Triumph of Faith, with an infinity of figures; our first Parents, the
Patriarchs, the Prophets, the Sibyls, the Innocents, the Martyrs, the
Apostles, and Jesus Christ borne in Triumph by the four Evangelists
and the Four Doctors, with the Holy Confessors behind. In that work
Tiziano displayed boldness, a beautiful manner, and the power to work
with facility of hand; and I remember that Fra Sebastiano del Piombo,
conversing of this, said to me that if Tiziano had been in Rome at
that time, and had seen the works of Michelagnolo, those of Raffaello,
and the ancient statues, and had studied design, he would have done
things absolutely stupendous, considering the beautiful mastery that
he had in colouring, and that he deserved to be celebrated as the
finest and greatest imitator of Nature in the matter of colour in our
times, and with the foundation of the grand method of design he might
have equalled the Urbinate and Buonarroti. Afterwards, having gone to
Vicenza, Tiziano painted the Judgment of Solomon in fresco, which was
a beautiful work, under the little loggia where justice is
administered in public audience. He then returned to Venice, and
painted the façade of the Grimani. At Padua, in the Church of S.
Antonio, he executed likewise in fresco some stories of the actions of
that Saint, and for that of S. Spirito he painted a little altar-piece
with a S. Mark seated in the midst of certain Saints, in whose faces
are some portraits from life done in oils with the greatest diligence;
which picture many have believed to be by the hand of Giorgione. Then,
a scene having been left unfinished in the Hall of the Great Council
through the death of Giovanni Bellini, wherein Frederick Barbarossa is
kneeling at the door of the Church of S. Marco before Pope Alexander
IV, who places his foot on Barbarossa's neck, Tiziano finished it,
changing many things, and making there many portraits from life of
his friends and others; for which he was rewarded by receiving from
the Senate an office in the Fondaco de' Tedeschi, called the Senseria,
which yields three hundred crowns a year. That office those Signori
are accustomed to give to the most excellent painter of their city, on
the condition that he shall be obliged from time to time to paint the
portrait of their Prince or Doge, at his election, for the price of
only eight crowns, which the Prince himself pays to him; which
portrait is afterwards kept, in memory of him, in a public place in
the Palace of S. Marco.
[Illustration: MADONNA WITH SAINTS AND DONOR
(_After the panel by =Tiziano da Cadore=. Ancona: S. Domenico_)
_Anderson_]
In the year 1514 Duke Alfonso of Ferrara had caused a little chamber
to be decorated, and had commissioned Dosso, the painter of Ferrara,
to execute in certain compartments stories of Æneas, Mars, and Venus,
and in a grotto Vulcan with two smiths at the forge; and he desired
that there should also be there pictures by the hand of Gian Bellini.
Bellini painted on another wall a vat of red wine with some Bacchanals
around it, and Satyrs, musicians, and other men and women, all drunk
with wine, and near them a nude and very beautiful Silenus, riding on
his ass, with figures about him that have the hands full of fruits and
grapes; which work was in truth executed and coloured with great
diligence, insomuch that it is one of the most beautiful pictures that
Gian Bellini ever painted, although in the manner of the draperies
there is a certain sharpness after the German manner (nothing, indeed,
of any account), because he imitated a picture by the Fleming Albrecht
Dürer, which had been brought in those days to Venice and placed in
the Church of S. Bartolommeo, a rare work and full of most beautiful
figures painted in oils. On that vat Gian Bellini wrote these words:
JOANNES BELLINUS VENETUS, P. 1514.
That work he was not able to finish completely, because he was old,
and Tiziano, as the most excellent of all the others, was sent for to
the end that he might finish it; wherefore, being desirous to acquire
excellence and to make himself known, he executed with much diligence
two scenes that were wanting in that little chamber. In the first is a
river of red wine, about which are singers and musicians, both men
and women, as it were drunk, and a naked woman who is sleeping, so
beautiful that she might be alive, together with other figures; and on
this picture Tiziano wrote his name. In the other, which is next to it
and seen first on entering, he painted many little boys and Loves in
various attitudes, which much pleased that lord, as also did the other
picture; but most beautiful of all is one of those boys who is making
water into a river and is reflected in the water, while the others are
around a pedestal that has the form of an altar, upon which is a
statue of Venus with a sea-conch in the right hand, and Grace and
Beauty about her, which are very lovely figures and executed with
incredible diligence. On the door of a press, likewise, Tiziano
painted an image of Christ from the waist upwards, marvellous, nay,
stupendous, to whom a base Hebrew is showing the coin of Cæsar; which
image, and also other pictures in that little chamber, our best
craftsmen declare to be the finest and best executed that Tiziano has
ever done, and indeed they are most rare. Wherefore he well deserved
to be most liberally recompensed and rewarded by that lord, whom he
portrayed excellently well with one arm resting on a great piece of
artillery; and he also made a portrait of Signora Laura, who
afterwards became the wife of the Duke, which is a stupendous work.
And, in truth, gifts have great potency with those who labour for the
love of art, when they are uplifted by the liberality of Princes. At
that time Tiziano formed a friendship with the divine Messer Lodovico
Ariosto, and was recognized by him as a most excellent painter and
celebrated in his Orlando Furioso:
... E Tizian che onora
Non men Cador, che quei Vinezia e Urbino.
[Illustration: TIZIANO: SACRED AND PROFANE LOVE
(_Rome: Borghese Gallery, 147. Canvas_)]
Having then returned to Venice, Tiziano painted on a canvas in oils,
for the father-in-law of Giovanni da Castel Bolognese, a naked
shepherd and a country-girl who is offering him some pipes, that he
may play them, with a most beautiful landscape; which picture is now
at Faenza, in the house of the said Giovanni. He then executed for the
high-altar in the Church of the Friars Minors, called the Cà Grande, a
picture of Our Lady ascending into Heaven, and below her the twelve
Apostles, who are gazing upon her as she ascends; but of this work,
from its having been painted on cloth, and perhaps not well kept,
there is little to be seen. For the Chapel of the Pesari family, in
the same church, he painted in an altar-piece the Madonna with the
Child in her arms, a S. Peter and a S. George, and about them the
patrons of the work, kneeling and portrayed from life; among whom are
the Bishop of Paphos and his brother, then newly returned from the
victory which that Bishop won against the Turks. For the little Church
of S. Niccolò, in the same convent, he painted in an altar-piece S.
Nicholas, S. Francis, S. Catharine, and also a nude S. Sebastian,
portrayed from life and without any artifice that can be seen to have
been used to enhance the beauty of the limbs and trunk, there being
nothing there but what he saw in the work of nature, insomuch that it
all appears as if stamped from the life, so fleshlike it is and
natural; but for all that it is held to be beautiful, as is also very
lovely the Madonna with the Child in her arms at whom all those
figures are gazing. The subject of that picture was drawn on wood by
Tiziano himself, and then engraved by others and printed. For the
Church of S. Rocco, after the works described above, he painted a
picture of Christ with the Cross on His shoulder, and about His neck a
cord that is drawn by a Hebrew; and that figure, which many have
believed to be by the hand of Giorgione, is now the object of the
greatest devotion in Venice, and has received in alms more crowns than
Tiziano and Giorgione ever gained in all their lives. Then he was
invited to Rome by Bembo, whom he had already portrayed, and who was
at that time Secretary to Pope Leo X, to the end that he might see
Rome, Raffaello da Urbino, and others; but Tiziano delayed that visit
so long from one day to another, that Leo died, and Raffaello in 1520,
and after all he never went. For the Church of S. Maria Maggiore he
painted a picture with S. John the Baptist in the Desert among some
rocks, an Angel that appears as if alive, and a little piece of
distant landscape with some trees upon the bank of a river, all full
of grace.
He made portraits from life of the Prince Grimani and Loredano, which
were held to be admirable; and not long afterwards of King Francis,
when he departed from Italy in order to return to France. And in the
year when Andrea Gritti was elected Doge, Tiziano painted his
portrait, which was a very rare thing, in a picture wherein are Our
Lady, S. Mark, and S. Andrew with the countenance of that Doge; which
picture, a most marvellous work, is in the Sala del Collegio. He has
also painted portraits, in addition to those of the Doges named above
(being obliged, as has been related, to do it), of others who have
been Doges in their time; Pietro Lando, Francesco Donato, Marcantonio
Trevisano, and Veniero. But by the two Doges and brothers Paoli[8] he
has been excused recently, because of his great age, from that
obligation. Before the sack of Rome there had gone to live in Venice
Pietro Aretino, a most famous poet of our times, and he became very
much the friend of Tiziano and Sansovino; which brought great honour
and advantage to Tiziano, for the reason that the poet made him known
wherever his pen reached, and especially to Princes of importance, as
will be told in the proper place.
[Footnote 8: Priuli.]
[Illustration: CHARLES V
(_After the painting by =Tiziano=. Madrid: The Prado_)
_Anderson_]
Meanwhile, to return to Tiziano's works, he painted the altar-piece
for the altar of S. Piero Martire in the Church of SS. Giovanni e
Polo, depicting therein that holy martyr larger than life, in a forest
of very great trees, fallen to the ground and assailed by the fury of
a soldier, who has wounded him so grievously in the head, that as he
lies but half alive there is seen in his face the horror of death,
while in another friar who runs forward in flight may be perceived the
fear and terror of death. In the air are two nude Angels coming down
from a flash of Heaven's lightning, which gives light to the
landscape, which is most beautiful, and to the whole work besides,
which is the most finished, the most celebrated, the greatest, and the
best conceived and executed that Tiziano has as yet ever done in all
his life. This work being seen by Gritti, who was always very much the
friend of Tiziano, as also of Sansovino, he caused to be allotted to
him a great scene of the rout of Chiaradadda, in the Hall of the Great
Council. In it he painted a battle with soldiers in furious combat,
while a terrible rain falls from Heaven; which work, wholly taken from
life, is held to be the best of all the scenes that are in that Hall,
and the most beautiful. And in the same Palace, at the foot of a
staircase, he painted a Madonna in fresco. Having made not long
afterwards for a gentleman of the Contarini family a picture of a
very beautiful Christ, who is seated at table with Cleophas and Luke,
it appeared to that gentleman that the work was worthy to be in a
public place, as in truth it is. Wherefore having made a present of
it, like a true lover of his country and of the commonwealth, to the
Signoria, it was kept a long time in the apartments of the Doge; but
at the present day it is in a public place, where it may be seen by
everyone, in the Salotta d'Oro in front of the Hall of the Council of
Ten, over the door. About the same time, also, he painted for the
Scuola of S. Maria della Carità Our Lady ascending the steps of the
Temple, with heads of every kind portrayed from nature; and for the
Scuola of S. Fantino, likewise, a little altar-piece of S. Jerome in
Penitence, which was much extolled by the craftsmen, but was consumed
by fire two years ago together with the whole church.
It is said that in the year 1530, the Emperor Charles V being in
Bologna, Tiziano was invited to that city by Cardinal Ippolito de'
Medici, through the agency of Pietro Aretino. There he made a most
beautiful portrait of his Majesty in full armour, which so pleased
him, that he caused a thousand crowns to be given to Tiziano; but of
these he was obliged afterwards to give the half to the sculptor
Alfonso Lombardi, who had made a model to be reproduced in marble, as
was related in his Life.
Having returned to Venice, Tiziano found that a number of gentlemen,
who had taken Pordenone into their favour, praising much the works
executed by him on the ceiling of the Sala de' Pregai and elsewhere,
had caused a little altar-piece to be allotted to him in the Church of
S. Giovanni Elemosinario, to the end that he might paint it in
competition with Tiziano, who for the same place had painted a short
time before the said S. Giovanni Elemosinario in the habit of a
Bishop. But, for all the diligence that Pordenone devoted to that
altar-piece, he was not able to equal or even by a great measure to
approach to the work of Tiziano. Next, Tiziano executed a most
beautiful altar-picture of an Annunciation for the Church of S. Maria
degli Angeli at Murano, but he who had caused it to be painted not
being willing to spend five hundred crowns upon it, which Tiziano was
asking, by the advice of Messer Pietro Aretino he sent it as a gift to
the above-named Emperor Charles V, who, liking that work vastly, made
him a present of two thousand crowns; and where that picture was to
have been placed, there was set in its stead one by the hand of
Pordenone. Nor had any long time passed when Charles V, returning to
Bologna for a conference with Pope Clement, at the time when he came
with his army from Hungary, desired to be portrayed again by Tiziano.
Before departing from Bologna, Tiziano also painted a portrait of the
above-named Cardinal Ippolito de' Medici in Hungarian dress, and in a
smaller picture the same man in full armour; both which portraits are
now in the guardaroba of Duke Cosimo. At that same time he executed a
portrait of Alfonso Davalos, Marchese del Vasto, and one of the
above-named Pietro Aretino, who then contrived that he should become
the friend and servant of Federigo Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua, with whom
Tiziano went to his States and there painted a portrait of him, which
is a living likeness, and then one of the Cardinal, his brother. These
finished, he painted, for the adornment of a room among those of
Giulio Romano, twelve figures from the waist upwards of the twelve
Cæsars, very beautiful, beneath each of which the said Giulio
afterwards painted a story from their lives.
[Illustration: TIZIANO: THE DUKE OF NORFOLK
(_Florence: Pitti, 92. Canvas_)]
In Cadore, his native place, Tiziano has painted an altar-picture
wherein are Our Lady, S. Tiziano the Bishop, and a portrait of himself
kneeling. In the year when Pope Paul III went to Bologna, and from
there to Ferrara, Tiziano, having gone to the Court, made a portrait
of that Pope, which was a very beautiful work, and from it another for
Cardinal S. Fiore; and both these portraits, for which he was very
well paid by the Pope, are in Rome, one in the guardaroba of Cardinal
Farnese, and the other in the possession of the heirs of the
above-named Cardinal S. Fiore, and from them have been taken many
copies, which are dispersed throughout Italy. At this same time, also,
he made a portrait of Francesco Maria, Duke of Urbino, which was a
marvellous work; wherefore M. Pietro Aretino on this account
celebrated him in a sonnet that began:
Se il chiaro Apelle con la man dell'arte
Rassembrò d'Alessandro il volto e il petto.
There are in the guardaroba of the same Duke, by the hand of Tiziano,
two most lovely heads of women, and a young recumbent Venus with
flowers and certain light draperies about her, very beautiful and well
finished; and, in addition, a figure of S. Mary Magdalene with the
hair all loose, which is a rare work. There, likewise, are the
portraits of Charles V, King Francis as a young man, Duke Guidobaldo
II, Pope Sixtus IV, Pope Julius II, Paul III, the old Cardinal of
Lorraine, and Suleiman Emperor of the Turks; which portraits, I say,
are by the hand of Tiziano, and most beautiful. In the same
guardaroba, besides many other things, is a portrait of Hannibal the
Carthaginian, cut in intaglio in an antique cornelian, and also a very
beautiful head in marble by the hand of Donato.
[Illustration: POPE PAUL III
(_After the painting by =Tiziano=. Naples: Museo Nazionale_)
_Anderson_]
In the year 1541 Tiziano painted for the Friars of S. Spirito, in
Venice, the altar-piece of their high-altar, figuring in it the
Descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles, with a God depicted as
of fire, and the Spirit as a Dove; which altar-piece becoming spoiled
in no long time, after having many disputes with those friars he had
to paint it again, and it is that which is over the altar at the
present day. For the Church of S. Nazzaro in Brescia he executed the
altar-piece of the high-altar in five pictures; in the central picture
is Jesus Christ returning to life, with some soldiers around, and at
the sides are S. Nazzaro, S. Sebastian, the Angel Gabriel, and the
Virgin receiving the Annunciation. In a picture for the wall at the
entrance of the Duomo of Verona, he painted an Assumption of Our Lady
into Heaven, with the Apostles on the ground, which is held to be the
best of the modern works in that city. In the year 1541 he made the
portrait of Don Diego di Mendoza, at that time Ambassador of Charles V
in Venice, a whole-length figure and standing, which was very
beautiful; and from this Tiziano began what has since come into
fashion, the making of certain portraits of full length. In the same
manner he painted that of the Cardinal of Trento, then a young man,
and for Francesco Marcolini the portrait of Messer Pietro Aretino, but
this last was by no means as beautiful as one of that poet, likewise
by the hand of Tiziano, which Aretino himself sent as a present to
Duke Cosimo de' Medici, to whom he sent also the head of Signor
Giovanni de' Medici, the father of the said Lord Duke. That head was
copied from a cast taken from the face of that lord when he died at
Mantua, which was in the possession of Aretino; and both these
portraits are in the guardaroba of the same Lord Duke, among many
other most noble pictures.
The same year, Vasari having been thirteen months in Venice to
execute, as has been related, a ceiling for Messer Giovanni Cornaro,
and some works for the Company of the Calza, Sansovino, who was
directing the fabric of S. Spirito, had commissioned him to make
designs for three large pictures in oils which were to go into the
ceiling, to the end that he might execute them in painting; but,
Vasari having afterwards departed, those three pictures were allotted
to Tiziano, who executed them most beautifully, from his having
contrived with great art to make the figures foreshortened from below
upwards. In one is Abraham sacrificing Isaac, in another David
severing the neck of Goliath, and in the third Abel slain by his
brother Cain. About the same time Tiziano painted a portrait of
himself, in order to leave that memory of himself to his children.
[Illustration: DANAË
(_After the painting by =Tiziano=. Naples: Museo Nazionale_)
_Anderson_]
The year 1546 having come, he went at the invitation of Cardinal
Farnese to Rome, where he found Vasari, who, having returned from
Naples, was executing the Hall of the Cancelleria for the above-named
Cardinal; whereupon, Tiziano having been recommended by that lord to
Vasari, Giorgio kept him company lovingly in taking him about to see
the sights of Rome. And then, after Tiziano had rested for some days,
rooms were given to him in the Belvedere, to the end that he might set
his hand to painting once more the portrait of Pope Paul, of full
length, with one of Farnese and one of Duke Ottavio, which he executed
excellently well and much to the satisfaction of those lords. At their
persuasion he painted, for presenting to the Pope, a picture of Christ
from the waist upwards in the form of an "Ecce Homo," which work,
whether it was that the works of Michelagnolo, Raffaello, Polidoro,
and others had made him lose some force, or for some other reason, did
not appear to the painters, although it was a good picture, to be of
the same excellence as many others by his hand, and particularly his
portraits. Michelagnolo and Vasari, going one day to visit Tiziano
in the Belvedere, saw in a picture that he had executed at that time
a nude woman representing Danaë, who had in her lap Jove transformed
into a rain of gold; and they praised it much, as one does in the
painter's presence. After they had left him, discoursing of Tiziano's
method, Buonarroti commended it not a little, saying that his
colouring and his manner much pleased him, but that it was a pity that
in Venice men did not learn to draw well from the beginning, and that
those painters did not pursue a better method in their studies. "For,"
he said, "if this man had been in any way assisted by art and design,
as he is by nature, and above all in counterfeiting the life, no one
could do more or work better, for he has a fine spirit and a very
beautiful and lively manner." And in fact this is true, for the reason
that he who has not drawn much nor studied the choicest ancient and
modern works, cannot work well from memory by himself or improve the
things that he copies from life, giving them the grace and perfection
wherein art goes beyond the scope of nature, which generally produces
some parts that are not beautiful.
Tiziano, finally departing from Rome, with many gifts received from
those lords, and in particular a benefice of good value for his son
Pomponio, set himself on the road to return to Venice, after Orazio,
his other son, had made a portrait of Messer Battista Ceciliano, an
excellent player on the bass-viol, which was a very good work, and he
himself had executed some other portraits for Duke Guidobaldo of
Urbino. Arriving in Florence, and seeing the rare works of that city,
he was amazed by them no less than he had been by those of Rome. And
besides that, he visited Duke Cosimo, who was at Poggio a Caiano,
offering to paint his portrait; to which his Excellency did not give
much heed, perchance in order not to do a wrong to the many noble
craftsmen of his city and dominion.