw him to

Rome, where Raphael and Michael Angelo were the admired of all. Cardinal

Bembo, the secretary of the pope, and the friend of Raphael, importuned

Titian; but the Venetian loved his own state and preferred to serve her,

sending, May 31, 1513, the following petition to the Council of Ten.

"I, Titian of Cadore, having studied painting from childhood upwards,

and desirous of fame rather than profit, wish to serve the Doge and

Signori, rather than his highness the pope and other Signori, who in

past days, and even now, have urgently asked to employ me. I am

therefore anxious, if it should appear feasible, to paint in the Hall of

Council, beginning, if it please their sublimity, with the canvas of the

battle on the side towards the Piazza, which is so difficult that no one

as yet has had the courage to attempt it."

For this work Titian asked a moderate compensation, and the first vacant

brokership for life, all of which the government granted. He moved into

a studio in the old palace of the Duke of Milan, at San Samuele on the

Grand Canal, where he remained for sixteen years.

It seemed now as though comfort were guaranteed to the hard-working

artist. But unfortunately rivalries arose. The Bellinis had worked in

this Hall of Council in the Ducal Palace, till they felt the position to

be theirs by right. After long discussions, Titian was successful,

receiving from the Fondaco an annuity of one hundred ducats as a

broker, and the privilege of exemption from certain taxes, while, on the

other hand, he had to paint the Doge's portrait.

Titian was now painting the following works for Alfonso d'Este, Duke of

Ferrara, who had married the handsome and celebrated Lucretia Borgia:--

The "Venus Worship," now in the Museum of Madrid, represents the goddess

standing on a marble pedestal, with two nymphs at her feet, while winged

cupids pluck the apples sacred to Venus, from the branches of great

trees, "climbing boughs like boys, dropping down from them like

thrushes, loading baskets, throwing and catching, tumbling, fighting,

and dancing."

This picture was a favorite study for artists, and it is said that

Domenichino wept when he heard that it had been carried to Spain.

"The Three Ages," now in the collection of Lord Ellesmere, has been

frequently copied. A cupid steps on two sleeping children: a beautiful

girl sits near her lover, "the holy feeling of youthful innocence and

affection charmingly expressed in both:" an old man contemplates two

skulls on the ground. "To the children, as to the lovers, the forms

appropriate to their age are given; and the whole subject is treated

with such harmony of means as to create in its way the impression of

absolute perfection."

The "Virgin's Rest, near Bethlehem," now in the National Gallery, shows

the mother with the infant Christ on her lap, taking a bunch of flowers

from St. John. The "Noli Me Tangere," also in the National Gallery,

represents Christ with Mary Magdalene on her knees before him. "One

cannot look without transport on the mysterious calm of this beautiful

scene, which Titian has painted with such loving care, yet with such

clever freedom. The picture is like a leaf out of Titian's journal,

which tells us how he left his house on the canals, and wandered into

the country beyond the lagoons, and lingered in the fresh sweet

landscape at eventide, and took nature captive on a calm day at summer's

end."

While painting these pictures, besides various portraits of the poet

Ariosto, Alfonso, and others, Titian was producing what is generally

regarded as his masterpiece, "The Assumption of the Virgin," a colossal

picture, now in the Academy of Arts at Venice. It was painted for Santa

Maria di Frari, and was shown to the public, March 20, 1518, on St.

Bernardino's Day, when all the public offices were closed by order of

the Senate, and a great crowd thronged the church.

"The gorgeous blue and red of Mary's tunic and mantle stand out

brilliant on the silvery ether, vaulted into a dome, supported by

countless cherubs. The ministry of the angels about her is varied and

eager. One raises the corner of the mantle, some play the tabor, others

hold the pipes, or sing in choir, whilst others again are sunk in

wonderment, or point at the Virgin's majesty; and the rest fade into

the sky behind, as the sound of bells fades sweetly upon the ear of the

passing traveller.... All but the head and arms of the Eternal is lost

in the halo of brightness towards which the Virgin is ascending. He

looks down with serene welcome in his face, an angel on one side ready

with a crown of leaves; an archangel swathed in drapery, on the other,

eagerly asking leave to deposit on the Virgin's brow the golden cincture

in his hands."

Titian was at once declared to be the foremost painter in Venice, and

was, indeed, the idol of the people.

He now painted the "Annunciation" for the Cathedral of Treviso, and

executed several frescos. Meantime, the Venetian Government threatened

that unless he went forward with the work in the Ducal Palace it should

be finished by others at his expense. Pressed on every hand for

pictures, he still neglected the Palace, and painted the brilliant

"Bacchanal," now at Madrid, for Duke Alfonso.

Ariadne reposes on the ground, insensible from wine, while a company of

Menads sport about her as Theseus sails away in the distance. The most

beautiful Menad, with white muslin tunic and ruby-red bodice and skirt,

has the exquisite face and form of Violante, with a violet or pansy on

her breast. The painter was now over forty, and still seemed to bear

Violante on his heart.

Ariadne, daughter of Minos, King of Crete, according to the legend,

fell in love with Theseus, when he came to Crete to kill the Minotaur,

and gave him a thread by means of which he found his way out of the

labyrinth. In gratitude he offered her his hand. She fled with him, and

he deserted her on the Island of Naxos, where Bacchus found her and

married her. On the "Bacchanal" a couplet shows its motive,--

"Who drinks not over and over again,

Knows not what drinking is."

Alfonso d'Este was delighted with this gay picture. Although Lucretia

Borgia, whom he never loved, had been dead but a few months, he had

married a girl in humble station, Laura Dianti, whom he loved tenderly,

and who kept his fickle heart true till his death. She must have been a

person of gentle and lovely nature, for the duke became kinder to

everybody, and more devoted to art, literature, and the refining

influences of life.

It is believed that the famous picture in the Louvre called "Titian and

his Mistress" represents Laura and Alfonso. "The girl stands behind a

table or slab of stone, dressing her hair, whilst a man in the gloom

behind her holds, with his left hand, a round mirror, the reflection of

which he catches with a square mirror in his right. Into the second of

these the girl gently bends her head to look, eagerly watched by her

lover, as she twists a long skein of wavy golden hair. Over the white

and finely plaited linen that loosely covers her bosom, a short green

bodice is carelessly thrown, and a skirt of the same stuff is gathered

to the waist by a sash of similar color. The left side of the girl's

head is already dressed; she is finishing the right side, and a

delightful archness and simplicity beam in the eyes as they turn to

catch the semblance in the mirror. The coal-black eye and brow contrast

with the ruddy hair; the chiselled nose projects in delicate line from a

face of rounded, yet pure contour; and the lips, of a cherry redness,

which Titian alone makes natural, are cut with surprising fineness. The

light is concentrated with unusual force upon the face and bust of the

girl, whilst the form and features of the man are lost in darkness. We

pass with surprising rapidity from the most delicate silvery gradations

of sunlit flesh and drapery, to the mysterious depths of an almost

unfathomable gloom, and we stand before a modelled balance of light and

shade that recalls Da Vinci, entranced by a chord of tonic harmony, as

sweet and as thrilling as was ever struck by any artist of the Venetian

school."

Tired with his constant labor, Titian journeyed to Conegliano, at the

foot of the Venetian Alps, and painted, at his leisure, a series of

frescos on the front of the Scuola di Santa Maria Nuova, in return for

which he received the gift of a house, where he rested ever after, when

on his way to Cadore.

In 1522 the great altar-piece of the "Resurrection" was finished for

Brescia, and placed on the high altar of St. Nazaro e Celso, where it

long remained an object of study by artists. Titian thought the

martyrdom of St. Sebastian, in this picture, the best thing he had ever

done.

Seven years had now passed since he had received the commission to paint

the Hall of the Great Council. His property was to be taken from him,

and, alarmed at the prospect, he worked vigorously for several weeks on

the "Battle of Cadore" or the other great painting, "The Humiliation of

the Emperor Barbarossa by Pope Alexander III."

Duke Alfonso was urging the overworked master for a new picture, the

"Bacchus and Ariadne," now in the National Gallery of England: a picture

five feet nine inches by six feet three inches. The scene is taken from

the classic poem of Catullus, when Ariadne, near the shore of Naxos,

flees from the presence of Bacchus, whose chariot is drawn by leopards.

He was the son of Jupiter by Semele, whose death being caused by Juno,

the god of the vintage was reared by nymphs in Thrace. He taught men the

cultivation of the vine and the art of wine-making.

Concerning this picture, Crowe and Cavalcaselle say, "Centuries have

robbed the canvas of its freshness, and restorers have done their best

to remove its brightest surfaces; yet no one who looks at it even now

can fail to acknowledge the magic of its enchantment. Rich harmony of

drapery tints and soft modelling, depth of shade and warm flesh, all

combine to produce a highly colored glow; yet in the midst of this glow

the form of Ariadne seems incomparably fair. Nature was never reproduced

more kindly or with greater exuberance than it is in every part of this

picture. What subtlety there is in the concentration of light on

Ariadne, which alone gives a focus to the composition. What splendor in

the contrasts of color, what wealth and diversity of scale in air and

vegetation; how infinite is the space, how varied yet mellow the

gradations of light and shade.

"There is not a single composition by Titian up to this time in which

the scene and the _dramatis personae_ are more completely in unison; and,

looking at these groves and cliffs and seas, or prying into the rich

vegetation of the foreground, we are startled beyond measure to think

that they were worked out piecemeal, that the figures were put in first

and the landscape last. Nor is it without curiosity that we inquire

where Titian got that landscape, where he studied that foreground; and

we are forced to conclude that he forsook the workshop on the Grand

Canal, where there certainly was no vegetation, even in the sixteenth

century, and went to Ferrara, and there reproduced with 'botanical

fidelity' the iris, the wild rose and columbine, which so exquisitely

adorn the very edge of the ground on which the Satyrs tread." This

picture has been copied by Rubens, Poussin, and other noted artists.

About this time the "Flora" of the Uffizi was painted, a beautiful

woman with the Violante face. "She is not yet dressed, but her hair is

looped up with a silken cord so as to shape the most charming puffs

above the ears, falling in short and plaited waves to the bosom, leaving

bare the whole of the face, the neck, and throat. No one here holds the

mirrors, yet the head is bent and the eyes are turned as if some one

stood by to catch the glance, and stretch a hand for the flowers; for

whilst with her left Flora strives by an intricate and momentary play of

the fingers, to keep fast the muslin that falls from her shoulder and

the damask that slips from her form, with the other she presents a

handful of roses, jessamines, and violets to an unseen lover. The white

dress, though muslin-fine and gathered into minute folds, is beyond

measure graceful in fall, and contrasts in texture as well as harmonizes

in color with the stiffer and more cornered stuff of the rose-tinged

cloth which shows such fine damask reflexes on the left arm."

At this time, also, Titian painted one of his most exquisite creations,

the "Sleeping Venus," now at Darmstadt, a graceful nude figure asleep on

a red couch strewn with roses, her arm under her head. The face is

delicate, innocent, pensive, and refined--still the face of

Violante,--one of the most beautiful, it seems to me, which an artist

has ever put upon canvas. There are several replicas in England and

elsewhere. The figure is not more perfect, perhaps, than the Venus of

the Uffizi, painted later for the Duke of Urbino, or the Venus of

Madrid; but the face is one which I have always felt an especial

pleasure in possessing.

Taine says of Titian, "He was endowed with that unique gift of producing

Venuses who are real women, and colossi who are real men, a talent for

imitating objects closely enough to win us with the illusion and of so

profoundly transforming objects as to enkindle reverie. He has at once

shown in the same nude beauty a courtesan, a patrician's mistress, a

listless and voluptuous fisherman's daughter, and a powerful ideal

figure, the masculine force of a sea-goddess, and the undulating forms

of a queen of the empyrean....

"The infinite diversities of nature, with all her inequalities, are open

to him; the strongest contrasts are within his range; each of his works

is as rich as it is novel. The spectator finds in him, as in Rubens, a

complete image of the world around him, a history, a psychology, in an

epitomized form."

The Venus Anadyomene, now in Lord Ellesmere's collection, rising

new-born but full-grown from the sea, wringing her long hair, has the

features of a new model, not Violante, but the same which Titian used in

his famous Magdalen. This represents a woman of about twenty-five, "with

finely rounded limbs and well-modelled figure, handsome face, and

streaming golden hair, and the white splendor of the entire form thrown

into bold relief by a dark and lonely background. The Magdalen is

distinguishable from Venus only by her upturned face and tearful eyes."

Who was this new model? Could it possibly have been Cecilia, the lady

whom Titian married about this time? In 1525, a son, Pomponio, was born

to him, who became a lifelong sorrow, and before 1530 two other

children, Orazio and Lavinia. The happiness of this married life was of

short duration, for on the fifth of August, 1530, after the birth of

Lavinia, with a mournful heart, he buried Cecilia. One of his friends

wrote to the warder of Mantua, "Our master, Titian, is quite

disconsolate at the loss of his wife, who was buried yesterday. He told

me that in the troubled time of her sickness he was unable to work at

the portrait of the Lady Cornelia, or at the picture of the 'Nude,'

which he is doing for our most illustrious lord."

Left with three helpless children, Titian sent to Cadore for his sister

Orsa, who came and cared for his household as long as she lived. He had

grown tired of his home on the Grand Canal, and, longing for the open

country, hired a house in the northern suburbs. A little later he took a

piece of land adjoining, which extended to the shore, and which became

famous in after years for its beauty as a garden and for the

distinguished people who gathered there.

Mrs. Jameson says, "He looked over the wide canal which is the

thoroughfare between the city of Venice and the Island of Murano; in

front, the two smaller islands of San Cristoforo and San Michele; and

beyond them Murano, rising on the right, with all its domes and

campanili like another Venice. Far off extended the level line of the

mainland, and in the distance the towering chain of the Friuli Alps,

sublime, half defined, with jagged snow-peaks soaring against the sky;

and more to the left, the Euganean hills, Petrarch's home, melting like

visions, into golden light. There, in the evening, gondolas filled with

ladies and cavaliers, and resounding with music, were seen skimming over

the crimson waves of the Lagoon, till the purple darkness came on

rapidly--not, as in the north, like a gradual veil, but like a gemmed

and embroidered curtain, suddenly let down over all. This was the view

from the garden of Titian; so unlike any other in the world that it

never would occur to me to compare it with any other. More glorious

combinations of sea, mountain, shore, there may be--I cannot tell;

_like_, it is nothing that I have ever beheld or imagined."

Who does not recall such beautiful scenes in silent Venice! And yet one

longs, while there, for the sound of the feet of horses, and the zest of

a nineteenth-century city; one feels as though life were going by in a

dream, and is anxious to awake and be a part of the world's eager,

stirring thought. Gondolas and moonlight evenings delight one for a

time, but not for long!

Titian was now fifty-four. He had painted the "Entombment of Christ,"

which was a favorite with Van Dyck, and helped to form his style--a

picture four feet and four inches by seven feet, now in the Louvre; the

Madonna of San Niccolo di Frari, now in the Vatican, which Pordenone is

reported to have said was "not painting, but flesh itself;" the "Madonna

di Casa Pesaro," which latter especially won the heartiest praise. St.

Peter, St. Francis, and St. Anthony of Padua implore the intercession of

the Virgin in favor of the members of the Pesaro family.

Crowe and Cavalcaselle thus speak of it: "High up on a spray of clouds

that inwreathe the pillars of the temple, two angels playfully sport

with the cross; and, with that wonderful insight which a painter gets

who has studied cloud form flitting over Alpine crags, Titian has not

only thrown a many-toned gradation of shade on the vapor, but shown its

projected shadow on the pillar. The light falls on the clouds, illumines

the sky between the pillars, and sheds a clear glow on the angels,

casting its brightest ray on the Madonna and the body of the infant

Christ.... Decompose the light or the shadow, and you find incredible

varieties of subtlety, which make the master's art unfathomable. Both

are balanced into equal values with a breadth quite admirable, the

utmost darks being very heavy and strong without losing their

transparency; the highest lights dazzling in brightness, yet broken and

full of sparkle. Round the form of the infant Christ the play of white

drapery is magic in effect....

"To the various harmonizing elements of hue, of light, and of shade,

that of color superadded brings the picture to perfection; its gorgeous

tinting so subtly wrought, and so wonderfully interweaving with sun and

darkness and varied textures as to resolve itself with the rest into a

vast and incomprehensible whole, which comes to the eye an ideal of

grand and elevated beauty, a sublime unity, that shows the master who

created it to have reached a point in art unsurpassed till now, and

unattainable to those who come after him."

"The Martyrdom of St. Peter Martyr," completed in 1529, where Titian

"reproduced the human form in its grandest development," has been

studied by generations of artists, from Benvenuto Cellini and Rubens to

Sir Joshua Reynolds. So valued was it by Venice that the Signoria

threatened with death any one who should dare to remove it.

Unfortunately it was destroyed by fire in 1867, together with the chapel

which contained it.

The "Madonna del Coniglio," at the Louvre, is also much valued. "We ask

ourselves, indeed, when looking at this picture, whether an artist with

only fleeting ties could have created such a masterpiece; and the answer

seems to be that nature here gushes from the innermost recesses of a

man's heart who has begun to know the charms of paternity, who has

watched a young mother and her yearling child, and seized at a glance

those charming but minute passages which seldom or never meet any but a

father's eye."

In 1533 a most fortunate thing happened to Titian. Charles V. had come

to Bologna, to receive the homage of Italy. The great emperor was an

enthusiastic lover of art, had seen Titian's work, and desired a

portrait from his hand. The artist hastened thither and painted Charles

in armor, bare-headed. He used to say of himself that he was by nature

ugly, but being painted so often uglier than he really was, he

disappointed favorably many persons, who expected something most

unattractive.

Another portrait of him which Titian painted, now at Madrid, shows him

in splendid gala dress, with red beard, pale skin, blue eyes, and

protruding lower lip.

The sculptor Lombardi was so anxious to look upon the emperor that he

carried Titian's paintbox at the sittings, and slyly made a relief

portrait of Charles on a tablet in wax, which he slipped into his

sleeve. The emperor detected him, asked to see the work, praised it, and

had Lombardi put it in marble for him.

Charles was so pleased with the portraits by Titian that he would never

sit to any other artist. He called him the Apelles of his time, and paid

him one thousand scudi in gold for each portrait. He created Titian a

Count of the Lateran Palace, of the Aulic Council, and of the

Consistory; with the title of Count Palatine, and all the advantages

attached to those dignities. His children were thereby raised to the

rank of Nobles of the Empire, with all the honors appertaining to

families with four generations of ancestors. He was also made a Knight

of the Golden Spur, with the right of entrance to Court.

The Cadorine youth had reached the temple of fame, unaided save by his

skilful hand and inventive brain. He sat daily from morning till night

at his easel, often ill from overwork, yet urged on by that undying

aspiration which we call genius.

He painted the beautiful portrait of the young Cardinal Ippolito de'

Medici, now in the Pitti Palace, whom Michael Angelo so tenderly loved,

and whose untimely death by poison at the hand of his cup-bearer, at

Itri, caused general sorrow. Ippolito sat to Titian at Bologna "in the

red cap and variegated plumes of a Hungarian chief. His curved sabre

hung from an Oriental sash wound round a red-brown coat with golden

buttons, and he wielded with his right the mace of command. It appeared

as if the burning sun of the Danube valley had bronzed the features of

the chieftain, whose skin seemed to glow with a tropical heat, whilst

its surface was smooth and burnished as that of the Bella Gioconda."

Ippolito urged Titian to come to Rome; Francis I. wished him to visit

France; but Titian loved his Venice gardens and his mountain resort at

Cadore, and could not be induced to leave them. His father, Gregorio

Vecelli, had died in 1527, three years before the death of Cecilia, and

Francesco, the dearly loved artist brother, had gone to care for the

Cadore home, where he often welcomed with enthusiastic admiration his

famous brother, Titian.

The next paintings from the great artist were the "Rape of Proserpina;"

portraits of the Duke and Duchess of Urbino, Isabella d'Este Gonzaga,

the beautiful Eleonora Gonzaga, the twelve Caesars for Duke Federigo

Gonzaga of Mantua; the "Annunciation," for which he received two

thousand scudi from the Emperor; "La Bella di Titiano," now in the

Pitti, and the "Venus" of the Uffizi. "The face of the 'Bella' was so

winning that it lurked in Titian's memory, and passed as a type into

numerous canvases, in which the painter tried to realize an ideal of

loveliness. The head being seen about two-thirds to the left, whilst the

eyes are turned to the right, the spectator is fascinated by the glance

in whatever direction he looks at the canvas. The eye is grave, serene,

and kindly, the nose delicate and beautifully shaped, the mouth divine.

Abundant hair of a warm auburn waves along the temples, leaving a stray

curl to drop on the forehead. The rest is plaited and twisted into coils

round a head of the most symmetrical shape. A gold chain falls over a

throat of exquisite model, and the low dress, with its braided ornaments

and slashed sleeves alternately tinted in blue and white and purple, is

magnificent. One hand, the left, is at rest; the other holds a tassel

hanging from a girdle. Nothing can exceed the delicacy and subtlety with

which the flesh and dress are painted, the tones being harmonized and

thrown into keeping by a most varied use and application of glazings

and scumblings."

Of the Uffizi "Venus," Crowe and Cavalcaselle say, "What the painter

achieves, and no other master of the age achieves with equal success, is

the representation of a beauteous living being, whose fair and polished

skin is depicted with enamelled gloss, and yet with every shade of

modulation which a delicate flesh comports: flesh not marbled or cold,

but sweetly toned, and mantling with life's blood, flesh that seems to

heave and rise and fall with every breath. Perfect distribution of

space, a full and ringing harmony of tints, atmosphere both warm and

mellow, are all combined in such wise as to bring us in contact with

something that is real; and we feel, as we look into the canvas, that we

might walk into that apartment and find room to wander in the gray

twilight into which it is thrown by the summer sky that shows through

the coupled windows."

At the feet of Venus a little dog lies curled up on the couch. In the

Venus of Madrid, she pats the back of a dog, while her lover plays an

organ at the foot of the couch.

It is interesting to learn how Titian produced such effects by his

brush. Says Palma Giovine, "Titian prepared his pictures with a solid

stratum of pigment, which served as a bed or fundament, upon which to

return frequently. Some of these preparations were made with resolute

strokes of a brush heavily laden with color, the half-tints struck in

with pure red earth, the lights with white, modelled into relief by

touches of the same brush dipped into red, black, and yellow. In this

way he would give the promise of a figure in four strokes. After laying

this foundation, he would turn the picture to the wall, and leave it

there perhaps for months, turning it round again after a time, to look

at it carefully, and scan the parts as he would the face of his greatest

enemy.

"If at this time any portion of it should appear to him to have been

defective, he would set to work to correct it, applying remedies as a

surgeon might apply them, cutting off excrescences here, super-abundant

flesh there, redressing an arm, adjusting or setting a limb, regardless

of the pain which it might cause. In this way he would reduce the whole

to a certain symmetry, put it aside, and return again a third or more

times, till the first quintessence had been covered over with its

padding of flesh. It was contrary to his habit to finish at one

painting, and he used to say that a poet who improvises cannot hope to

form pure verses. But of 'condiments,' in the shape of last retouches,

he was particularly fond. Now and then he would model the light into

half-tint with a rub of his finger, or with a touch of his thumb he

would dab a spot of dark pigment into some corner to strengthen it; or

throw in a reddish stroke--a tear of blood, so to speak--to break the

parts superficially. In fact, when finishing, he painted much more with

his fingers than with his brush." Titian used to say, "White, red, and

black, these are all the colors that a painter needs, but one must know

how to use them." Titian painted rapidly. One of his best friends said

that "he could execute a portrait as quickly as another could scratch an

ornament on a chest."

In 1537 the Council of Ten, angered at Titian's delays in frescoing the

ducal palace, gave a portion of the work to the noted artist Pordenone,

took away his brokership, and decreed that he should refund his revenues

from that source for the past twenty years. In dismay, Titian left his

orders from emperors and princes, and went to work in the great halls.

Two years later his broker's patent was restored, and, Pordenone having

died in 1538, the patronage of the Republic came again into his hands.

Titian now painted the "Angel and Tobit," of San Marciliano at Venice,

and the "Presentation in the Temple," now at the Venice Academy, the

latter "the finest and most complete creation of Venetian art since the

'Peter Martyr,' and the 'Madonna di Casa Pesaro.'"

This picture is one of the largest of the master's works, being

twenty-five feet long. "Mary, in a dress of celestial blue, ascends the

steps of the temple in a halo of radiance. She pauses on the first

landing-place, and gathers her skirts to ascend to the second. The

flight is in profile before us. At the top of it the high-priest, in

Jewish garments, yellow tunic, blue undercoat and sleeves, and white

robe, looks down at the girl with serene and kindly gravity, a priest in

cardinal's robes at his side, a menial in black behind him, and a young

acolyte in red and yellow holding the book of prayer. At the bottom

there are people looking up, some of them leaning on the edge of the

step, others about to ascend."

Titian painted several portraits of himself, one now at Berlin, another

at Madrid, still another in Florence, and others. They show a bold, high

forehead, finely cut nose, penetrating eyes, and much dignity of

bearing.

Duke Alfonso of Ferrara and Duke Federigo Gonzaga of Mantua, his noble

patrons, had both died; but Pope Paul III. now became an ardent admirer

of Titian's work, invited him to Rome, where he spent several months

lodged in the Belvedere Palace, and sat to him for a portrait. It is

said, after the picture of Paul was finished and set to dry on the

terrace of the palace, that the passing crowd doffed their hats,

thinking that it was the living pope.

While in Rome, Titian painted many portraits in the pontiff's family,

and a "Danae receiving the Golden Rain," now in the museum of Naples,

for Ottavio Farnese, grandson of Paul III., who was married to Margaret,

daughter of Emperor Charles V. Danae was the daughter of Acrisius, king

of Argos. An oracle had predicted that her son would one day kill

Acrisius; therefore, to prevent the fulfilment of the prophecy, Danae

was shut up in a brazen tower. But Jupiter transformed himself into a

shower of gold, and descended through the roof of her tower. She became

the mother of Perseus, and she and her son were put into a chest and

cast into the sea. Jupiter rescued them, and Perseus finally killed his

grandfather.

Titian was now sixty-eight years of age,--growing old, but never

slacking in energy or industry. He had painted for the Church of San

Spirito "Abraham's Sacrifice of Isaac," "The Murder of Abel," "David's

Victory over Goliath," "The Descent of the Holy Spirit," "The Four

Christian Fathers," and "The Four Evangelists." "His figures are not

cast in the supernatural mould of those of Michael Angelo at the

Sistine, they are not shaped in his sculptural way, or foreshortened in

his preternatural manner. They have not the elegance of Raphael, nor the

conventional grace of Correggio; but they are built up, as it were, of

flesh and blood, and illumined with a magic effect of light and shade

and color which differs from all else that was realized elsewhere by

selection, outline, and chiaroscuro. They form pictures peculiar to

Titian, and pregnant with his, and only his, grand and natural

originality." The "Ecce Homo," twelve feet by eight, in the gallery of

Vienna, was painted for Giovanni d' Anna, a wealthy merchant. When Henry

III. passed through Venice in 1574, he saw this picture, and offered

eight hundred ducats for it. When Sir Henry Wotton was English envoy at

Venice in 1620, he bought the painting for the Duke of Buckingham, who

refused thirty-five thousand dollars offered for it by the Earl of

Arundel.

In 1546, on the return of the artist from Rome to his home, Casa Grande,

in Venice, he painted the portraits of his lovely daughter Lavinia, now

in the Dresden Museum, and in the Berlin gallery. "From the first to the

last this beautiful piece (in Dresden) is the work of the master, and

there is not an inch of it in which his hand is not to be traced. His is

the brilliant flesh, brought up to a rosy carnation by wondrous kneading

of copious pigment; his the contours formed by texture, and not defined

by outline; his again the mixture of sharp and blurred touches, the

delicate modelling in dazzling light, the soft glazing, cherry lip, and

sparkling eye. Such a charming vision as this was well fitted to twine

itself round a father's heart.

"Lavinia's hair is yellow, and strewed with pearls, showing a pretty

wave, and irrepressible curls in stray locks on the forehead. Ear-rings,

a necklace of pearls, glitter with gray reflections on a skin

incomparably fair. The gauze on the shoulders is light as air, and

contrasts with the stiff richness of a white damask silk dress and

skirt, the folds of which heave and sink in shallow projections and

depressions, touched in tender scales of yellow or ashen white. The left

hand, with its bracelet of pearls, hangs gracefully as it tucks up the

train of the gown, whilst the right is raised no higher than the waist,

to wave the stiff, plaited leaf of a palmetto fan."...

Lavinia, at Berlin, "is dressed in yellowish flowered silk, with

slashed sleeves, a chiselled girdle round her waist, and a white veil

hanging from her shoulders. Seen in profile, she raises with both hands,

to the level of her forehead, a silver dish piled with fruit and

flowers. Her head is thrown back, and turned so as to allow

three-quarters of it to be seen, as she looks from the corners of her

eyes at the spectator. Auburn hair is carefully brushed off the temples,

and confined by a jewelled diadem, and the neck is set off with a string

of pearls."

The Titian home had joys and sorrows in it like other homes. Pomponio,

the eldest child, though a priest, was dissolute and a spendthrift,

constantly incurring debts which his devoted father paid to mitigate the

disgrace. Orazio, a noble son, had become an artist, his father's

assistant and confidant. He had married and brought his young wife to

Casa Grande. Lavinia, a beauty, the only daughter, was about to be

married to Cornelio Sarcinella of Serravalle, receiving from her father

a dowry of fourteen hundred ducats, a regal sum for a painter.

In January of 1548, Titian, now past seventy, was summoned to Augsburg,

where Charles V. had convened the Diet of the Empire. He painted the

portrait of Charles on the field of Muhlberg "in burnished armor-inlaid

with gold, his arms and legs in chain mail, his hands gauntleted, a

morion with a red plume, but without a visor, on his head. The red

scarf with gold stripes--cognizance of the House of Burgundy--hung

across his shoulders, and he brandished with his right hand a sharp and

pointed spear. The chestnut steed, half hid in striped housings, had a

head-piece of steel topped by a red feather similar to that of its

master."

Titian also painted, while at Augsburg, King Ferdinand, the brother of

Charles, Queen Mary of Hungary, "Prometheus," "Sisyphus," "Ixion," and

"Tantalus" at her request, besides many other pictures. Charles so

honored Titian that once when the artist dropped his brush the emperor

picked it up and handed it to him, saying that "Titian was worthy of

being served by Caesar."

On a second visit to Augsburg Titian painted a portrait of Philip II. of

Spain, the son of Charles. This was sent to Queen Mary of England, when

Philip was her suitor, and quite won her heart, presumably more than the

man himself when he afterwards became her husband. When Titian parted

from his patron, Charles gave him a Spanish pension of five hundred

scudi. He returned to Venice "rich as a prince instead of poor as a

painter."

Philip II. was as much a patron of art as his father, and was constantly

soliciting paintings from Titian. It is best, probably, that most of us

are worked to our utmost capacity, for work rarely kills people; worry

frequently destroys both body and brain.

For Philip he painted a "St. Margaret," now in the museum at Madrid; a

"Danae," where an old woman sits beside the couch and gathers Jupiter's

golden shower in her apron; a "Perseus and Andromeda," the princess

bound to a rock, and Perseus saving her; and a "Venus and Adonis," now

at Madrid. For the enfeebled Emperor Charles he painted "The Grieving

Virgin," now in the Madrid Museum, which represents the mother lamenting

over the sufferings of the Saviour, and the "Trinity," now at Madrid,

showing the Virgin interceding before the Father and Son for the

imperial family,--a picture upon which the emperor used to gaze with

intense feeling when he had retired to die in the Convent of Yuste.

Thither he carried nine of Titian's paintings for his consolation. He

died in 1558, with his eyes resting lovingly upon a picture of the

emperor painted by Titian, and upon "The Trinity." "Christ appearing to

the Magdalen" was sent to Queen Mary of Hungary.

Titian was now seventy-nine years of age, honored and loved by many

countries. While his life had been one of almost unceasing labor, he had

found time to receive at Casa Grande, poets and artists, dukes and

kings, at his delightful garden-parties. Henry III. of France came to

see him, and received as a gift any pictures in the studio of which he

asked the price. When Cardinal Granvelle and Pacheco came to dine at

Casa Grande, Titian flung a purse to his steward, and bade him prepare a

feast, since "all the world was dining with him."

Titian attached to himself a few most devoted friends: Aretino, a

writer, who had many faults, but must have had some virtues to have been

loved by Titian for thirty years; Sansovino, an architect; Speroni, a

philosopher, and a few others who met frequently for cultured

conversation and good-fellowship at Casa Grande. It is said by

historians that at some of these garden parties the still beautiful

Violante was to be seen among the distinguished guests. Had she been

married to another, all these years? or was the old affection renewed in

these latter days?

In 1556 Aretino died, and Titian deeply lamented the man who had been an

almost inseparable companion; three years later his beloved brother,

Francesco, died at Cadore, and two years after this his beautiful

daughter Lavinia, leaving six little children.

Still the man past eighty painted on: "The Martyrdom of St. Lawrence,"

now in the Jesuits' Church at Venice, and "Christ Crowned with Thorns,"

now in the Louvre, where, "with undeniable originality, he almost

attained to a grandeur of composition and bold creativeness equal to

those of Buonarotti, whilst he added to his creations that which was

essentially his own--the magic play of tints and lights and shadows

which mark the true Venetian craftsman."

At eighty-two he painted for Philip II. "Diana and Calisto," "Diana and

Actaeon," and "The Entombment of Christ." The Dianas are now in the

Bridgewater collection at London, for which they were purchased for

twelve thousand five hundred dollars.

"Titian," says Crowe, "was never more thoroughly master of the secrets

of the human framework than now that he was aged. Never did he less

require the model. What his mind suggested issued from his hand as

Minerva issued from the brain of Jove. His power was the outcome of

years of experience, which made every stroke of his brush both sure and

telling.... But the field of the earlier time, take it all in all, is

sweeter and of better savor than that of the later period. Rich,

exuberant, and bright the works of the master always were; but there is

something mysterious and unfathomable in the brightness and sweetness of

his prime which far exceeds in charm the cleverness of his old age."

With loving care he painted Irene of Spilimberg, who died at twenty, and

whose fame in classic learning, in music, painting, and poetry, was

celebrated in sonnets and prose at her death. She was a pupil of Titian,

a fit representative of an age which produced among learned men such

women as Vittoria Colonna and Veronica Gambara. Irene is painted "almost

at full length and large as life, in a portico, from which a view is

seen of a landscape, with a shepherd tending his flock, and a unicorn to

indicate the lady's maiden condition. Her head is turned to the left,

showing auburn hair tied with a string of pearls. Round her throat is a

necklace of the same. Her waist is bound with a chain girdle, and over

her bodice of red stuff a jacket of red damask silk is embroidered with

gold, and fringed at the neck with a high standing muslin collar. A band

hanging from the shoulders and passing beneath one arm is held in the

right hand, whilst the left is made to grasp a laurel crown, and 'Si

fata tulissent' is engraved on the plinth of a pillar."

The "Epiphany," now in Madrid, was sent to Philip II., in 1560; a

"Magdalen," now in the Hermitage, in 1561; "Christ in the Garden,"

"Europa and the Bull," and "Jupiter and Antiope," in 1562. Titian wrote

to Philip, "I had determined to take a rest for those years of my old

age which it may please the majesty of God to grant me; still ... I

shall devote all that is left of my life to doing reverence to your

Catholic Majesty with new pictures."

"Europa," says Sweetser, "is a lovely and scantily clad maiden sitting

on the back of a flower-garlanded white bull, who is swimming proudly

through the green sea, throwing a line of foaming surge before his

breast. In the air are flying Cupids, and the nymphs on the distant

shore bewail the loss of their companion."

"Jupiter and Antiope," now in the Louvre, formerly called the "Venus of

Pardo," is very celebrated. "Though injured by fire, travels, cleaning,

and restoring," says Crowe, "the masterpiece still exhibits Titian in

possession of all the energy of his youth, and leads us back

involuntarily to the days when he composed the Bacchanals. The same

beauties of arrangement, form, light, and shade, and some of the earlier

charms of color, are here united to a new scale of effectiveness due to

experience and a magic readiness of hand. Fifty years of practice were

required to bring Titian to this mastery. Distribution, movement,

outline, modelling, atmosphere and distance, are all perfect."

The following year, 1563, Titian sent to Philip "The Last Supper," with

thirteen life-sized figures, upon which he had worked for six years.

When it was carried to the Escurial, in spite of the protests of the

painter Navarrete, the monks cut off a large piece of the upper part of

the canvas, to make it the size of the wall of the refectory!

In 1565 he painted "The Transfiguration," in the San Salvadore at

Venice, the "Annunciation" for the same church; "St. James of

Compostella," in the Church of San Leo, and the "Cupid and Venus" of the

Borghese Palace, the Queen of Love and two Graces teaching Cupid his

vocation.

"Venus is seated in front of a gorgeous red-brown drapery; her head is

crowned with a diadem, and her luxuriant hair falls in heavy locks on

her neck. Her arms are bare, but her tunic is bound with a sash, which

meets in a cross at her bosom and winds away under the arms, whilst a

flap of a blue mantle crosses the knees. With both hands she is binding

the eyes of Eros leaning on her lap, whilst she turns to listen to the

whispering of another Eros resting on her shoulder. A girl with naked

throat and arm carries Cupid's quiver, whilst a second holds his bow.

Behind the group a sky overcast with pearly clouds lowers over a

landscape of hills.... Light plays upon every part," says Crowe,

"creating, as it falls, a due projection of shadow, producing all the

delicacies of broken tone and a clear silvery surface full of sparkle,

recalling those masterpieces of Paolo Veronese, in which the gradations

are all in the cinerine as opposed to the golden key."

In 1566, the aged artist, now verging on ninety, heretofore exempt from

taxation, was obliged to give a list of his property. He owned several

houses, pieces of land, sawmills, and the like, and has been blamed

because he did not state the full value of his possessions.

Vasari, who visited him at this time, writes,--"Titian has enjoyed

health and happiness unequalled, and has never received from heaven

anything but favor and felicity. His house has been visited by all the

princes, men of letters, and gentlemen who ever come to Venice. Besides

being excellent in art, he is pleasant company, of fine deportment and

agreeable manners.... Titian, having decorated Venice, and, indeed,

Italy and other parts of the world, with admirable pictures, deserves to

be loved and studied by artists, as one who has done and is still doing

works deserving of praise, which will last as long as the memory of

illustrious men."

When he was ninety-one he sent to Philip II. a "Venus," the "Martyrdom

of St. Lawrence," a large "Tarquin and Lucretia," and "Philip Presenting

his Son to an Angel," now in the Madrid Museum. He also painted for

himself "Christ Crowned with Thorns," a powerful work, now in Munich,

which Rubens, Rembrandt, and Van Dyck carefully studied as a model.

Tintoretto hung it later in his atelier, to show what a painting ought

to be.

His "Adam and Eve," now at Madrid, which Rubens greatly admired and

copied, was painted at this time.

In 1576, when Titian was ninety-nine, he began his last picture, the

"Christ of Pity," for the Franciscans of the Frari, with whom he had

bargained for a grave in their chapel. The Saviour rests in death on the

lap of the Virgin.

"We may suppose," says Donald G. Mitchell, "that a vision of

Lavinia--long gone out of his household--of Cecilia, still longer

gone--of Violante, a memory of his young days--may have flitted on his

mind as he traced the last womanly face he was to paint."

"On marble plinths at the sides of the niche are statues of Moses and

the Hellespontic Sibyl, and on a scutcheon at the Sibyl's feet we see

the arms of Titian, a set square sable on a field argent, beneath the

double eagle on a field or. A small tablet leaning against the

scutcheon contains the defaced portraits of Titian and his son Orazio,

kneeling before a diminutive group of the 'Christ of Pity.'... It is

truly surprising," says Crowe, "that a man so far advanced in years

should have had the power to put together a composition so perfect in

line, so elevated in thought, or so tragic in expression.... We see the

traces of a brush manipulated by one whose hand never grew weary, and

never learned to tremble.... In the group of the Virgin and Christ--a

group full of the deepest and truest feeling--there lies a grandeur

comparable in one sense with that which strikes us in the 'Pieta' of

Michael Angelo. For the sublime conventionalism by which Buonarotti

carries us into a preternatural atmosphere, Titian substitutes a depth

of passion almost equally sublime, and the more real as it is enhanced

by color."

Titian did not live to complete this work, which was done by his pupil,

Palma Giovine, who placed conspicuously upon it this touching

inscription: "That which Titian left unfinished, Palma reverently

completed, and dedicated the work to God."

Age did not spoil the skill of the master. Aretino said, on looking at a

portrait of a daughter of the rich Strozzio, "If I were a painter, I

should die of despair.... But certain it is that Titian's pencil has

waited on Titian's old age to perform its miracles."

Tullia said, "I hold Titian to be not a painter--his creations not art,

but his works to be miracles, and I think that his pigments must be

composed of that wonderful herb which made Glaucus a god when he partook

of it; since his portraits make upon me the impression of something

divine, and, as heaven is the paradise of the soul, so God has

transfused into Titian's colors the paradise of our bodies."

In the summer of this year, 1576, Venice was stricken by a plague which

destroyed fifty thousand people out of one hundred and ninety thousand;

more than a quarter of the whole population. There was a general panic,

the sick were left to die unattended, and a law was passed that no

victims of the scourge should be buried in the churches.

As the plague swept on it carried off Orazio, the son of Titian, and

then the idol of Venice, Titian himself. He died suddenly August 27,

1576. The law of burial was quickly set aside by the supreme

authorities, and, despite the fear of contagion, the canons of St. Mark

bore his body in solemn procession to his grave in the Church of the

Frari. In 1852, nearly three centuries later, the Emperor of Austria

erected a magnificent mausoleum over his tomb. It is a vast canopy

covering a statue of Titian, seated, with one hand resting on the Book

of Art, while the other lifts the veil of Nature. Surrounding him are

figures representing painting, wood-carving, sculpture, and

architecture, while on the wall behind him are bas-reliefs of three of

his greatest works, the "Assumption," the "Martyrdom of St. Lawrence,"

and the "Martyrdom of St. Peter." Two angels bear the simple

inscription,--

"Titiano Ferdinandus I. MDCCCLII."

Wonderful old man! self-made, a poet by nature, a marvel of industry,

working to the very last on his beloved paintings, rich, tender to his

family, true in his friendships. "The greatest master of color whom the

world has known."