The works of Titian, though many of his greatest productions have been
destroyed by terrible conflagrations at Venice and Madrid, are numerous,
scattered throughout Europe, in all the royal collections, and the most
celebrated public galleries, particularly at Venice, Rome, Bologna,
Milan, Florence, Vienna, Dresden, Paris, London, and Madrid. The most
numerous are portraits, Madonnas, Magdalens, Bacchanals, Venuses, and
other mythological subjects, some of which are extremely voluptuous. Two
of his grandest and most celebrated works are the Last Supper in the
Escurial, and Christ crowned with Thorns at Milan. It is said that the
works of Titian, to be appreciated, should be seen at Venice or Madrid,
as many claimed to be genuine elsewhere are of very doubtful
authenticity. He painted many of his best works for the Spanish court,
first for the Emperor Charles V., and next for his successor, Philip
II., who is known to have given him numerous commissions to decorate
the Escurial and the royal palaces at Madrid. There are numerous
duplicates of some of his works, considered genuine, some of which he is
supposed to have made himself, and others to have been carefully copied
by his pupils and retouched by himself; he frequently made some slight
alterations in the backgrounds, to give them more of the look of
originals; thus the original of his Christ and the Pharisees, or the
Tribute Money, is now in the Dresden Gallery, yet Lanzi says there are
numerous copies in Italy, one of which he saw at St. Saverio di Rimini,
inscribed with his name, which is believed to be a duplicate rather than
a copy. There are more than six hundred engravings from his pictures,
including both copper-plates and wooden cuts. He is said to have
engraved both on wood and copper himself, but Bartsch considers all the
prints attributed to him as spurious, though a few of them are signed
with his name, only eight of which he describes.