Between them, 298. Charming _Girolamo dai Libri_.
We now come upon a magnificent series of works by =Titian=, in whom the
Venetian School, ill-represented in its origin in the Salle des
Primitifs, finds its culminating point.
=**=440. _Titian._ The Madonna with the Rabbit. This is one of a group
of Titian’s Madonnas (several examples here) in which he endeavours to
transform Bellini’s type (see the specimen in the Salle des Primitifs)
into an ideal of the 16th century. The Madonna is here attended by St.
Catherine of Alexandria, marked as a princess by her coronet and pearls.
The child, bursting from her arms, plays with the rabbit. Once more a
notion far-removed from primitive piety. Notice the background of
Titian’s own country. =Landscape= is now beginning to struggle for
recognition. Earlier art was all figures, first sacred, then also
mythological.
445. _Titian._ The Crown of Thorns. A powerful but very painful
painting. The artist is chiefly occupied with anatomy and the
presentation of writhing emotion. The spiritual is lost in muscular
action.
=**=443. _Titian._ The Disciples at Emmaus. Treated in the contemporary
Venetian manner. This is again a subject whose variations can be well
traced in this gallery.
451. _Titian._ Allegory of a husband who leaves for a campaign,
commending his wife to Love and Chastity. Finely painted.
450. _Titian._ Portrait of François I^{er}. Famous as having been
painted without a sitting—the artist had never even seen the king. He
took the face from a medal.