ready for flight and the proud lift of her head
makes one believe that she will accomplish
the most difficult steps she attempts. The
painting is in the Luxembourg, Paris.

Other noted Sargent portraits are '*Mr. Mar-
quand" in the Metropolitan Museum of Art,
''Lady Elcho, Mrs. Arden, Mrs. Tennant," Mrs.
Meyer and Children," "Homer St. Gaudens,'*
**Henschel," and *'Mr. Penrose."



XXXVII
TINTORETTO (JACOPO ROBUSTI)

Venetian School 1518-1594

Pupil of Titian

TINTORETTO was born with an ideal.
As a young boy he wrote upon his
studio wall: "The drawing of Michael Angelo,
the colouring of Titian," and that was the end
he tried to reach. His father was a "tintore"
— a dyer of silk, a tinter — and it was from
the character of that work the artist took his
name. He helped his father with the dyeing
of silks, while he was still a child, and was
called "II tintoretto, " little dyer.

As the little tinter showed great genius for
painting, his father placed him in Titian's
studio, but for some reason he only stayed there
a few days, long enough, however, to permit us
to call him a pupil of Titian; especially as he
wrote that master's name upon his wall and
determined to imitate him. After his few days
with Titian, Tintoretto studied with Schiavone
and afterward set up a studio for himself.

As a determined lad in this studio of his,
Tintoretto tried every means of developing his
art. He studied the figures upon Medicean
tombs made by Michael Angelo, taking plaster

285



286 Pictures Every Child Should Know

casts of them and copying them in his studio.
He used to hang little clay figures up by strings
attached to his ceiling, that he might get the
effect of them high in air. By looking at them
thus from below he gained an idea of fore-
shortening.

Although this artist nearly succeeded in
getting into line with Michael Angelo, he did
not colour after the fashion of his master,
Titian. Tintoretto was about twenty-eight
years old before he got any very big commission,
but at that age a chance came to him. In the
church of Santa Maria del Orto were two great
bare spaces, unsightly and vast, about fifty
feet high and twenty broad. In that day
anything and everything was decorated with
masterpieces, and it was almost disgraceful
for a church to let such a space as that go
un frescoed. Tintoretto saw an opportunity,
and finally offered to paint pictures there for
nothing if the church would agree to pay for
the materials he needed. The church certainly
was not going to refuse such an offer, even if
Tintoretto was not thought to be much of an
artist at the time. If the work was poor, one
day they could choose to have it repainted.
Thus Tintoretto got his first great opportunity.
He painted on those walls *' The Last Judgment"
and * 'The Golden Calf. ' ' They made him famous,
and gained him the commission to paint the
picture which is used as an illustration here.

The brothers of the Scuola di San Rocco



Tintoretto {Jacopo Robust i) 287

asked him to compete with Veronese, in
painting the ceihngs after he had done four
pictures for their walls.

Tintoretto consented, and Veronese and two
others who w^ere in the competition set about
making their sketches which they were to
present for the brothers' consideration.
Finally the day of decision came. All were
assembled, the artists armed wdth sketches of
their plans.

"Where are yours, Tintoretto?" the others
asked. "We expect a drawing of your idea."

"Well, there it is," the artist answered,
drawing a screen from the ceiling. Behold!
he had already painted it to suit himself. The
w^ork was complete.

"That is the way I make my sketches," he
said.

Though the work was magnificent it had not
been done according to the monks' ideas of bus-
iness and order. They objected and objected.

"Very well," the artist cried; "I wall make
the ceiling a present to you." As there was
a rule of their order forbidding them to refuse a
present, they had to accept Tintoretto's. This
did not promise very good business at the
time, but the work was so splendid and
Tintoretto so reasonable that they finally
agreed to give him all the work of their order —
nearly enough to keep him employed
during a lifetime. After that he painted sixty
great pictures upon their walls.



288 Pictures Every Child Should Know

He painted so much and so fast that he did
not always do good work, and one critic
declares that ''while Tintoretto was the equal
of Titian, he was often inferior to Tintoretto"
— which after all is a very fine compliment.

His life was so tranquil and uneventful that
there is little to say of it ; but there is much to
say of his art. He lived mostly in his studio,
and when he died he was buried in the Santa
Maria del Orto — the church in which he had
done his first work.

Veronese had given to Venice a brilliant,
glowing, rich, ravishing riot of colour and
figures, but Tintoretto was said to rise up
"against the joyful Veronese as the black
knight of the Middle Ages, the sombre priest of
a gloomy art." Tintoretto was of stormy
temperament, and upon one occasion he proved
it by thrusting a pistol under a critic's nose,
after he had invited him to his studio ; it is this
half savage spirit that may be seen in his
paintings. He had deep-set, staring eyes,
it is said, a furrowed brow and hollow cheeks,
indicative of his passionate spirit. He painted
very few female figures, but mostly men.
When he did paint a woman, she looked
mannish and not beautiful. When he painted
gorgeous subjects, like doges and senators,
he gave to them gloomy backgrounds, awe-
inspiring poses, and he seldom painted a figure
** full-face" but three-quarter, or half, so that
he did not give himself a chance to present




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The Artist's Daughter— r^Y/aw

Lavinia, in gold brocade, standing beside a red curtain, with
dish of fruit, gives her father the colour effects he loved



Tinturctlo {Jacopo Rolmsti) 289

human figures in beautiful postures. He is
said to have been the first who painted groups
of well-known men in j^icturcs intended for the
decoration of public buildings. One great
critic has written that- "while the Dutch, in
order to unite figures, represented them at a
banquet, Tintoretto's nobili (aristocrats) were
far too proud to show themselves to the people "
in so gay and informal a situation. With
the coming of Tintoretto it w^as said **a dark
cloud had overcast the bright heaven of
Venetian art. Instead of smiling women,
bloody martyrs and pale ascetics" were painted
by him. He dissected the dead in order to
learn the structure of the human body. In
his paintings "his women, especially, with their
pale livid features and encircled eyes, strangely
sparkling as if from black depths, have nothing
in common with the soft" painted flesh which
he pictured in his youth while he was following
Titian as closely as he could. As he grew
older and his art more fixed, he followed
Michael Angelo more and more. Titian's
colouring was that of "an autumn day" but
Tintoretto's that of a "dismal night." Yet
these very qualities in Tintoretto's work made
him great.

PLATE — THE MIRACLE OF ST. MARK

This painting in the Academy at Venice tells
the story of how a Christian slave who belonged



290 Pictures Every Child Should Know

to a pagan nobleman went to worship at the
shrine of St. Mark. That was unlawful.
The nobleman had his slave taken before the
judge, who ordered him to be tortured. Just
as the executioner raised the hammer with
which he was finally to kill the slave, St. Mark
himself came down from heaven, broke the
weapon and rescued the slave.

The figure of the patron saint of Venice is
swooping down, head first, above the group, his
garments flying in the air. A bright light
touches the slave's naked body, as he lies upon
his back, the executioner having turned away
and raised his hammer aloft, while others
have drawn back in fright at the appearance
of the patron saint. We may imagine that
Tintoretto was trying to acquire this power of
painting wonderful figures hovering in the air
when he hung his little clay images from the
ceiling of his studio years before. Other
pictures of his are : *' The Marriage of Bacchus
and Ariadne," "Martyrdom of St. Agnes," " St.
Rocco Healing the Sick," "The Annunciation,"
"The Crucifixion," and many others.



XXXVIII
TITIAN (TIZIANO VECELLI)

(Pronounced Tit-zee-ah'no (Vay-chel'lee)

Venetian School 1477-1576

Pupil of Giovanni and Gentile Bellini

TITIAN was a child of the Tirol Mountains,
handsome, strong, full of health and
fine purposes, even as a boy. He was born in
a little cottage at Pieve, in the valley of
Cadore, through which flows the River Piave;
and he wandered daily beside its banks,
gathering flowers from which he squeezed the
juices to paint with. When he grew up he
became a wonderful colourist, and from his
boyhood nothing so much delighted him as the
brilliant colours flaunted by the flowers of wood
and field.

Gathered about his good father's hearth were
many children, Caterina, Francesco, Orsa, and
the rest, living in peace and happiness, closely
bound together by love. Titian had a gentle,
loving mother named Lucia, w^hile his father
was a soldier and an honoured man. In the
little town where they lived, he was councillor
and also superintendent of the castle and
inspector of mines, no light honours among
those simple country people. Doubtless

291



292 Pictures Every Child Should Know

Titian inherited his splendid bearing and his
determined character from his soldier father.
Even while a little child, the man who was
destined to become a great artist began his
work with the juices of the wild-flowers,
which he daubed upon the wall of the humble
home in the Tirol valley, making a Madonna
with angels at her feet and a little Jesus upon
her knee. But if Titian was a great painter,
he was never even a fair scholar. He went to
school, but w^ould not, or could not, study.
His father soon saw that he was wasting his
time and being made very unhappy through
being forced to do that for which he had no
ability; so he was soon released from book-
learning and sent to Venice, seventy-five miles
from home, to learn art. In Venice, the
Vecelli family had an uncle, and it was with
him that Titian lived, though he studied first
with Sebastian Zuccato, the head of the Vene-
tian guild of mosaic workers, and a pretty
good teacher in his way. He was not able to
teach Titian very much, for the boy was an
inspired artist and needed a good master; so,
after a little, the family held a consultation
and it was decided that Titian should become
the pupil of Gentile Bellini, a very clever artist
indeed. There was an interesting story told
about this master which made the Vecellis
feel that their boy would do well to be under
the influence of a kind-hearted man, as well as a
genius. It seems that Bellini's fame had



Titian {Tiziano Vecelli) 293

become so great that the Sultan had sent for him
to paint the portraits of himself and the
Sultana. Bellini went gladly to Turkey to do
this; but he took with him certain pictures
to show his patron. Among them was one of
St. John the Baptist having his head cut ofT.
The Sultan looked at it, and cutting heads of?
being a large part of his business, he saw that
Bellini had not scientifically painted it, and in
order to show^ him the true way to conduct
such matters, he sent for a slave and ordered
his head chopped off in Bellini's presence.
Bellini was so terrified and sickened by the
dreadful sight that he fled from Turkey and
would not paint its ruler, the Sultana nor any-
one else who had to do with such cruel things
as he had witnessed.

It was into this man's studio that Titian
w^ent as a young boy, but after a little he
displeased Gentile Bellini, who complained
that his pupil worked too fast, and therefore
could not expect to do great work. He
declared that picture painting was serious and
careful work, and that Titian was too careless
and quick. As a matter of fact, Titian was
too wonderful for Bellini ever to do much for;
and since he could not get on with him, he
went to another master — Gentile Bellini's
brother, Giovanni. One of Titian's chief
troubles in the studio of Gentile had been that
he was not allowed to use the gorgeous colouring
he loved, but in the brother's studio he found



294 Pictures Every Child Should Know

to his joy that colour was more valued, and he
was given more freedom to use it. Also there
was a young peasant pupil with Giovanni,
who, like Titian, loved to use beautiful colours,
and he and the newcomer became fast friends.
The other artist's name was Giorgione, and
he had the most delightful ways about him,
winning friends wherever he went, so it was
no wonder that the warm-hearted Titian sought
his companionship. One day those two young
comrades left their master's studio, to have a
good time ofT by themselves. There was a
stated hour for their return; but they had
spent all their money, and forgot that Gio-
vanni Bellini was expecting them home. When
they did return the door was closed and locked.
What were they to do? They did the only
thing they could. As comrades in misfortune
they joined forces, set up a studio of their
own, and went to work to earn their living
as best they might. At first it was hard
sledding, but in time they got a good job,
namely to decorate the walls of a public building
in Venice which was used by foreign merchants
for the transaction of their business, a sort of
"exchange," as we understand it. This was
the Fondaco de' Tedeschi, and it had two great
halls, eighty rooms, and twenty-six warehouses.
It was indeed a big undertaking for the two
young men, and they divided the business
between them. Their joy was great, their
cartoons successfully made and the work well



Titian {Tiziano Vecelli) 295

begun, when, alas, they fell to quarreHng simply
because someone had declared that Titian's
work upon the building was a little better than
Giorgione's.

This dispute parted the tw^o friends, who
had had good times together, and it must have
been Giorgione's fault, because Ludovico Dolce,
one who knew Titian well, said that "he was
most modest ... he never spoke re-
proachfully of other painters ... in his
discourse he was ever ready to give honour
where honour was due ... he was, more-
over, an eloquent speaker, having an excellent
wit and perfect judgment in all things; of a
most sweet and gentle nature, affable and most
courteous in manner; so that whoever once
conversed with him could not choose but love
him henceforth forever." That is a most
loving and splendid tribute for one man to pay
another. Not long after Giorgione died, and
Titian took up his unfinished work, doing it
as well as his own.

There was a brilliant and mature artist called
Palma Vecchio, in Venice, and Titian painted
in his studio, where he saw and loved Vecchio's
daughter, Violante. The young artist was not
very well off financially, and therefore could
not marry; hence he was not specially happy
over his love affair. About that time he took
to painting after the manner of Vecchio,
through being so much influenced by his soft
feelings for the older artist's daughter. He



296 Pictures Every Child Should Know

used the lovely Violante again and again for
his model, and many of the beautiful faces
which Titian painted at that time show the
features of his lady-love. With his new love
Titian's serious work seemed to begin, and at
twenty-one he painted his first truly great
picture, ** Sacred and Profane Love." To
day this picture hangs upon the w^alls of the
Borghese Palace, in Rome.

Raphael painted a great many pictures, but
Titian must have painted more. At least one
thousand have his signature.

Now came wars and troubles for Venice.
The Turks, French, and Venetians became at
odds, and during the strife many fine works of
art were lost, among them many of Titian's
pictures. He had painted bishops, also the
wicked Borgias, and m^any other great person-
ages, but all of these are gone and to this day,
no one knows what became of them.

At last Titian began one of his greatest
paintings, **The Tribute Money," and he set
about it because he had been criticised. Some
German travellers in Venice visited Titian's
studio, and though they foimd his work very
fine, one of them said that after all there was
only one master able to finish a painting as it
should be finished, and that was the great
Diirer. The German pointed out the differ-
ences between Titian's method and Diirer's,
and declared that Venetian painters never
quite came up to the promise of their first



Titian {Tiziano Vccclli) 297

pictures. Diirer's wonderful pictures were quite
different^ from Titian's, inasmuch as his work
was fuller of detail and careful finishing, but
Titian was as great in another way. His
effects were broader, but quite as satisfying.
However, the German criticism put him on
his mettle, and he answered that if he had
thought the greatest value of a painting lay in
its fiddling little details of finishing, he too
would have painted them. To show that he
could paint after Diirer's fashion, as well as
his own, he undertook the "Tribute Money,"
and the result was a w^onderful picture.

Soon Rome sent for Titian. The Florentines,
Raphael and Michael Angelo, were already
there doing marvellous things, but the pope
wished to add the genius of Titian to theirs
and made him a great offer to go and live in
Rome and do his future work for that city.
This was an honour, but amid all his fame
and the homage paid him, Titian had remem-
bered the old home in the vale of Cadore.
It was there his heart was, and he determined
to return to the home of his boyhood to do his
best work. So he sent his thanks and refusal
to the pope, and he wrote as follows to his
home folks, through the council of his town:

** I, Titian of Cadore, having studied painting
from childhood upward, and desirous of fame
rather than profit, wish to serve the doge and
signorini, rather than his highness the pope
and other signori, who in past days, and even



298 Pictures Every Child Should Know

now, have urgently asked to employ me. I
am therefore anxious, if it should appear
feasible to paint the hall of council, beginning,
if it pleases their sublimity, with the canvas
of the battle on the side toward the Piazza,
which is so difficult that no one as yet has had
the courage to attempt it."

Then in stating his terms he asked for a very
moderate sum of money and a *' brokerage"
for life. The Government did not have to
think over the matter long. Titian's father
had been honoured among them, Titian's
genius was well known, and the commission
was gladly given him. As soon as he got this
business affair settled he moved into the palace
of the Duke of Milan "at San Samuele, on the
Grand Canal, where he remained for sixteen
years," so says his biographer.

Titian's affairs were not yet entirely smooth,
because both of the Bellinis having painted
for his patrons, they naturally considered
Titian an intruder, and thought that the work
should have been given to them. They did
all they could to make trouble for the younger
artist, but after a time Titian came into his
rights, receiving his "brokerage" which gave
to him a yearly sum of money 120 crowns,
$126.04. His taxes were taken off for the
future, provided he would agree to paint all
the doges that should rule during his lifetime.

Titian undertook to do this, but he did not
keep his word, for he painted only five doges,



Titian {Tiziano Vecelli) 299

though many more followed. He had no
sooner received his commission from the
council of his native place than he began to
neglect it, and to paint for the husband of the
wicked poisoner — Lucretia Borgia — whose
name was Alfonso d'Este, the Duke of Ferrara.
It was for him he painted the " Venus Worship,"
now in the Museum of Madrid, also "The Three
Ages," which belongs to Lord Ellesmere, and
the "Virgin's Rest near Bethlehem," now in
the National Gallery. Afterward he painted
"Noli Me Tangere," which is in the same
London Gallery.

There is a picture of great size in the Academy
of Arts in Venice, w^hich was first seen on a
public holiday nearly four hundred years ago.
It is the "Assumption of the Virgin," first
shown on St. Bernardino's day, when all the
public offices were closed by order of the
Senate, and the whole city had a gay time.
This occasion made Titian the most honoured
artist of his time, but still the Venetians had
cause to complain; because now^ their painter
took so much work in hand that he nearly
ceased doing the work on the council hall.
The council sent him word that unless he
attended to business the paintings should be
finished by some one else and he would have
to pay the new artist out of his own pocket;
but in waywardness he paid no attention to this
summons. Lucretia Borgia died, and her hus-
band having never loved her, fell at once in



300 Pictures Every Child Should Know

love with a girl of a lower class, who was very
good and worthy to be loved. The duke
wanted Titian to paint them both, and so once
more the great painter neglected his contract
with the council. The girl's name was Laura,
and Titian painted her and the duke in one
picture, which now hangs in the Louvre.

At last, after seven years of his neglecting
to do his promised work the council became
enraged and threatened to take the artist's
property away from him. That frightened
Titian very much, and he began frantically
to work on the battle piece on the hall w^all.
It was about this time that he married. He
had probably forgotten Violante in the passing
of so many years; at any rate it was not she
whom he married, but a lady whose first name
was Cecilia. Soon he had a little family of
children, but one of them was destined to make
Titian very unhappy. This was Pomponio
who became a priest, but he was also a wicked
spendthrift, and kept his father forever in
trouble, trying to pay his debts and keep him
out of scrapes. Another son became an
artist; not great like his father, but very
helpful and a comfort to him. Then his wife
died, and Titian had loved her so dearly that
for a long time he had not the heart to paint
much. His sister, Orsa, came to live at his
home and take care of his motherless children.

He left the palace on the Grand Canal and
bought a home north of Venice, with beautiful



Titian {Tiziano Vccclli) 301

gardens attached, and there he lived and
worked, entertaining the most illustrious men.
Titian's house and gardens became the show
place of the country, so many geniuses and
famous people visited there. It was there
that he painted "The Martyrdom of Saint
Peter," and the picture was so loved by the
Venetians that the signori threatened with
death any one who should take the picture
from the chapel w^here it hung. In spite of
this caution the picture was burned in the fire
that destroyed the chapel in 1867.

Titian was now getting to be old, but he was
yet to do great work and to have kingly patrons.
Charles V. visited Bologna, and, seeing
Titian's great work, wanted him to paint his
portrait. So the artist went to Bologna and
painted the portrait of the king, clothed in
armour, but without any head-covering, making
Charles V. look so fine a personage, that he
was delighted. Charles said he had always
been painted to look so much uglier than he
really was that when people who had seen
his portraits, actually saw himself they were
pleasantly disappointed. While Titian was
painting his picture, Lombardi, the sculptor,
wished above all things to see Charles, so
Titian said: "You come with me to the
sittings, and act as if you were some apprentice,
carrying my colours and brushes, and then
you can watch the king as easily as possible."
Lombardi did as Titian suggested, but he hid



302 Pictures Every Child Should Know

in his big and baggy sleeve a tablet of wax, on
which to make a relief picture of Charles. One
day the king surprised the sculptor and
demanded to be shown what he was doing.
Thereupon he was so much pleased that he
commissioned Lombardi to make the model
in marble. While the king was sitting for two
portraits to Titian, the artist one day dropped
his brush. The king looked at the courtiers
who were lounging about watching the work,