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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 43988 ***
+
+  MASTERPIECES
+  IN COLOUR
+  EDITED BY - -
+  T. LEMAN HARE
+
+
+  TITIAN
+
+  1477 (?)-1576
+
+
+
+
+  "MASTERPIECES IN COLOUR" SERIES
+
+
+     ARTIST.                  AUTHOR.
+  VELAZQUEZ.              S. L. BENSUSAN.
+  REYNOLDS.               S. L. BENSUSAN.
+  TURNER.                 C. LEWIS HIND.
+  ROMNEY.                 C. LEWIS HIND.
+  GREUZE.                 ALYS EYRE MACKLIN.
+  BOTTICELLI.             HENRY B. BINNS.
+  ROSSETTI.               LUCIEN PISSARRO.
+  BELLINI.                GEORGE HAY.
+  FRA ANGELICO.           JAMES MASON.
+  REMBRANDT.              JOSEF ISRAELS.
+  LEIGHTON.               A. LYS BALDRY.
+  RAPHAEL.                PAUL G. KONODY.
+  HOLMAN HUNT.            MARY E. COLERIDGE.
+  TITIAN.                 S. L. BENSUSAN.
+  MILLAIS.                A. LYS BALDRY.
+  CARLO DOLCI.            GEORGE HAY.
+  GAINSBOROUGH.           MAX ROTHSCHILD.
+  TINTORETTO.             S. L. BENSUSAN.
+  LUINI.                  JAMES MASON.
+  FRANZ HALS.             EDGCUMBE STALEY.
+  VAN DYCK.               PERCY M. TURNER.
+  LEONARDO DA VINCI.      M. W. BROCKWELL.
+  RUBENS.                 S. L. BENSUSAN.
+  WHISTLER.               T. MARTIN WOOD.
+  HOLBEIN.                S. L. BENSUSAN.
+  BURNE-JONES.            A. LYS BALDRY.
+  VIGÉE LE BRUN.          C. HALDANE MACFALL.
+  CHARDIN.                PAUL G. KONODY.
+  FRAGONARD.              C. HALDANE MACFALL.
+  MEMLINC.                W. H. J. & J. C. WEALE.
+  CONSTABLE.              C. LEWIS HIND.
+  RAEBURN.                JAMES L. CAW.
+  JOHN S. SARGENT.        T. MARTIN WOOD.
+  LAWRENCE.               S. L. BENSUSAN.
+  DÜRER.                  H. E. A. FURST.
+  MILLET.                 PERCY M. TURNER.
+  WATTEAU.                C. LEWIS HIND.
+  HOGARTH.                C. LEWIS HIND.
+  MURILLO.                S. L. BENSUSAN.
+  WATTS.                  W. LOFTUS HARE.
+  INGRES.                 A. J. FINBERG.
+
+  _Others in Preparation._
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: PLATE I.--THE DUCHESS OF URBINO. Frontispiece
+
+(In the Uffizi Gallery, Florence)
+
+This portrait of the Duchess of Urbino from the Uffizi must not be
+confused with the portrait of the Duchess in the Pitti Palace. The
+sitter here is Eleonora Gonzaga, Duchess of Urbino, and the portrait
+was painted somewhere between the years 1536 and 1538 at a period when
+the master's art had ripened almost to the point of its highest
+achievement.]
+
+
+
+
+  TITIAN
+
+  BY S. L. BENSUSAN
+
+  ILLUSTRATED WITH EIGHT
+  REPRODUCTIONS IN COLOUR
+
+  [Illustration: IN SEMPITERNUM.]
+
+  LONDON: T. C. & E. C. JACK
+  NEW YORK: FREDERICK A. STOKES CO.
+
+
+
+
+  LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+
+  Plate
+     I. The Duchess Of Urbino             Frontispiece
+          In the Uffizi Gallery, Florence
+
+                                                  Page
+    II. La Bella                                    14
+          In the Pitti Palace, Florence
+
+   III. The Entombment                              24
+          In the Louvre
+
+    IV. The Holy Family                             34
+          In the Uffizi Gallery, Florence
+
+     V. The Marriage of St. Catherine               40
+          In the Pitti Palace, Florence
+
+    VI. Flora                                       50
+          In the Uffizi Gallery, Florence
+
+   VII. Sacred and Profane Love                     60
+          In the Borghese Palace, Rome
+
+  VIII. The Holy Family                             70
+          In the National Gallery, London
+
+
+
+
+I
+
+
+Titian Vecelli, undeniably the greatest Venetian painter of the
+Renaissance, leaps into the full light of the movement. To be sure he
+appears full-grown, as Venus is said to have done when she appeared
+above the foam in the waters of Cythera, or Pallas Athene when she
+sprang from the brain of Zeus, but happily he was destined to live to a
+great age.
+
+We have few and scanty records to tell of the very early days. So wide
+was his circle of patrons in after life, so intimate his acquaintance
+with the leading men of his generation, that it is not difficult to
+find out what manner of man he was without the aid of his pictures,
+even though they have a very definite story to tell the painstaking
+student.
+
+There are well over one hundred important works, dealing with the life
+and art of Titian, written by enthusiasts in half-a-dozen languages,
+for of all the artists of the Renaissance he makes perhaps the most
+direct appeal to the man _moyen sensuel_.
+
+[Illustration: PLATE II.--LA BELLA
+
+(In the Pitti Palace, Florence)
+
+This wonderful example of Titian's portrait painting may be seen in the
+Pitti Palace to-day, and was probably commissioned by the Duke of
+Urbino somewhere about the year 1536. It will be noticed by students of
+Titian that the model for this portrait appears in some of the master's
+pictures as Venus.]
+
+Fearless and unashamed, he gave the world pagan pictures, entering into
+the joy of their creation with the enthusiasm of a schoolboy who has
+found an orchard gate unlocked. To be sure the spirit of joy and of
+youth passed with the years, even this most fortunate of painters knew
+trouble, domestic and financial, but the beauty remained, expressing
+the fullest vigour of the Renaissance movement, the supreme achievement
+of human loveliness, the splendour of men and women.
+
+Fortune was kind to Titian in many ways, and not in the least degree by
+driving to the sheltering fold of the Venetian Republic the great men
+of all lands who were hurrying to safety before the destroying advance
+of Spain. It is right, at the same time, to remember that the leaders
+of the destroying legions were the friends and patrons of the painter,
+that the greatest of them all desired to be buried in the shadow of the
+master's picture "La Gloria," now in the Prado. The time called for a
+supremely gifted artist to render its great men immortal, or at least
+to give them what we call immortality in the days when we forget that
+if modern science be correct man has existed for some 250,000 years and
+has not yet reached mental adolescence. Perhaps when he has developed
+his brain, and can control the march of this planet and the duration of
+his own life, he will not make half so attractive a subject for the
+painters as did those men and women of the fifteenth and sixteenth
+century whose beauty casts a spell over us to-day.
+
+Titian was born at Pieve among the mountains of Cadore where the Tyrol
+and Italy meet. His statue in bronze looks out towards Venice to-day
+from the market-place of his native town, and the landscape that the
+painter knew best, and gave time out of mind to his pictures, has
+altered but little. He was a second son, and would seem to have been
+born about the year 1480, but there was no registrar of births,
+marriages, and deaths in Pieve and, while some authorities place the
+date at 1477, the year that he himself favoured, others advance it as
+far as 1482. There has been a great controversy about this birth date,
+but it might be safe to place it rather later still.
+
+Titian was the son of one Gregorio Vecelli, who seems to have been a
+soldier and a man who held high position in the little town which, in
+the early days of the fifteenth century, had cast in its lot with the
+Venetian Republic. Nothing is known of his mother except her name, but
+his elder brother named Francesco followed art until he was middle
+aged, and there were two sisters Ursula and Katherine, of whom the
+former kept house for the painter for many years in Venice, after the
+death of his wife.
+
+Francesco and Titian Vecelli developed at an early age a marked
+feeling for painting, and in order that they might have every chance of
+developing their gifts to the best advantage, Gregorio Vecelli took
+them to Venice, which lay some seventy miles from Pieve, and left them
+with a brother who had sufficient influence to secure for Titian
+admission to the studios of the brothers Bellini, who then shared with
+the Vivarini family the highest position in the art world of the
+Republic. Gian Bellini, then a man past middle age, had in his studio
+several pupils who were destined to achieve distinction. Palma Vecchio,
+Sebastian del Piombo, and Giorgione of Castelfranco were among them,
+and of these the last named was certainly the greatest. It is probable
+that, had he lived, even Titian Vecelli must have toiled after him in
+vain, for he influenced his fellow-student to an extent that is very
+clearly revealed in the early pictures, and has even led to confusion
+between the work of the two men, a confusion greatly increased by the
+fact that Titian completed some of the pictures that Giorgione left
+unfinished. Happily perhaps for Titian, though unfortunately for the
+world at large, Giorgione was destined to fall a victim to one of the
+plagues that ravaged Venice from time to time, and he died soon after
+completing his thirtieth year, leaving Titian undisputed master of
+Venetian painting.
+
+Like all great men Titian was an assimilator. In his early days he
+started out under the influence of Bellini. Then he surrendered, as
+even his aged master did, to the strange, rare, and beautiful spirit of
+poetry and romance that Giorgione brought into art. He may have helped
+to develop and strengthen it, for he and Giorgione worked and lived
+together. Finally when outside influences had died down Titian found
+himself, and this was the greatest discovery of his life.
+
+In the last years of Giorgione's short career he and Titian, both young
+men, were engaged to decorate the great Commercial House of the
+Germans, rebuilt upon the site of the older building that had been
+destroyed by fire about the beginning of the year 1505. The work would
+appear to have been started two years later. This united effort, purely
+decorative, must have been worthy of its surroundings at a time when
+Venice and beauty were almost synonymous terms; the greater part is
+lost to us to-day.
+
+Serious troubles were upon the Republic. The League of Cambrai, one of
+the least scrupulous political arrangements in European history, had
+resulted in an attack upon the Venetian domains that had been entirely
+successful, though statecraft was destined to recover from the
+Philistines of Europe a part at least of what they had taken, and
+finding that the Republic was too beset to give much thought to art or
+artists Titian left Venice for Padua. This must have been very shortly
+after the completion of his work with Giorgione. His hand is to be seen
+in the very pleasant and learned city of Padua among the frescoes in
+the Scuola del Santo, and he may have been within its walls when the
+plague, on one of its periodical visits to Venice, added his friend and
+fellow-worker Giorgione to a heavy list of victims.
+
+[Illustration: PLATE III.--THE ENTOMBMENT
+
+(In the Louvre)
+
+This world-famous canvas hangs in the Salon Carré of the Louvre. It is
+considered to be one of the masterpieces among the religious subjects
+painted by the great Venetian artist.]
+
+On Titian's return to the headquarters of the Republic only Palma
+Vecchio was left among the great men of his own age, and it would seem
+that Titian's rising fame had already spread beyond the borders of
+Venice, because in 1513, when he petitioned the Council of Ten for
+a broker's patent to work in the Hall of the German Merchants, he
+stated that he had been invited by the Pope (Leo X.) to come to Rome,
+and that he wished to leave a memorial in Venice. It is clear from the
+correspondence that he had an eye upon a post held by the aged Gian
+Bellini. This was the office of painter in the Hall of the Great
+Council, a coveted position for which Carpaccio, one of Bellini's less
+distinguished pupils, is said to have been among the claimants.
+Although Titian was a remarkable and rising man the Council hesitated
+to grant his request, partly because times were bad with the State and
+money was scarce. He was compelled to wait, and it would appear that
+his application was opposed both by the friends of Bellini and the
+supporters of Bellini's older pupils; but as soon as Bellini died,
+towards the close of 1516, Titian came to his desire and undertook to
+paint the great battle of Cadore in the Hall of the Great Council.
+Having secured his patent, work increased, his brush was in request
+in many quarters, and he did as so many other painters in the State
+employment of Venice had done--he left his official work for such spare
+time as more remunerative employment left him--to the great scandal of
+the Councillors whose angry protests are on record. His early portraits
+seem to have been of men; the women, in whose treatment he was perhaps
+less happy, sought him in later life, and his other early commissions
+were very largely for altar-pieces. Titian had powerful friends and
+patrons at an early age, for we see that he had been recommended to the
+Pope by Cardinal Bembo before he returned to Venice from Padua, and his
+pictures attracted the attention of that splendid patron of art Alfonso
+of Ferrara. This great connoisseur sent for and entertained him at his
+castle, and even offered to take him to Rome when Leo X. died, and his
+successor, after the fashion of Popes, would be likely to give some
+liberal commissions to the greatest artists of his time. In return for
+these kindnesses, and in consideration of a splendid fee, Titian
+painted the great picture of Alfonso of Ferrara of which a copy is to
+be seen in Florence. The original went to Madrid and has been lost. For
+the same generous master he painted his "Bacchus and Ariadne," his
+"Venus with the Shell," and a Bacchanal, and it is generally agreed
+that he painted a part at least of the picture called "The Bacchanal,"
+now in the possession of the Duke of Northumberland.
+
+Several of the works painted in Ferrara were taken in later days to
+Madrid, and it might be said in this place that it is almost as
+necessary to go to the Prado to see the Titians as it is to see the
+great works of Velazquez. "The Bacchanal" is there, and the "Worship
+of Venus" is there, and we find many others of the first importance,
+some two dozen, perhaps, whose authority is beyond dispute. This
+collection in the Prado is the more valuable because it represents
+Titian not only in the early days, but when he was at the zenith of his
+powers. The pictures range in date over a period of nearly seventy
+years, from the "Madonna with St. Bridget and St. Ulphus" (circa 1505)
+down to the "Allegory of the Battle of Lepanto," which was sent to
+Spain in 1575, a commission from Philip II. whose love for allegorical
+pictures is well known. Charles V. and his son Philip II. are to be
+seen in the Prado through the medium of Titian's brush, and, although
+many of the works have suffered from restoration, which is one of the
+vices associated with the great Spanish picture galleries, there are
+several that show few signs of an alien brush and are, for pictures by
+Titian, in first-class order.
+
+Students of the Renaissance know that art was accepted by all the great
+rulers of Europe as something lying outside the boundaries of ambition
+and strife. It was one of the rewards of a great conqueror that he
+could have his portrait painted by the first painter of his day, and
+patriotism was kept outside the studio, to the great benefit of art and
+rulers alike. Venice offended Spain in many ways, and even offended the
+Church by laying a restraining hand upon the Holy Inquisition, but
+Popes and Spanish kings were proud, nevertheless, to be numbered among
+the patrons of the greatest artist of their time, they seemed to know
+that his brush would do more than immortalise their progress--that it
+would outlive it. The attention that Titian received from the Court of
+Ferrara did much to develop the esteem in which Venice held him, and
+Titian was requested to paint his famous "Assumption" for the great
+Church of Santa Maria de' Frari. To-day no more than a copy hangs in
+the church, the picture having been long ago transferred to the
+Accademia. It is very properly regarded by the authorities as one
+of the first very great pictures of Titian's life, marking as it does
+the entrance of living interests into sacred painting. The bustle and
+movement that earlier masters had not ventured to present are seen here
+to the greatest advantage, and although there must have been many to
+declare that its conception was wicked and irreligious and quite
+outside the thought of such acknowledged masters as Beato Angelico and
+Gian Bellini, it is likely that such criticism would have very little
+effect upon Titian, because he went on painting altar-pieces without
+reverting in any instance to the methods of his predecessors.
+
+He painted a "Madonna" for the Church of St Nicholas, an "Assumption"
+for Verona's Cathedral, an "Entombment of Christ," now in Paris, and it
+could have surprised nobody when the Doge Andrea Gritti commissioned
+the artist to decorate the Church of St. Nicholas in the Ducal Palace.
+These frescoes have disappeared, but a picture by Titian preserves the
+patron for us, and this is something to be grateful for, because the
+head is full of interest. Titian continued to paint ecclesiastical
+subjects until pressure from the world beyond forced him to turn his
+brush to other purposes, and then he came under the patronage of
+Frederic Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua, son of that Isabella d'Este, who had
+commissioned Titian's old master, Gian Bellini, to paint a secular
+picture for her _camerino_ and was in the next few years to have her
+own portrait painted by Bellini's young pupil. In addition to an
+original picture he copied a portrait painted when she was young, and
+doubtless he was sufficiently a courtier to paint it in fashion that
+merited her approval and consoled her for having grown old.
+
+The instinct for the fine arts had descended to Isabella's son, and
+when Titian went to work in Mantua he painted pictures that extended
+his European fame, because as the western world was situated in those
+days Mantua had a word to say in its affairs, entertaining foreign
+potentates and receiving foreign ambassadors. In those days, too,
+ambassadors took note of art movements, knowing that in so doing they
+were bound to please their masters; the political correspondence of the
+times includes a very considerable amount of art gossip. It is certain
+that Titian worked in Mantua for the Duke, and painted many pictures
+including the "Eleven Cæsars," but unhappily the greater part of all
+his labour is lost. Perhaps some canvases await the discerning critic
+in half-forgotten gallery or lumber-rooms; it is not likely that all
+have been destroyed.
+
+[Illustration: PLATE IV.--THE HOLY FAMILY
+
+(In the Uffizi Gallery, Florence)
+
+Sometimes known as the Virgin with the Holy Child and Saints. Here
+we find Titian dealing with a religious subject with the restraint,
+dignity, and sense of beauty that proclaim him a master among painters.
+The motherly love of the Virgin, the solicitude of St. Joseph on the
+right, and the childish innocence of the two children are most
+effectively expressed and contrasted. The picture may be seen in the
+Uffizi Gallery.]
+
+The next great Italian house with which Titian seems to have entered
+into relations was that of Urbino whose Duke was nephew of that Pope
+Julius II. who was known to his contemporaries as "the Terrible
+Pontiff" because of his uncontrollable temper. He was the Pope who gave
+Michelangelo the commission to paint the ceiling in the Sistine Chapel.
+This artist was at least as bad-tempered as the Terrible Pontiff and
+the "I'm not a painter" with which he greeted the Pontiff's demand that
+he should paint when he preferred to practise sculpture has echoed down
+the ages. It is worth remembering that when the work was done, and
+Pope Julius came to see the result, he suggested that the scaffolding
+should be re-erected and the work decorated afresh with ultramarine and
+gold-leaf! Although Pope Julius bought the "Apollo" and the "Laocoon,"
+Michelangelo was his adviser, but his nephew Francesco Maria della
+Rovere had sound instinct, and his connection with Titian lasted as
+long as he lived.
+
+In the early years of this connection Titian painted the Duke and
+Duchess and the famous "Bella," which is reproduced in these pages and
+is reckoned, in spite of repainting, to be one of the most notable
+works from Titian's hand in this period of his career. Many portraits
+painted for the Court of Urbino are mentioned by Vasari; we cannot find
+any traces of them to-day. As one of them was of the Turkish Sultan,
+and it is not on record that Titian ever went to Turkey, it is
+reasonable to suppose that some at least of these pictures were copies
+of portraits that other men had painted. It was the custom for foreign
+potentates to have their portrait painted by the best man in their own
+capital and then to send the portrait to be copied by some artist of
+world-wide repute.
+
+In the Uffizi Gallery in Florence there are portraits of the Duke of
+Urbino (which are signed) and his Duchess; they were kept at Urbino
+until the early part of the seventeenth century, and were then brought
+to their present resting-place. The picture of the Duke is a very
+striking one. He had made a great reputation in fighting against the
+Turks, and the emblems of his high office are seen in the picture. The
+Duchess is painted in repose; like so many of Titian's portraits of
+women this one has a rather listless expression. When the Duke died his
+son Guidobaldo continued relations with the painter, who painted the
+Duchess Julia just before her death. It seems likely that she never
+saw the picture, which is now in the Pitti at Florence. The portrait of
+the husband is lost.
+
+
+
+
+II
+
+MIDDLE AGE
+
+
+This brief and rather hurried review of Titian's life and work has
+brought us to his middle age and we find him now almost at the zenith
+of his fame, though his powers have not yet reached their ripest and
+fullest expression. Venice, Mantua, and Urbino have acknowledged his
+talent, while if Pope and Sultan have not actually sat to him for their
+portraits they have sent him other men's work to copy. The great
+Charles V., who seemed bent upon holding all western and central Europe
+in the hollow of his hand, was his friend and patron, and we see what
+manner of man he was from the pictures in the Prado. The first, painted
+in the very early years of their acquaintance, shows Charles with a
+great hound by his side. His right hand rests on his dagger, his left
+on the dog's collar, he wears the chain of the Golden Fleece, and seems
+a man born to command. Belonging, of course, to a much later date is
+the other portrait of Charles at the Battle of Mühlburg, perhaps even
+less a monument of Titian's skill than an enduring record of the
+terrible craze for repainting that beset Spain until recent years, and
+is not unknown to-day, though public opinion has had some effect even
+in Madrid. It is not generally known that there is a Spanish official
+who has a salaried engagement to assist the old masters whose work
+shows signs of fading, and without wishing to be hypercritical it is
+reasonable to remark that these officials in a laudable anxiety to
+earn their stipend have done irreparable damage to much work that
+they were not fit to approach.
+
+[Illustration: PLATE V.--THE MARRIAGE OF ST. CATHERINE
+
+(In the Pitti Palace, Florence)
+
+This fine work is in the Pitti Palace, and is a triumph of harmony in
+colour and lines. The drawing of the arms of the Infant Christ is the
+one point that may be said to justify hostile criticism in a work of
+extraordinary beauty. A somewhat similar picture is in the National
+Gallery.]
+
+In spite of the imminence of the political scheme that occupied the
+mind of Charles V. he was able to spare time to consider the affairs of
+art, and his attitude towards Titian seems to have been that of one
+friend towards another rather than that of an emperor towards a foreign
+painter. It is interesting in this connection to remember that his son
+Philip II., who succeeded to the throne of Spain, was a patron of the
+arts, that Philip III. was not indifferent to them, that Philip IV. was
+the friend as well as the patron of Velazquez, and that Velazquez
+admired Titian above all the other Venetians, and is said to have
+copied many of his pictures.
+
+Charles proceeded to put the crown upon Titian's reputation by sending
+him in 1533 a patent of nobility, and making him a Knight of the Order
+of the Golden Spur. Among the stories that receive a sort of sanction
+from age is one to the effect that Charles V. once picked up a brush
+that Titian had dropped, and said to his astonished courtiers that such
+a man was worthy of having an emperor to serve him. Stories of this
+kind seem to flourish in Spain. Students of the life of Velazquez will
+not forget the legend that Philip IV. painted the cross of St. Iago
+upon the painter's cloak when he saw the famous picture "Las Meniñas,"
+in order to give the most fitting expression of his admiration. This
+story contrasts strangely with the true facts of the case. Charles went
+even further than to give the patent of nobility to Titian, he made a
+determined effort to persuade him to live in Madrid altogether. Very
+wisely Titian refused the offers; he was a Venetian at heart, and a
+free man. To be a citizen of Venice was an honour for which even a
+Charles V. could hardly find an effective substitute.
+
+There is no reason to believe that Titian would have fared any better
+in the wind-swept, heat-stricken capital of Spain than Velazquez fared
+in the years that brought Philip IV. to the throne. At the splendid
+court of Charles V. Titian would soon have become a mere official
+painter, he would have been compelled to paint to order and endure the
+snubs and buffets of the blue-blooded, but uncultivated courtiers
+attached to the royal establishment. Moreover, the Venetians did not
+like Spanish methods of dealing with matters of art and faith; to
+Titian their attitude would have appeared intolerable.
+
+Although he was a painter, Titian had little of the temperament that is
+generally associated with artists. His genius was allied to sound
+commercial instincts, and he chose for intimates and advisers men whose
+practical experience of the world and of affairs was at least as great
+as his own, in some cases even greater. Of these Pietro Aretino, father
+of modern journalists, was one of the most sagacious and quite the most
+remarkable. His voluminous letters tell us a great deal about Titian to
+whom he played the part of mentor, and they reveal the writer as a man
+of great shrewdness who moved in the highest circles in many cities,
+living largely by his wits, and wielding a pen that was often sharper
+than a sword and was certainly more feared. He found Titian as valuable
+to him as he was useful to Titian, and, when any delicate negotiations
+were to the fore Aretino's large circle of friends and patrons, his
+ready tongue and fluent pen were at the service of the painter. His
+portrait painted by Titian was till recently in Rome and reveals a man
+with massive head, sagacious expression, and a curious likeness to Dr.
+Hans Richter the famous musician. His letters are still read with
+interest by those who like to look back over the course of life in the
+sixteenth century.
+
+At a time when he had passed middle age, Titian would seem to have
+exhausted for the moment the possibilities of Venice. We have seen that
+the Fathers of the City had been a little vexed with his delay in
+painting the "Battle of Cadore" in the Hall of the Grand Council. He
+had received a State allowance in order to enable him to paint it, and
+twenty years had not sufficed him for the completion of the commission.
+When he was threatened with the loss of his money and dignities by the
+indignant Councillors, whose patience at the end of two decades was
+quite stale, he did set to work, and satisfied them that the picture
+was worth the waiting. But they could hardly have been inclined to
+extend much more patronage to a man who allowed the rulers of other
+States to turn his attention from commissioned work, and never
+hesitated to leave it for years at a time when other and more
+remunerative orders came to hand. Moreover the great churches were
+fairly well filled, and the smaller ones could hardly afford to employ
+the greatest master of the day. So Pietro Aretino, perhaps casting
+about to do his friend a good turn, bethought him of his influence in
+Rome, and addressed certain letters to the leading lights of Mother
+Church who were to be found there. These letters were doubtless
+supervised by Titian himself, because they bear a striking likeness in
+phraseology to the petition the painter had addressed to the Council of
+Ten in the days when he was little known, and Gian Bellini was still
+working for the State. Then, it will be remembered, the painter
+declared that he had been asked to go to Rome but preferred to stay in
+Venice; now Aretino told the Romans that Titian had been invited to go
+to Madrid but preferred to work in Rome. So it happened early in the
+'forties that, through the useful Aretino, Titian entered into
+relations with the Farnese family, who were represented in the Papal
+Chair by Pope Paul III. The result was that Titian was invited to
+Ferrara, where he met the Pope and painted his portrait.
+
+The whole correspondence, so far as it can be seen, would seem to
+suggest that Titian and Aretino managed this business exceedingly well.
+When the painter found that his ambition was within measurable distance
+of being gratified, and that his graceless elder son for whom he had
+entered a special plea, was to receive a benefice, he seems to have
+remembered that Venice held many attractions for him, and that he could
+not leave it in a hurry. Not until the close of 1545 did he visit the
+Eternal City, only to regret that the greater part of his life had been
+passed outside its walls.
+
+As soon as he was established in Rome, Titian found himself received by
+princes and prelates in fashion befitting his age and reputation. And
+Giorgio Vasari, the author of the great work on Italian artists, was
+commissioned, by one of the heads of the house of Farnese, to show the
+painter the wonders of the city.
+
+[Illustration: PLATE VI.--FLORA
+
+(In the Uffizi Gallery, Florence)
+
+The famous Flora of Titian's reproduced here is in the Uffizi Gallery
+and was painted somewhere about 1515. In the seventeenth century it was
+engraved by one of the greatest engravers of the day, Sandrart. The
+picture was publicly exhibited in Florence towards the stormy close of
+the eighteenth century, and although people in those years had small
+leisure to concern themselves about works of art, it created a great
+sensation.]
+
+To the Farnese family Titian's visit was of the first importance
+because its Pope and Cardinal were his first patrons, and he painted
+many pictures for them. Paul III. was no more than ten years older than
+the painter and had not long to live. He sat to Titian several
+times; two of the portraits are to be seen in Naples and there are
+others to be seen elsewhere. In addition to the fine memorials of the
+Farnese Pope, Naples holds several of Titian's masterpieces, including
+the splendid "Danäe," a "Philip II.," and a "Mary Magdalen." Those who
+are fortunate enough to obtain access to the really remarkable
+collection of pictures at Naples will not forget readily the striking
+portraits of the old Pope.
+
+Titian stayed less than a year in the Eternal City in spite of the
+preparations he had made before undertaking the journey, and then
+returned to Venice with many honours, but without the long desired post
+for his son. Perhaps his departure gave offence to people in high
+places, perhaps his stay there had not been altogether as satisfactory
+as he had expected it to be, for despite flattering offers, despite the
+honour of Roman citizenship conferred upon him before he went home, he
+refused to return. He might have gone in the end in consideration of
+the preferment granted to Pomponio Vecelli his scapegrace son, but
+Charles V. sent for him, and he went instead to Augsburg, where the
+Emperor who had seen the fulfilment of so many of his hopes was living
+in great state, surrounded by as brilliant a court as the sixteenth
+century knew. In Augsburg Titian painted his most famous portrait of
+Charles V., the one showing the Emperor on horseback, which as has been
+stated, is to be seen to-day in the Prado in Madrid.
+
+Titian remained in Augsburg for the greater part of a year before he
+returned to Venice, to find his studio, or work-shop as it would have
+been called in those days besieged by the envoys of the various
+European rulers who were all clamouring for portraits. From Venice the
+painter went to Milan at the invitation of Prince Philip of Spain
+(afterwards Philip II.) and at the close of 1550 he was back in
+Augsburg where he painted several portraits of Prince Philip of which
+perhaps the best is in the Prado. By the time he returned to Venice he
+would have been in the immediate neighbourhood of his eightieth year.
+His brush was never idle, and if the fruit of his labours could have
+been preserved in fire-proof galleries the gain to the world would have
+been enormous. Unfortunately we have to face the unpleasant truth that
+considerably more than half his life work has been lost.
+
+
+
+
+III
+
+THE LAST DECADES
+
+
+Titian's last work for Charles V. was the famous "Gloria." This was
+painted at a time when Charles had decided to end his days in the
+shadow of the Church, and is to be seen to-day in the Prado, a
+composition of amazing strength and wonderful inspiration. The Father
+and the Son are seen enthroned, with the Virgin Mary at the feet of
+Christ, and the Patriarchs grouped in the background. Charles himself
+in his shroud is pleading for forgiveness, an angel by his side
+encourages him and supports his appeal. The lighting of the picture is
+masterly, and so impressed the Emperor that he took it with him into
+retirement, and directed that it should be placed above his tomb.
+
+Philip II. has no enviable reputation in this country, but his position
+as patron of the arts stands far above criticism. Though he was a sober
+ascetic upon whom the authority of the Church weighed very heavily, he
+did not ask Titian to devote himself entirely to religious pictures.
+In matters of art he saw his way to making a considerable concession
+to the spirit of the Renaissance, and when he took over the burden
+of empire he commissioned several mythological subjects from the old
+painter. Among them were the "Venus and Adonis" now in the Prado, the
+"Diana surprised by Actaeon" in Bridge-water House, and the "Jupiter
+and Antiope" in the Louvre. The allegorical pictures, the latest work
+of the painter's life, were commissioned later.
+
+Strangely enough the years had done little or nothing to dim the lustre
+of the painter's work, his colour was still supremely beautiful, his
+feeling for landscape more intense than it had ever been, while his
+capacity for striking and novel composition remained a thing to wonder
+at. Of course Philip was not content with secular subjects, and Titian
+was required to paint a certain number of pictures for the Escorial,
+but he is best represented by his mythological subjects. Perhaps they
+made a more direct appeal to him because by their side the religious
+pictures were a little old-fashioned, and he does not seem to have
+faced allegorical subjects with enthusiasm.
+
+It is interesting to turn to Vasari and read some of the things he has
+to say about the painter at this period of his life, for although the
+old chronicler is not the most accurate of writers, he is at least a
+very interesting one and he knew Titian intimately. He says of the
+famous "Gloria" picture to which reference has been made--"The
+composition of this work was in accordance with the orders of his
+Majesty, who was then giving evidence of his intention to retire, as he
+afterwards did, from mundane affairs, to the end that he might die in
+the manner of a true Christian, fearing God and labouring for his own
+salvation." It is not difficult to imagine the emotion that this
+picture must have roused among those who were privileged to see it,
+when it came fresh from the painter's studio, to impress an age that
+had not forgotten to be devout.
+
+Again Vasari says, "In the year 1566 when I, the writer of the present
+history, was in Venice, I went to visit Titian as one who was his
+friend, and found him, although then very old, still with the pencils
+in his hand painting busily." The old gossip goes on to say that Paris
+Bordone, who "had studied grammar and become an excellent musician,"
+had set himself to imitate Titian, who did not love him on that
+account, and had sought to keep him from getting commissions. Bordone
+persevered and went to Augsburg, where he painted pictures, now lost,
+for some of the great German merchants. This little glimpse of rivalry
+suggests to us that Titian was jealous of his reputation, although
+Vasari tells us elsewhere that he was kind and considerate to his
+contemporaries, and free from uneasiness, because he had gained a fair
+amount of wealth, his labours having always been well paid. Vasari
+hints, too, that he kept his brush in hand too long; he must have
+written this when he remembered that, for all his many excellences,
+Titian was a Venetian. "Titian has always been healthy and happy," he
+writes; "he has been favoured beyond the lot of most men, and has
+received from Heaven only favours and blessings. In his house he
+has always been visited by whatever princes, literati, or men of
+distinction have gone to Venice, for in addition to his excellence in
+art he has always distinguished himself by courtesy, goodness, and
+rectitude." Perhaps his remark that Titian's reputation would have
+stood higher if he had finished work earlier may be no more than a
+veiled comment upon the indiscriminate misuse of the labours of pupils.
+
+[Illustration: PLATE VII.--SACRED AND PROFANE LOVE
+
+(In the Borghese Palace, Rome)
+
+This most beautiful work of Titian's is one belonging to his early
+days. It was probably commissioned in 1512 by the Chancellor of Venice,
+and we find that it was in the possession of Cardinal Scipione Borghese
+at the beginning of the seventeenth century. It may be seen to-day in
+the Borghese Palace of Rome.]
+
+In the latter years of his sojourn in Venice the artist lived in a
+house towards Murano, between the Church of San Giovanni de Paolo and
+the Church of the Jesuits. He entertained very largely, giving supper
+parties from which no seasonable delicacy was lacking, and gathering
+round him distinguished men and women who were far less celebrated for
+their morals than for their attractions. His gossip Aretino was
+generally of the party, and it is to him that we owe so much of our
+intimate knowledge of the painter's home life and troubles. Aretino's
+death in 1556 must have been a great blow to Titian.
+
+Vasari tells us that the painter's income was considerable. Charles V.
+paid a thousand gold crowns for every portrait of himself and, when he
+conferred the patent of nobility upon the painter, he accompanied it
+with an annual gift of two hundred crowns. Philip II., son of the great
+Emperor, added another two hundred annually, the German merchants gave
+him three hundred, so that he had seven hundred crowns a year without
+taking into account the commissions that came to him on every side,
+and, as he was painting for the richest and most generous people of his
+generation, his annual income must have been very considerable. And yet
+Titian's own correspondence, of which a part has been preserved, shows
+that the State grants were not always paid regularly. It is of course
+far more easy for an arbitrary ruler to make gifts to his favourites
+than it is for the State Treasury to respond to the demands that must
+needs follow each grant, and Spanish finances have always been
+difficult to administer.
+
+As he grew older and his hand lost part at least of its cunning, Titian
+depended more and more upon pupils, but in this he was only following
+the custom of his time. It is said that a clever German artist, who
+worked in his studio, was responsible for the greater part of several
+of the later pictures. The Council of Ten though they had taken from
+him the office of Painter of Doges and had given it to Tintoretto,
+offered him a commission in the late 'sixties; even if they had a
+grievance against him they could not afford to nourish it. Then again
+if Titian was not always prompt in doing the work for which he was
+paid, even if he employed pupils to a greater extent than seemed
+necessary to those who had to pay for the finished canvas, it must have
+been hard to quarrel with him, for his personality would seem to have
+been most engaging. He was an excellent musician as well as a good
+host, Paolo Veronese has included him in the famous "Marriage in Cana"
+(Louvre) playing a double bass. Moreover Titian was a courtier whose
+correspondence, although it dealt so largely with matter of finance,
+lacks none of the stilted graces of the time, and these may have helped
+to conciliate angry patrons. He seems to have been an affectionate
+father, and if he had any besetting sin it was love of money, his
+anxiety in this respect being increased by the fact that he was not
+always able to collect the accounts due to him. Yet he saved enough to
+buy land round his birthplace and it is reported that he went to Cadore
+whenever he had the opportunity. Clearly an appreciative sense of the
+perennial peace of the Dolomites never left him.
+
+By his wife, to whom he was not married until two sons had been born,
+Titian had four children of whom two grew up. Pomponio, to whom we
+have referred, was the eldest; and he came to a bad end, being a
+dissipated man. Orazio, who was the second son, became a painter. One
+daughter died young, and there was another, Lavinia, portraits of whom
+may be seen at Dresden and Berlin. His great friends were Pietro
+Aretino, poet and gossip, who laid half Europe under contribution, and
+was almost as unscrupulous as he was clever, and the sculptor
+Sansovino.
+
+Whatever Titian's faults were as a man, they may fairly be forgotten in
+his merits as an artist, and it is not the least of these merits that
+he worked from the time when he was a boy to the hour when his brush
+seemed falling from his hands, unsparing in his devotion to his task.
+He has left a legacy to the civilised world that compels a measure of
+admiration equal to that which is paid to Velazquez. Titian was the
+supreme master of colour, but, unfortunately, few of his pictures have
+escaped the restorer's hand, and a great many have been damaged in
+their journeys from city to city in an age when the art of picture
+packing was still unknown. Exposure to all sorts of weather, long
+periods of neglect, careless restoration, and reckless repainting would
+have been enough to destroy the reputation of most painters, but
+Titian's work has not suffered to the extent that might have been
+expected. Enough remains of the master to make us not a little envious
+of the happy patrons of the arts who knew his work in all its glory.
+
+It is hard to say when Titian's life would have come to an end in the
+ordinary course of events, but it is not unreasonable to suppose that
+he would have lived to be a centenarian had he retired from Venice
+when he was ninety and gone to live in Pieve, the well-beloved city
+that gave him birth. But he would not leave his workshop, and in 1575
+the plague paid another visit to Venice. It will be remembered that
+soon after the League of Cambrai when Titian was in Padua, a visitation
+had devastated Venice and carried off Giorgione among thousands of
+lesser men. The Venetians were never free from fear of the plague's
+return. In 1575 the hand of the plague lay heavy upon the City of
+Lagoons, where sanitation was unknown, and isolation and disinfection
+were not practised properly. Historians tell us that some 40,000 people
+perished, the greatest panic prevailed, and while the plague was at its
+height Titian died. If his own insinuation of the year of his birth be
+correct he must have been in his ninety-ninth year, but even if we
+accept the date given by those who believe that he was born as late as
+1482, he would have been within seven years of his centenary. The
+epidemic is recorded in the famous Church of the Redentore on the
+Giudecca, dedicated to Christ by the Doge Mocenigo, whose portrait
+painted by Tintoretto may be seen in the Accademia to-day.
+
+[Illustration: PLATE VIII.--THE HOLY FAMILY
+
+(In the National Gallery, London)
+
+This superb painting is one of the gems of our National Gallery, and
+represents Titian at his best as a great colourist. It is painted in
+oil on canvas.]
+
+In spite of the distress prevailing in the city some effort was made
+to give the great painter a State funeral, but under the conditions
+existing, it was impossible to carry out the programme, and he was
+buried with comparatively little ceremony in the great Church of the
+Frari which, in addition to having one of the finest works of his hand,
+is further enriched by the famous altar-piece by his old master Gian
+Bellini. They say that his residence was entered shortly after his
+death by some of the riff-raff of Venice, to whom the plague had given
+a welcome measure of licence, and was despoiled of many of its
+treasures. Doubtless the painter's house held much that was worth the
+small risk involved in an hour when the authorities were hardly able to
+cope with duties to the sick and the disposal of the dead.
+
+In considering the life of Titian we see that much good-fortune went to
+its making. He was born at the best period of the Renaissance, he was
+the inheritor of the freedom for which other painters had striven. He
+painted a world that was as new to artists as were the far-off realms
+to the Spanish adventurers who were discovering new countries and new
+trade routes, and paving the way for the ultimate decline of Venice. At
+the outset of his career Titian's work was full of the joy of life,
+it was the expression of an age that seemed to have come of age, of a
+city that had turned to canvas and marble rather than to books for a
+reflection of the new life. While the painter progressed, overcoming
+the various difficulties of expression that confronted him, making
+daring and successful experiments in composition, handling colour as it
+had never been handled before, this feeling of enthusiasm that belonged
+to the age was expressed in all his work. Then again he had the great
+advantage of claiming for sitters the most distinguished men of his
+time, the statesmen and rulers who were making history at the expense
+of the map of Europe, the men who held spiritual or temporal power, and
+the women they delighted to honour. Naturally enough these conditions
+gave added scope to the painter's talent; and his subjects were worthy
+of his brush. He could seek out what was best and most characteristic
+in his sitters, and express through the medium of his art not only the
+likeness but the personality underlying it. Had his work been more
+fortunate, had it been preserved in anything like its entirety, we
+should be able to read the history of his times in a clearer light, for
+though the written word can tell us much, the cleverly wrought picture
+has still more to say, and we can rely upon canvas, if Titian painted
+it, to refute or to confirm the verdict of the historian.
+
+Happily, too, Titian's art grew with his age. Practice and experience
+ripened it, and some of his finest pictures were painted when he was
+past the span of life that the Psalmist has allotted to man. He covered
+every field, no form of painting seems to have come amiss to him.
+Altar-pieces, portraits, historical pictures, mythological and
+allegorical subjects, one and all claimed his attention from time to
+time, and though we are all entitled to express our preference, there
+will be few to say that he failed in any style of work. Perhaps he was
+least successful in allegorical subjects, and in the portraits of
+women, but, if this be so, his failure is merely relative, he attained
+such heights in mythological subjects and men's portraits, that the
+other work is not so good by comparison. If he gave us no picture
+devoted entirely to landscape it is worth remarking that the appeal
+of nature was an ever growing one. The impression given him by the
+mountains round Cadore was never lost. From the time when he completed
+Gian Bellini's last picture down to the time when the plague came to
+Venice and found him with an unfinished picture on his easel, the
+attraction of the countryside he knew so well was always with him, and
+he lost no opportunity of expressing it. Gian Bellini had opened the
+walls that shut in the Madonna and the Saints of the earlier masters,
+he had given the world glimpses of exquisite landscape through which
+the romance woven round his figures seemed to spread. Titian opened the
+gates still further, giving a larger, wider, and more splendid view,
+convincing his contemporaries and successors that landscape could never
+more be overlooked.
+
+He would seem to have made few studies, a sketch by Titian is one of
+the rarest things in art, he did not see in line but in colour. With
+Titian as with Velazquez after him it is hard to separate colour from
+line, and in colour he was the acknowledged master of his own time and
+the guide of the ages after him. Some of his great contemporaries, not
+Venetians of course, declared that Titian was a poor draughtsman, but
+it is well to remember that among the Venetians, art was an affair of
+painting, among the Florentines it embraced sculpture and architecture;
+the mere handling of paint, however splendid the results, would not
+suffice Florentine ambitions. It might even be said that much
+Florentine painting is little more than tinted drawing. We go to Titian
+for colour even to-day, when time and exposure and repainting have
+taken so much from the wealth that he gave to his pictures, and we can
+see that as he grew to ripe age he sought to obtain his colour effects
+by less obvious means than those that served him at the outset. It is
+hard for any but an artist to realise the secret of the cause that
+produced the later results, but, if it be left for the artist to
+explain it is easy for the layman to appreciate. With Titian, Venetian
+painting reached the zenith of its achievement, after him through
+Tintoretto and Veronese, the descent is slow but sure, and we are left
+wondering whether any fresh revival of the world's enthusiasm, any new
+discovery of the world's youth is destined to bring into art the
+spirit of enthusiasm that gave a Titian to the world. There are few
+signs in our own time, but then we do not live in an age of great
+crises religious or political, or, if we do, we are too near to the
+changes to recognise them.
+
+Perhaps there are some who find amusement in the suggestion that
+Titian's action emancipating art from the thraldom of the Church was a
+great and glorious one, not unattended by danger and difficulties. To
+these sceptics one can but reply by quoting the decree of the Council
+of Nicaea dated A.D. 787 and never repealed. Here we find the attitude
+of Authority towards art set out in plainest fashion. "It is not the
+invention of the painter which creates a picture," says this remarkable
+decree, "but the inviolable law and tradition of the Church. It is not
+the painter but the Holy Fathers who have to invent and dictate. To
+them manifestly belongs the composition, to the painter only the
+execution."
+
+A few great artists in later times had made their protest, definite or
+indefinite, against the attitude of the Church, but Titian rescued art
+as Perseus rescued Andromeda.
+
+
+The plates are printed by BEMROSE & SONS, LTD., Derby and London
+
+The text at the BALLANTYNE PRESS, Edinburgh
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's note:
+
+Italics is represented with underscore _ and small caps with ALL CAPS.
+Illustrations were moved to paragraph breaks, everything else
+(including inconsistent hyphenation and spelling) has been retained as
+printed.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Titian, by Samuel Levy Bensusan
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 43988 ***