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diff --git a/43988-0.txt b/43988-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f8cb730 --- /dev/null +++ b/43988-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,964 @@ +*** 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 *** |