Titian, who was a native of Cadore, left his home at an early age
for Venice. He was first placed as a pupil of Sebastian Zuccato, a
mosaicist and perhaps a painter; he then seems to have worked in the
studio of Gentile Bellini before passing into that of Giovanni, where
he met Giorgione. Titian, like Giotto, has been called “the Father of
modern painting.” The early Florentine had provided his countrymen
with a set of fundamental principles of art, but it remained for
the illustrious Venetian to endow his contemporaries and artistic
descendants with a more complete equipment and a new sense of pictorial
effect. The profound impression exerted by Giorgione on the youthful
Titian inspired him to achieve those idyllic compositions and “poesies”
which stand out so prominently among the world’s pictures.
Titian’s earliest picture in the Louvre is the _Virgin and Child,
with St. Stephen, St. Ambrose, and St. Maurice_ (No. 1577), of about
1508-1510. It is very reminiscent of a picture by Titian in the Vienna
Gallery (No. 166), in which he has substituted St. Jerome for St.
Ambrose.
No doubt can exist as to the authenticity of the so-called _Portrait
of Alfonso da Ferrara and Laura de’ Dianti_ (No. 1590), but the title
under which it has passed for many years is probably incorrect.
It was in the collection of Charles I., and was then described as
“Tytsian’s Mrs., after the life by Tytsian.” In the collection of
Jabach it was called _La Maîtresse du Titien_, and as such was sold
to Louis XIV. for £100. This picture would correctly be described
under the less ambitious title of _A Woman at her Toilet and a Man
holding Two Mirrors_. Laura was the daughter of a hatter of Ferrara.
She was _persona grata_ at the court of Alfonso I., Duke of Ferrara
(reigned 1505-1534), and there held the title of _Illustrissima Donna
Laura Eustochia d’Este_. The Duke’s first wife, Anna Sforza, died in
1497, when he was twenty-one years old. In 1501 he married, as his
second wife, Lucrezia Borgia (died 1519), the natural daughter of Pope
Alexander VI. It seems probable that shortly afterwards the Duke took
Laura as his third wife, and that she was painted by Titian a little
later. The Louvre picture (No. 1590) appears on stylistic grounds to
be a work of about 1515-1517. A portrait which can be more certainly
identified as that of Laura is the single figure picture, painted by
Titian about 1523, in the collection of Sir Frederick Cook at Richmond.
The influence of Giorgione is still clearly seen in Titian’s _Man with
a Glove_ (No. 1592, Plate XII.). It is a noble portrait of an unknown
man; the colour is rich, and the light and shade are contrasted with
great mastery; the bare right hand and the gloved left holding the
second glove are admirably modelled. The canvas, which seems to have
been painted about 1518, is signed “TICIANVS F.” Soon afterwards Titian
must have painted the _Portrait of a Man in Black with the Thumb of
his Left Hand in the Belt of his Doublet_ (No. 1591), the _Madonna
with the Rabbit_ (No. 1578), which is inscribed _Ticianus F._, and
the magnificent _Entombment_ (No. 1584, Plate XIII.). This priceless
picture, which was painted not later, than 1523 for Federigo Gonzaga,
passed from Mantua into the collection of Charles I. It was sold off by
Cromwell for £128 and, after being one of the masterpieces for a few
years in the collection of Jabach, was acquired by Louis XIV. The deep
religious feeling and the rich, sonorous harmony of colour make this
one of the world’s most precious pictures. Notice the sunburnt arm
of Joseph of Arimathæa; it is significant of the art of Venice.
[Illustration:
PLATE XII.—TITIAN
(1489?-1576)