the original ; lastly, it was brought to Paris after the
conquest of Venice, and there, like the Spasimo of
Raphael, it was restored to all its beauty by being
taken off the worm eaten wood and placed on new
and durable canvas. All these honors are fully justi-
fied. The mysterious horrors of the landscape ; the
terror of the companion flying from the scene ; the
holy resignation of the martyr, who, falling beneath
the knife, sees the heavens open and the palms of vic-
tory awaiting him ; the natural and skilful arrange-
ment of the scenery, its powerful and pathetic effect,
heightened by that incomparable vigor of coloring to
be found in all the works of Titian, all concur to
make this picture one of the grandest of his works,
and to justify Vasari in saying, " Titian never in all
his life produced a more skilful and finished work."
He might have added that it was probably the first
perfect executioi. of au historical landscape in which,
17



258 WONDEES OF ITALIAN ART.

by lowering the line of the horizon, by giving great-
er depth to the background, and accuracy to the per-
spective, the painter at last produced a real view
from nature. To give this great picture its right
place near the Assumption, it would be well to re-
move it from San Zanipolo to the Academy of the
Fine Arts, where it might be better seen and better
preserved. Thither also ought to be transferred the
well-known painting of Christ led uy an Executioner,
so much admired by the painter's contemporaries,
who ordered several copies of it, and of which Vasari
says "it has brought more alms to the church than
the painter gained money in the whole of his long
life."

Besides those in the museum and the churches,
paintings by Titian may be found in some of the
houses of the ancient nobility of Venice ; for in-
stance, in the palace Barbarigo, where he lived many
years, and died of the plague in 1576. iUthough
bands of robbers despoiled it with impunity during
his last moments, and his unworthy son, the priest
Pomponio Vecellio, dissipated his heritage, the Bar-
barigo palace has yet preserved three of his pictures ;
the Magdalen, with which Titian would never part,
but used as a model for all the others, and of which
we know at least six copies ; a Venus, which has
been wilfully spoilt in order to clothe it ; and a St.
Sebastian, which he was sketching when death over-
took him before the completion of his hundredth
year.



VENETIAN SCHOOL. 259

The paintings of Titian are to be found in every
museum and gallery of importance in the ancient
states of Italy. Florence, especially, in spite of the
richness of its own school, has collected many treas-
ures of the great Venetian. At the gallery of the
Uffizi, in the Venetian room, are two Holy Families,
i St. Catherine of Alexandria, under the features of
which he has painted the beautiful queen of Cyprus,
Catarina Cornaro; a half-clothed woman, called
Flora, from flowers she holds in her hand; and a
sketch of the battle of Cadore, between the troops
of rhe Empire and those of the Republic; which is
all the more precious, as the picture destined for the
palace of the doges, for which this was prepared, has
perished in a tire. In the Tribune are the two cele-
brated Venuses, placed opposite to each other, thus
augmenting the value of each. One, which is a little
larger than nature, and behind which a Cupid is
standing, is called, perhaps incorrectly, the wife of
Titian. The other, supposed to represent ihe mistress
of a duke of Urbino, or of one of the Medici, is
known in Fiance as the Venus au petit Chien. Both
are perfectly nude, but neither bold nor immodest;
they preserve as much decency and dignity as the
Aphrodite of Greek statuary. Both are painted with
a touch vigorous, delicate, and tender, the secret of
which only Titian, the great painter of women, seems
to have discovered. The latter, however, superior to
the other in delicacy of drawing, in the charm of the
attitude, and the beauty of the face, in which a sweet



260 WONDEKS OF ITALIAN AET.

voluptuousness breathes, enjoys justly the greater
fame. The artist has successfully encountered im-
mense difficulties in painting this female figure. The
whiteness of the body derives its only coloring from
its life ; it is extended on white drapery, before a
light and luminous background, and with no contrast
or set-off around it. Titian enjoyed such a difficulty,
and his Venus deserves in every point to be called by
Algarotti the rival of the Venus de Medici. Below
it is an excellent and magnificent portrait of the Car-
dinal Beccadella, which Titian painted at Yenice in
1552, when the prelate came there as papal legate.
The artist was then in his seventy-fifth year ; but as
he painted for twenty years longer, this may almost
be considered a work of his youth.

Among the thirteen paintings by Titian in the
Pitti palace, I prefer to mention the portraits, for cer-
tainly no other collection contains so great a number,
nor such perfect ones. Several also are celebrated
through the name of the person represented ; there is
the portrait of Andreas Vesalius, the great physician
and anatomist, who, like Galileo, was persecuted by
superstition, and who was driven to the Holy Land
to die of hunger ; there is Philip II." of Spain, taken
during his youth ; Pietro Aretino, the dreaded satiri-
cal poet, for thirty years the friend and counsellor of
the artist, who was perhaps the only one of his con-
temporaries whose love for the poet was unmixed
with fear. Others on the contrary are valuable less
for the name of the model than for the artist's merits.



VENKTIAN SCHOOL. 261

Tims to show tlie greatest height to which art can
reach in the simple representation of the human
being, in the expression of life, it is sufficient to men-
tion the portrait of the old man, Luigi Cornaro, or
that of the young man opposite it, whose name, I be-
lieve, is not known. Certainly illusion could be car-
ried no further. For personal grace and brilliant
costume we must mention the portrait of a lady,
called that of the mistress of the painter. Again,
the portrait in which the most wonderful effects of
light and shade are to be found, is the portrait of the
cardinal Ippolito di Medici, clothed as a Hungarian
magnate, it seems to me that nothing can be found
superior to these four portraits in the whole of Titian's
works, and in this style Titian has never been sur-
passed by any school or in any country. Indeed, the
only rivals that could be opposed to him are Raphael,
Velascpiez, and Rembrandt.

Amongst the works of Titian that have remained
in Rome, is the Sacrifice of Isaac, in the Doria pal-
ace. It is a magnificent work, and one of the most
perfect in every way that has been left by the great
painter of Cadore.

A good number of his works are to be found in
the Studi gallery at Naples ; in the first place, Pope
Paul III. seated at a desk, and raising the young
prince Ottaviano II. of Parma, who is kneeling be-
fore him. This picture, which has a great effect at a
distance, is painted very large, too large perhaps,
rather in the stvle of a rough .-ketch. It seems that



262 WONDERS OF ITALIAN ART.

Paul III. must have complained of this negligence,
for Titian painted his portrait again, and this time
with such delicate care, such minute finish, that we
might believe that this portrait served as a model to
the small figures of Gerard Terburg. It is doubly
precious on account of its exquisite finish. The
other portraits by Titian are of Erasmus of Rotter-
dam in his extreme old age, and Philip II. of Spain,
when young ; both are excellent. The latter is
signed Titianus Vecellius ceaues Cesaris. It was no
doubt painted a short while after the time that
Charles V. had conferred the order of knighthood,
with a pension of two hundred crowns, on the great
painter whose pencil he had condescended to pick
up. On his accession Philip II. doubled this pen-
sion. It is in a sort of private cabinet (in which
however any one may enter) that the Danae, seduced
by the golden shower, and whom Love watches smil-
ing, has long been hidden. This Danae was painted
for the duke Ottavio Farnese at Rome, when, although
sixty-eight years of age, Titian yielded to the press-
ing solicitations of Paul III., and appeared at the
pontifical court, to which Leo X. had not succeeded
in attracting him. This picture was much admired,
but the austere Michael Angelo, to whom it was
shown, added a reservation. " It is a great pity,"
said he, " that at Venice they do not make it a rule
to draw well : this man would have no equal if he
had strengthened his natural genius by the knowl-
edge of drawing." At Rome, also, there is another




SAN SEBA8TIAN0.— BY TITIAN.
In tht Vatican, Rome.



THENEVv ^

PUBLIC JLIBKARY I



AiTO^ LENOX AN6
TiLOtN FouNSACrOKI.



VENETIAN SCHOOL. 265

picture of Titian's, Vanity, placed in one of those
reserved and secret cabinets, which are really neithei
reserved nor secret, but where any one can easily
obtain access. The Florentines, on the contrary, have
placed their two Yenuses by Titian in the middle of
the Tribune, the most frequented of their galleries.

At Madrid a whole museum might be formed of
the works of Titian alone. Sent for three times to
Augsburg, to paint Charles V., and then Philip II.,
who all through his life kept up a familiar corre-
spondence with the great Venetian artist, Titian
appears to have bequeathed to Spain the greater part
of the immense labors of his prolonged life. The
biographers of the painter mentioned several compo-
sitions, and some of his most important ones, which
could neither be discovered at Yenice nor in the rest
of Italy, nor anywhere else, and which in consequence
were considered lost. A great number of these hav-
ing been found in the catacomb-like galleries of the
Escurial, have been restored to the light of day in the
museum of Madrid, and have increased the glory and
wealth of that gallery. Spain, however, has not pre-
served all she possessed by Titian. The terrible tire
of the Pardo, in 1608, probably consumed the great
allegory called Relhjion, which has entirely disap-
peared. Other precious pictures have perished under
the ravages of time and of men ; for instance, the
large and magnificent painting of the Lasi Supper,
the rival of that by Leonardo da Vinci, at which
Titian labored .-even years, and which he considered



266 WONDERS OF ITALIAN ART.

tlie best of his works, even after he had painted the
Assumption, revered at Venice as the most sacred
relic of its painter. Too dilapidated to bear a re-
moval, the remains of this great composition were
obliged to be left fastened to the walls of the desert-
ed Refectory in the Escnrial, where it has been muti-
lated by impious hands, and destroyed by slow tor-
ture. And yet, even after these cruel losses, Spain is
the most richly endowed of the nations who have
inherited the works of Titian. The Museo del Rey
at Madrid contains as many as forty-two works of
the illustrious centenarian. We will merely mention
briefly the principal among this almost incredible
number, beginning with the portraits, and following
the order of the works from the simplest to the most
important.

The principal among the portraits would be a
Charles V. on horseback, in full armor and with his
lance in rest, like a knight-errant, if this splendid pic-
ture, praised by all the biographers of Titian, were
not unfortunately much injured. We must then give
the first place to another Charles V., on foot, and
clothed this time in civil costume, a black cap, doub-
let of cloth of gold, and white mantle and hose ; he
rests his hand on the head of a large dog — an histori-
cal personage who was for several years the favorite
of the emperor. This picture is as remarkable for its
perfect preservation as for the wonderful execution
of every part, and the expression of majesty which
pervades the whole. A third Charles V., brought



VENETIAN SCHOOL. 267

from the Escurial, was painted at the close of hie
reign, with a whitened beard, when the weariness and
disgust of public affairs led the conqueror of Pavia,
the sacker of Rome, to the monastery of San Yuste.
Philip II., with his pale, fair, and effeminate face, is
twice represented, on foot and in half-length portrait,
and both times admirably, although even when young
he could only have been painted in the old age of
Titian. Several other portraits come afterwards
which are no less remarkable ; those of Isabella of
Portugal, the wife of Charles V., and of a lady
dressed in white whose name is unknown ; those of
different gentlemen, one playing with a fine spaniel,
another closing a book of prayers, one wearing a
large white cross on his breast, another (the Marquis
del Yasto) holding in his hand a general's baton ;
and lastly one of Titian himself, old and venerable,
with a long white beard, in which he has rendered,
with admirable simplicity, his calm, noble, and ex-
pressive face, still youthful even in extreme old age.

Amongst the paintings of single figures, there is
a hold Ecce Homo painted on slate ; a Mater Dolo-
rosa, which is nothing more than a lady in affliction,
and like many other pictures, both ancient and mod-
ern, would be much improved by the name being
changed ; two St. Margarets, one of them a half
length figure, on the point of being devoured by the
dragon, which, according to the legend, swallowed
her alive, but from which she emerged safe and sound
on making the sign of the cross ; the other is a full



268 WONDERS OF ITALIAN ART.

length figure, having the dead dragon at her feet ;
both are as remarkable for the beauty of the features
and the serenity of the expression as for the vigoi
and transparency of the touch ; and lastly the Daugh-
ter of Herodias, who is taking the head of St. John
the Baptist to her mother on a silver charger. I have
reserved this picture, which was brought from the
Escnrial, as the last of the series, because in my opin
ion it is the most wonderful. Never has Titian,
always so strong, so true, so powerful, shown more
strength, truth, and power. It is before this beauti-
ful and terrible daughter of Herodias, that we recall
and accept the saying of Tintoretto, who said of
Titian, " That man paints with pounded flesh." It
was indeed flesh, but animated, living flesh, which he
found on his palette, and which he placed on his im-
mortal canvas.

The paintings containing several figures may be
divided into sacred and profane. Among the former,
which are the least numerous, we may notice a Christ
hearing His Cross, much smaller than the Spasimo,
and in the early style of Titian, when he imitated his
fellow-student Giorgione, whose influence is here clear
and manifest ; an Abraham restrained by the Angel,
greater in its proportions but not in its style than that
by Andrea del Sarto on the same subject. By the
ease in the execution, and the transparent and gilded
eoloring, we can recognize that this work belongs to
a more advanced period of the master's life, when he
had fixed his own style. There is also an Original



VENETIAN SCHOOL. 269

Sin, that is to say, Eve presenting her husband with
the apple she has just received from the serpent, who
is twined round the tree of life. To praise sufficient-
ly highly this painting, in which Titian has lavished
all his knowledge of chiaroscuro and all his depth of
coloring, it suffices to say, that on his return from
Madrid in 1G28, Rubens, the great Flemish colorist,
in order to stud v thoroughly the manner of the great
Venetian colorist, made a complete finished copy of
this work, which is still at Madrid among the works
of his school. Afterwards come two Entombments,
exactly alike except for a few differences in the color
of the vestments. As no one has doubted that these
are both by Titian, and that these two exact repeti-
tions of the same subject are themselves exactly like
the celebrated Entombment which may be admired
both in the Manfrini palace; at Venice and also in the
Louvre, it is clear that Titian must have copied him-
self at least three times, a remarkable fact, and one
which justifies what the Italians call repliche. We
must also mention an Assumption of the Magdalen,
containing only the figure of the heautiful sinner, be-
come a rigid auchorite, and the group of angels bear-
ing her triumphantly towards the celestial dwellings.
This Assumption does not equal in size or importance
the great Assumption of the Virgin, at Venice, but
in vigor of expression, in the coloring and general
cll'er t. it yields neither to that nor to any other of
Titian's works; it is one of the wonders of his pen-
cil. Lastly we come to the great Allegory, half re-



270 WONDERS OF ITALIAN ART.

ligious, half political, in which is seen the imperial
family, Charles V., Philip II., and their wives, pre-
sented in heaven to the Trinity. This painting re-
quires a short digression.

This celebrated and magnificent picture was be-
lieved to be lost, although one of the most remark-
able of Titian's works ; but having been found
amongst the buried riches of the Escurial, it is now
the most important of the forty works by this master
in the museum of Madrid. It is not necessary to
dilate on the extreme difficulty of such a composition.
To paint heaven is always a bold undertaking, and
few masters have attempted it with impunity. Nev-
ertheless, in a subject wholly sacred and mystic, we
can conceive that by the help of traditional belief a
painter may open to us the Christian heavens as he
would open the mythological Olympus ; to guide
him, he has Dante instead of Homer. But if with
the supernatural beings, with the celestial personages,
mere symbols, having bodies only for our eyes, he
has to mix real terrestrial beings living with our life,
in whom he must preserve even the resemblance in
features, height, and costume, then the difficulty be-
comes almost an impossibility, and the painter in the
treatment of such a subject can only with the utmost
skill avoid the ridiculous. Such was the situation of
Titian when he painted this courtier's Allegory, his
Apotheosis of the Imperial Family. Heaven is
there represented open ; the Divine Trinity occupy
the throne of* glory, on which Mary is also sitting,



VENETIAN SCHOOL. 271

and like the White Dove, which represents the Holt
Spirit, seems to melt away into the brilliant wavea
of light from above ; the Trinity appears to be com-
posed of the Father, the Son, and the Virgin, all
alike clothed in long sky-blue mantles. Above them
are choirs of archangels, patriarchs, prophets, apos-
tles, while angels are introducing into the celestial
court the four sovereigns from the earth, who now
reversing their usual parts, with clasped hands and
bent heads are admitted instead of admitting others,
and are themselves supplicants instead of being sup-
plicated. Standing in front of the group, Charles V.
lias already put on the monk's white frock, Philip
and the two queens preserve their royal garments.
This circumstance gives a date to the picture; it
could only have been painted after the abdication of
the emperor, in 1556, when Titian had attained what
for most men is extreme old age, eighty years. And
yet in this strange composition, which was doubtless
ordered by the doubtful but demonstrative filial love
of the successor of Charles Y., we may recognize the
hand of the great artist who had painted the As-
sumption half a century before. If, before the
Apotheosis, we can for one moment forget the sub-
ject, which must shock and displease us ; if we study
the figures in detail, if in the whole we only seek an
arrangement of groups, a general effect of lights and
color : then wc are able to recognize that there is
nothing superior to this picture in the whole works
of Titian, and that at eighty years of age as at thirty,



272 WONDERS OF ITALIAN ABT.

he was the first colorist of Italy, if not of every
school and of every time.

In the series of profane compositions I must men-
tion rapidly two Venuses almost alike, and strongly
resembling those in the Tribune at Florence, for thej>
are both lying down and naked, and both may dis-
pute the prize of beauty with their celebrated name-
sakes ; then the group of Venus and Adonis, of
which there is an inferior fac-simile in the National
Gallery in London. It is certain that under the fea-
tures of the hunter, tearing himself from the embraces
of his celestial lover, Titian has painted Philip II.,
who when still very young, fresh, and delicate, was
considered, like Francis I., and every prince not actu-
ally deformed, the handsomest man in the kingdom.
Notwithstanding this innocent flattery, which may
have impaired the proverbial beauty of Adonis, this
picture is considered one of the masterpieces of the
painter. The charming attitude of Venus, so grace-
ful in an almost forced movement ; the animated
group of dogs ; the figure of Mars, who from the sky
prepares the vengeance of a jealous lover ; the inge-
nious arrangement, the correct drawing, the fire of
the pencil, are united to show in this celebrated work
to what a degree of perfection Titian could rise.
Under the title of Sacrifice to the Goddess of Fertil-
ity, he has painted one of the most wonderful scenes
that the most adventurous colorist could attempt or
unagine. In a beautiful landscape at the foot of the
ritatne of the godde-s, to whom two young girls ar«



VKNKTIAN SCHOOL. 273

offering presents of fruit and flowers, an innumerable
band of young children (I have counted more than
sixty), scattered in different groups over the whole
picture, are struggling and playing with the inno-
cence and vivacity of their ;ige. What difficulties
are in the subject, and what boldness was required to
attempt it! It was first necessary to vary almost
infinitely the sports, the attitudes, and the passions
of this childish multitude ; and on the other hand he
had to contend with monotony of color, for the whole
picture is filled with nude figures only. Titian has
played with these immense difficulties without more
apparent effort than is made by the children, who,
simple and graceful, run, dance, gather fruits, carry
them in baskets, and turn them into arms in their
innocent combats. This Sacrifice to the Goddess of
Fertility is splendidly executed ; it leaves far behind
it the soft Albani, the painter of loves. When it was
still at Rome, in the Ludovisi palace, Poussin studied
it, and copied it several times. There is no doubt
that by this means he improved his coloring, which
had been rather dark and sad, and he learnt to paint
those charming little children which in several of his
works, amongst others Lcs Bacchanalts, take so im-
portant a part. Poussin may, indeed, have taken the
idea for this celebrated painting from another picture
by Titian, in that same Ludovisi palace, since re-
moved, like the preceding, from Rome to Madrid, foi
Philip IV. This is the other masterpiece, entitled
the Arrival of Bacchus at the Me of Naxos, which
18



274 WONDERS OF ITALIAN ART.

is, indeed, like its pendant, the Bacchus and Ari-
adne in the National Gallery, a true Bacchanalian
scene. The scene is, of course, on the sea-shore and
on the blue waves : in the distance is a white sail,
which indicates either the departure of the ungrateful
Theseus, or the approach of Bacchus the consoler.
The abandoned Ariadne, still asleep, is lying nakea
in the foreground of the picture ; she is surrounded
oy different groups of Bacchantes, dancing, singing,
and drinking, whilst old Silenus is also sleeping
among the bushes on a hill. This Bacchus at Naxos,
although only about half the size of nature, is one of
the greatest works of Titian. The color and effect in
it arc really wonderful, it attracts and enchains the
spectator, and it is difficult for him to tear himself
from the extreme pleasure and the profound admira-
tion its contemplation excites.

I have reserved to the end those pictures by
Titian, which show his talent in another light, and
prove his astonishing fertility continued to an age
which renders it really fabulous, and of which we
tind no other example in the history of art.

We have just seen that the Apotheosis of Charles V.
was painted when Titian was entering on his
eightieth year. We now find two excellent sketches,
Diana Surprised by Actceon, and Diana Discovering
the Fault of Callisto, which Philip II. ordered of his
favorite painter four years later, and in which is
found all the youthful vivacity required for these