THE FRARI AND TITIAN
A noble church--The tomb of Titian--A painter-prince--A lost
garden--Pomp and colour--A ceaseless learner--Canova--Bellini's
altar-piece--The Pesaro Madonna--The Frari cat--Tombs vulgar and
otherwise--Francesco Foscari--Niccolò Tron's beard.
From S. Rocco to the Frari is but a step, and plenty of assistance in
taking that step will be offered you by small boys.
Outside, the Frari--whose full title is Santa Maria Gloriosa dei
Frari--is worth more attention than it wins. At the first glance it is a
barn built of millions of bricks; but if you give it time it grows into
a most beautiful Gothic church with lovely details, such as the
corbelling under the eaves, the borders of the circular windows, and
still more delightful borders of the long windows, and so forth; while
its campanile is magnificent. In size alone the Frari is worthy of all
respect, and its age is above five centuries. It shares with SS.
Giovanni e Paolo the duty of providing Venice with a Westminster Abbey,
for between them they preserve most of the illustrious dead.
Within, it is a gay light church with fine sombre choir stalls. Next to
S. Stefano, it is the most cheerful church in Venice, and one should
often be there. Nothing is easier than to frequent it, for it is close
to the S. Toma steamboat station, and every visit will discover a new
charm.
The most cherished possession of the Frari is, I suppose, the tomb of
Titian. It is not a very fine monument, dating from as late as 1852, but
it marks reverently the resting-place of the great man. He sits there,
the old painter, with a laurel crown. Behind him is a relief of his
"Assumption", now in the Accademia; above is the lion of Venice.
Titian's work is to be seen throughout Venice, either in fact or in
influence, and all the great cities of the world have some superb
creation from his hand, London being peculiarly fortunate in the
possession of his "Bacchus and Ariadne". Standing before the grave of
this tireless maker of beauty, let us recall the story of his life.
Titian, as we call him--Tiziano Vecellio, or Vecelli, or Tiziano da
Cadore, as he was called by his contemporaries--was born in Cadore, a
Venetian province. The year of his birth varies according to the
biographer. Some say 1477, some 1480, some 1487 or even 1489 and 1490.
Be that as it may, he was born in Cadore, the son of a soldier and
councillor, Gregorio Vecelli. As a child he was sent to Venice and
placed under art teachers, one of whom was Gentile Bellini, and one
Giovanni Bellini, in whose studio he found Giorgione. And it is here
that his age becomes important, because if he was born in 1477 he was
Giorgione's contemporary as a scholar; if ten years later he was much
his junior. In either case there is no doubt that Giorgione's influence
was very powerful. On Titian's death in 1576 he was thought to be
ninety-nine.
[Illustration: THE MADONNA OF THE PESARO FAMILY
FROM THE PAINTING BY TITIAN
_In the Church of the Frari_]
One of Titian's earliest known works is the visitation of S. Mary and S.
Elizabeth, in the Accademia. In 1507 he helped Giorgione with the
Fondaco dei Tedeschi frescoes. In 1511 he went to Padua. In 1512 he
obtained a sinecure in the Fondaco dei Tedeschi and was appointed a
State artist, his first task being the completion of certain pictures
left unfinished by his predecessor Giovanni Bellini, and in 1516 he was
put in possession of a patent granting him a painting monopoly, with a
salary of 120 crowns and 80 crowns in addition for the portrait of each
successive Doge. Thereafter his career was one long triumph and his
brush was sought by foreign kings and princes as well as the aristocracy
of Venice. Honours were showered upon him at home and abroad, and
Charles V made him a Count and ennobled his progeny. He married and had
many children, his favourite being, as with Tintoretto, a daughter,
whose early death left him, again as with Tintoretto, inconsolable. He
made large sums and spent large sums, and his house was the scene of
splendid entertainments. It still stands, not far from the Jesuits'
church, but it is now the centre of a slum, and his large garden, which
extended to the lagoon where the Fondamenta Nuovo now is, has been built
over.
Titian's place in art is high and unassailable. What it would have been
in colour without Giorgione we cannot say; but Giorgione could not
affect his draughtsmanship. As it is, the word Titianesque means
everything that is rich and glorious in paint. The Venetians, with their
ostentation, love of pageantry, and intense pride in their city and
themselves, could not have had a painter more to their taste. Had
Giorgione lived he would have disappointed them by his preoccupation
with romantic dreams; Bellini no doubt did disappoint them by a certain
simplicity and divinity; Tintoretto was stern and sparing of gorgeous
hues. But Titian was all for sumptuousness.
Not much is known of his inner life. He seems to have been over-quick to
suspect a successful rival, and his treatment of the young Tintoretto,
if the story is true, is not admirable. He was more friendly with
Aretino than one would expect an adorner of altars to be. His love of
money grew steadily stronger. As an artist he was a pattern, for he was
never satisfied with his work but continually experimented and sought
for new secrets, and although quite old when he met Michael Angelo in
Rome he returned with renewed ambitions. Among his last words, on his
death-bed, were that he was at last almost ready to begin.
As it happens, it is the pyramidal tomb opposite Titian's that was
designed to hold his remains. It is now the tomb of Canova. Why it was
not put to its maker's purpose, I do not know, but to my mind it is a
far finer thing than the Titian monument and worthier of Titian than of
Canova, as indeed Canova would have been the first to admit. But there
was some hitch, and the design was laid in a drawer and not taken out
again until Canova died and certain of his pupils completed it for
himself. Canova was not a Venetian by birth. He was born at Passagno,
near Asolo, in 1757, and was taught the elements of art by his
grandfather and afterwards by a sculptor named Torretto, who recommended
him to the Falier family as a "phenomenon". The Faliers made him their
protégé, continued his education in Venice, and when the time was ripe
sent him to Rome, the sculptors' Mecca. In Rome he remained practically
to the end of his life, returning to Venice to die in 1822. It is
possible not too highly to esteem Canova's works, but the man's career
was marked by splendid qualities of industry and purpose and he won
every worldly honour. In private life he practised unremittingly that
benevolence and philanthropy which many Italians have brought to a fine
art.
It is these two tombs which draw most visitors to the Frari; but there
are two pictures here that are a more precious artistic possession. Of
these let us look first at Bellini's altar-piece in the Sacristy. This
work represents the Madonna enthroned, about her being saints and the
little angelic musicians of whom Bellini was so fond. In this work these
musicians are younger than usual; one pipes while the other has a
mandolin. Above them is the Madonna, grave and sweet, with a resolute
little Son standing on her knee. The venerable holy men on either side
have all Bellini's suave benignancy and incapacity for sin: celestial
grandfathers. The whole is set in a very splendid frame. I give a
reproduction opposite page 252, but the colour cannot be suggested.
The other great Frari picture--stronger than this but not more
attractive--is the famous Titian altar-piece, the "Pesaro Madonna". This
is an altar-piece indeed, and in it unite with peculiar success the
world and the spirit. The picture was painted for Jacopo Pesaro, a
member of a family closely associated with this church, as the tombs
will show us. Jacopo, known as "Baffo," is the kneeling figure, and, as
his tonsure indicates, a man of God. He was in fact Bishop of Paphos in
Cyprus, and being of the church militant he had in 1501 commanded the
Papal fleet against the Turks. The expedition was triumphant enough to
lead the Bishop to commission Titian to paint two pictures commemorating
it. In the first the Pope, Alexander Borgia, in full canonicals,
standing, introduces Baffo, kneeling, to S. Peter, on the eve of
starting with the ships to chastise the Infidel. S. Peter blesses him
and the Papal standard which he grasps. In the second, the picture at
which we are now looking (see the reproduction opposite page 246), Baffo
again kneels to S. Peter, while behind him a soldier in armour (who
might be S. George and might merely be a Venetian warrior and a
portrait) exhibits a captured Turk. Above S. Peter is the Madonna, with
one of Titian's most adorable and vigorous Babes. Beside her are S.
Francis and S. Anthony of Padua, S. Francis being the speaking brother
who seems to be saying much good of the intrepid but by no means
over-modest Baffo. The other kneeling figures are various Pesari.
Everything about the picture is masterly and aristocratic, and S. Peter
yields to no other old man in Venetian art, which so valued and
respected age, in dignity and grandeur. In the clouds above all are two
outrageously plump cherubs--fat as butter, as we say--sporting (it is
the only word) with the cross.
As I sat one day looking at this picture, a small grey and white cat
sprang on my knee from nowhere and immediately sank into a profound
slumber from which I hesitated to wake it. Such ingratiating acts are
not common in Venice, where animals are scarce and all dogs must be
muzzled. Whether or not the spirit of Titian had instructed the little
creature to keep me there, I cannot say, but the result was that I sat
for a quarter of an hour before the altar without a movement, so that
every particular of the painting is photographed on my retina. Six
months later the same cat led me to a courtyard opposite the Sacristy
door and proudly exhibited three kittens.
Jacopo Pesaro's tomb is near the Baptistery. The enormous and repellent
tomb on the same wall as the Titian altar-piece is that of a later
Pesaro, Giovanni, an unimportant Doge of Venice for less than a year,
1658-1659. It has grotesque details, including a camel, giant negroes
and skeletons, and it was designed by the architect of S. Maria della
Salute, who ought to have known better. The Doge himself is not unlike
the author of a secretly published English novel entitled _The Woman
Thou Gavest Me_.
As a gentle contrast look at the wall tomb of a bishop on the right of
the Pesaro picture. The old priest lies on his bier resting his head on
his hand and gazing for ever at the choir screen and stalls. It is one
of the simplest and most satisfactory tombs in this church.
But it is in the right transept, about the Sacristy door, that the best
tombs cluster, and here also, in the end chapel, is another picture, by
an early Muranese painter of whom we have seen far too little,
Bartolommeo Vivarini, who is credited with having produced the first oil
picture ever seen in Venice. His Frari altar-piece undoubtedly had
influence on the Bellini in the Sacristy, but it is less beautiful,
although possibly a deeper sincerity informs it. Other musicianly angels
are here, and this time they make their melody to S. Mark. In the next
chapel are some pretty and cool grey and blue tombs.
Chief of the tombs in this corner is the fine monument to Jacopo
Marcello, the admiral. This lovely thing is one of the most Florentine
sculptures in Venice; above is a delicate fresco record of the hero's
triumphs. Near by is the monument of Pacifico Bon, the architect of the
Frari, with a Florentine relief of the Baptism of Christ in terra-cotta,
a little too high to be seen well. The wooden equestrian figure of Paolo
Savello, an early work, is very attractive. In his red cap he rides with
a fine assurance and is the best horseman in Venice after the great
Colleoni.
In the choir, where Titian's "Assumption" once was placed, are two more
dead Doges. On the right is Francesco Foscari, who reigned from
1423-1457, and is one of the two Foscari (his son being the other) of
Byron's drama. Francesco Foscari, whom we know so well by reason of his
position in the relief on the Piazzetta façade of the Doges' Palace,
and again on the Porta della Carta, was unique among the Doges both in
the beginning and end of his reign. He was the first to be introduced to
the populace in the new phrase "This is your Doge," instead of "This is
your Doge, an it please you," and the first to quit the ducal throne not
by death but deposition. But in many of the intervening thirty-four
years he reigned with brilliance and liberality and encouraged the arts.
His fall was due to the political folly of his son Jacopo and the
unpopularity of a struggle with Milan. He died in the famous Foscari
palace on the Grand Canal and, in spite of his recent degradation, was
given a Doge's funeral.
The other Doge here, who has the more ambitious tomb, is Niccolò Tron
(1471-1473) who was before all a successful merchant. Foscari, it will
be noticed, is clean shaven; Tron bearded; and to this beard belongs a
story, for on losing a dearly loved son he refused ever after to have it
cut and carried it to the grave as a sign of his grief.
The Sacristy is, of course, chiefly the casket that contains the Bellini
jewel, but it has other possessions, including the "Stations of the
Cross" by Tiepolo, which the sacristan is far more eager to display: a
brilliant but fatiguing series. Here, too, are a "Crucifixion" and
"Deposition" by Canova. A nice ciborium by the door and a quaint wooden
block remain in my memory.
[Illustration: THE MADONNA TRIPTYCH
BY GIOVANNI BELLINI
_In the Church of the Frari_]
For the rest, I recall a gaunt Baptist in wood, said to be by Donatello,
on one of the altars to the left of the choir; and the bronze Baptist in
the Baptistery, less realistic, by Sansovino; the pretty figures of
Innocence and S. Anthony of Padua on the holy water basins just inside
the main door; and the corners of delectable medieval cities in
intarsia work on the stalls.
And, after the details and before them, there is always the great
pleasant church, with its coloured beams and noble spaces.