Titian
;-NRLF b 3 i»oi tfii « J I Ik m »v ■ fa ■■*..< ' ■ ■ ■W weBf &9G I : f 1 ■■'''•■'■" nSSB ¥m ILLUSTRATED "BIOGRAPHIES OF THE GREAT QdRTISTS. TIZIANO VECELLI DA CADORE. Ai R "A deserving Series, based upon recent German publications." — Edinburgh Review. " Most thoroughly and tastefully edited." — Spectator. ILLUSTRATED BIOGRAPHIES OF THE GREAT ARTISTS. Each volume is illustrated with from 12 to 20 full-page Engravings, printed in the best manner, and bound in ornamental cloth cover, 3s. 6d. From a Review in The Spectator, Jtdy 5, 1879. " It is high time that some thorough and general acquaintance with the works of these mighty painters should be spread abroad, and it is also curious to think how long their names have occupied sacred niches in the world's heart, without the presence of much popular know- ledge about the collective work of their lives If the present series of biographies, which seems to be most thoroughly and tastefully edited, succeeds in responding to the wants of modest, if ardent, art-knowledge, its aim will be accomplished." The follozuing Biographies are now ready : — LEONARDO. From recent researches in his MSS. at Windsor and South Kensington Museum. By Dr. J. Paul Richter. With 16 Engravings. THE FIGURE PAINTERS OF HOLLAND. By Lord Ronald Gower, Trustee of National Portrait Gallery. With 16 Engravings. HOGARTH. From recent researches. By Austin Dobson, Author of "Vignettes in Rhyme." With 16 Engravings. RUBENS. From recent authorities. By C. W. Kett, M.A., Hertford College, Oxford. With 16 Engravings. TURNER. From recent investigations. By Cosmo Monkhouse, Author of " Studies of Sir E. Landseer." With 20 Engravings. THE LITTLE MASTERS. From recent authorities. By W. B. Scott, Author of" Lec- tures on Fine Arts." With 16 Engravings. *** An Edition de luxe, containing 14 extra plates from rare engravings in the British Museum, is also published. Bound in half morocco, Roxburghe style, price 10s. 6d. HOLBEIN. From the text of Dr. A. Woi.tmann. By Joseph Cundall, Author of " Life and Genius of Rembrandt." With 20 Engravings. TINTORETTO. From recent investigations at Venice. By W. Roscoe Osler, Author of occasional Essays on Art. With 12 Engravings. RAPHAEL. From the text of J. D. Passavant. By N. D'Anvers, Author of" Elemen- tary History of Art." With 20 Engravings. VAN DYCK and HALS. From recent authorities. By Percy R. Head, Lincoln College, Oxford. With 16 Engravings. TITIAN. From the most recent authorities. By Richard Ford Heath, M.A., Hertford College, Oxford. With 16 Engravings. REMBRANDT. From the text of C. Vosmaer. By J. W. Mollett, B.A., Brasenose College, Oxford, Officier de lTnstruction Publique (France). With 16 Engravings. The Volumes preparing for early publication are — MICHELANGELO. From recent authorities. By Charles Clement, Author of" Michel- Ange, Leonard, et Raphael." DELAROCHE and VERNET. From Charles Blanc. By J. Ruutz Rees, Author of various Essays on Art. LANDSEER. A Memoir, by Frederick G. Stephens, Author of "Flemish Relics," &c. With 16 Illustrations. GIOTTO. From recent investigations at Padua. By Harry Quilter, M.A., Trinity Col- lege, Cambridge. With Illustrations in colours. REYNOLDS. From the most recent authorities. By F. S. Pulling, M.A., Exeter Col- lege, Oxford. GAINSBOROUGH. From recent authorities. By G. M. Brock-Arnold, M.A., Hertford College, Oxford. *#* Several other Volumes are in preparation. LIB TIZIANO VECELLI. From the etching by Agostino Carracci. " The whole world without Art would be one great wilderness." ^3^ TITIAN BY RICHARD FORD HEATH, B. A. h HERTFORD COLLEGE, OXFORD. LONDON : SAMrSON LOW, MARSTON, SEARLE, & RIVINGTON, CROWN BUILDINGS, FLEET STREET. I879. V ~"j~ H {All rights reserved.) CHISWICK PRESS : — C. WHITTINGHAM, TOOKS COURT, CHANCERY LANE. (\ PKEFACE. "\ T 7 HILE collecting my materials for this little work * * from all available sources, I was weak enough to fancy that I had done almost enough, before I began to read the "Life of Titian" by Messrs. Crowe and Cavalcaselle, or to yield to the fascinations of the author of "Cadore." I thought that there was little left to do, save to verify and correct. But once absorbed in the study of that " Life," once under the spell of Mr. Gilbert, who seems to have a more genuine sympathy with the spirit of Titian than any other man, I could with difficulty tear myself from these engaging and exhaustive works. I seemed hardly to have power to record in my own language thoughts which I had shared with them — facts which I had gained from them — without appearing in the character of a plagiarist. It is idle to mention other authorities by the side of these names. There is nothing left to learn elsewhere, except from the Autobiography which is to be read on the artist's canvases. VI PREFACE. If ever a man's works told the story of his life, surely Titian's do. I have tried to tell that story as I learn it from him. If I have failed in this, I shall not, I trust, at least have lessened the fame of his eminent biographers, to whom I owe a debt of gratitude for many long days of uninterrupted enjoyment. R. U\ H. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. PAGE Titian's Birthplace— Child-work— a. d. 1477 to 1490 . . 1 CHAPTER II. Early Life in Venice — The Period of ' The Tribute Money ' — A. L>. 1491 to 1508 11 CHAPTER III. Work at Padua — The Period of the ' Assunta' — a. d. 1509 to 1520 24 CHAPTER IV. The Doge Grimani — Period of 'The Entombment ' — a. r>. 1520 to 1523 33 CHAPTER V. Period of the 'Peter Martyr '—Titian at Rome— a. d. 1523 to 1536 39 CHAPTER VI. Period of the 'Presentation in the Temple' — 'The Battle of Cadore ' — a. d. 1537 to 1540 ...... 47 CHAPTER VII. Titian's Home m the Biri Grande— Visit to Rome — a. d. 1540 to 1546 52 Vlll CONTENTS. PAGE CHAPTER VIII. iod of the ' Chris A. D. 1547 to 1563 64 Visit to Augsburg — Period of the ' Christ at Emmaus ' — CHAPTER IX. Period of the < Pieta '—Titian's Death.— a. d. 1564 to 1576 . 76 Events Contemporary with the Life of Titian . . 82 List of Titian's  cadore — titian's birthplace — child-work. 1477 to 1490. "TL divino Tiziano ! " Only the interpreter of the rnys- JL teries in Nature, only the poet who takes up the hea- venly strain to which a busy world is deaf, only the artist who catches upon his canvas the reflection of the divine — can merit such a title. Did Titian merit it ? Whence did he obtain his inspiration? Did the divine shine forth in the thousand productions of his skill ? The man whose hand held the pencil almost from his birth for near a hundred years, until pestilence unnerved the fingers, was he in truth the "son of his age?" Was he in ad- vance of it ? The friend of Emperors, of Popes and poets, whence came the charm that fell on all alike ? These are the questions to which this brief record may perhajDS give answer. (Titian was a man whose youth stretched into the period of ordinary maturity, whose manhood passed beyond the numbered " days of our years," who left the world even be- fore his time at the close of a century of years. He rose B 2 TITIAN. as it were upon the wave of the modern spirit. Born at the moment when the art of Printing was giving a new birth to letters, he grew with the growth of human thought. The spirit of man newly freed was casting off, perhaps too entirely, the fetters of superstition ; religious art with its formal fancies was dying, and Literature reviving before Titian had hardly become a man. He went with the fore- most men of the world to listen to the fresh teaching of Nature, and became pre-eminently her artist. "Tiziano da Cadore." If he won his former title " 11 divino" in Venice, it is this "da Cadore" which is the older and carries us to his own cradle and that of Land- scape art. The torrent-bed of the Piave — which rushes down from the Carnic Alps, watering the country of Ca- dore, three days' journey from the " Queen of Cities," and making its way through the Yal di Mel into the Adriatic at Cortellazzo — has been for ages the passage through which the tide of war has ebbed and flowed, bearing now the legions of Old Eome, now the hordes of barbarians, or again the disturbers of the peace of Italy from Germany and France. Yearly did the artist pass this way ; and as we shall often have occasion to allude to these journeys, on which no doubt he always carried his sketch-book and his brush ; as more- over his pictures abound with the memories of his home country and the road thither, we shall do well to trace his route. Crossing the lagoons from Venice, the road leads from Mestre through Treviso, where he placed his ' Annun- ciation,' famed for the perfection of the Virgin's form and the harmonious landscape, but disfigured by the winged boy, who represents the heavenly messenger. Passing Conegliano, it goes through Ceneda. Overlook- THE ROUTE TO CADORE. 3 ing the town is the Bishop's castle, which might have been for Titian's son. Close by at Serravalle lived his married daughter Lavinia Sarcinelli, and a little way from the town on the Manza hill lay his own favourite villa, commanding a view over all that is beautiful in landscape scenery. It was probably from this hill that he observed Nature most closely and learned to express in his landscapes, in a manner all his own, her "mystery and pathos," the mingling of wood and plain, the lines of hills, and the effects of sky and storm. A mile from Ceneda the pass is entered at Serravalle, the remains of whose fortifications testify to the purpose for which the old town was built, and recall some features in Titian's works. Here we know he came in 1542 to take instructions for the picture of the ' Virgin with St. Andrew and St. Vincent,' which was not finished for five years, and which now adorns the Duomo. In the depths of the vast beech forest of Consiglio, which lies to the right of the road, but only seen skirting the lofty hills, it is probable that the painter found that magnificent gloom in which he delighted, and there cultivated his feeling for the mighty contorted forms of trunks and branches with the play of light among them to be seen specially in the lost 'Peter Martyr.' At Capo di Ponte the road passes again over the Piave, which it had left below Conegliano at a point where the stream turns westward to water the lovely Val di Mel, with its cities of Belluno and Feltre about twenty miles apart. With the Bellunese families Titian had much to do, and in the church of San Stefano is an ' Adoration of the Magi' from his hand. The figures are spoiled, but the character of the Titian landscape is untouched. There is the dark blue mountain, with the clouds just lifting at the approach of dawn, and through them the guiding star 7z~n$>ish Ji/ast. Cadore and its neighbourhood. TrevisO is fifteen miles north of Venice. THE ROUTE TO C ADORE. 5 breaks brightly. The Belluuo valley has been despoiled of its Titians from various causes. One remains, ' St. Sebastian and St. Rocco with St. Andrew,' in the sacristy of the church at Mel, a village on the southern slopes which gives the valley its name, a few miles below Bel- luno. Between this and Belluno lies Titian's mill at Colontola on the stream of the Ardo, the one scene un- mistakably identified with his studies. This country too supplies the home features of his landscape. He rejoices in the snug homestead and quaint farmyard in the midst of a smiling valley, with the cloud-capped mountain peak in the distance for contrast. The peculiar style more- over of the farmsteads differing from the ordinary Italian buildings identify his drawings with this neighbourhood. But it is in the mountain forms, such as are seen in the * Adoration ' at Belluno, in the ' Presentation of the Virgin/ in the ' Supper at Emniaus,' that we chiefly recognize his association with Belluno. In mountains he was great, almost the first to appreciate and to render their majesty and mystery. His was not the isolated form rising into the deep blue sky with clouds floating above it, but the jagged peaks soaring fantastically above the dark vapours which roll slowly around the body and the feet, ever giving glimpses of the awful forms which they enshroud. To him " high mountains were a feeling." He was their child. Their terror was his joy, and he reposed in their guardian might. The forms which he chiefly loved are those which rise abuptly from the lower hills, " turreted, sword-bladed ridges," or standing out like impregnable for- tresses. This is the character of the genuine dolomites, to which he was usually true, and with which he is specially connected. He loved their vigorous and quaint, 6 TITIAN. bold, sharp lines. He loved the grand shapes that were imprinted upon his boyish mind. But we must go back to Capo di Ponte to continue our road to Cadore. A few miles on, at Longarone, the rugged character of the scenery increases. Hence branches west- ward the valley of Zoldo. The mule-path traverses a sub- lime gorge until it reaches Forno at a fork of the valley. On the southern branch of this stands the village of Tiziano, while the northern leads into the presence of Sasso di Pelmo. Under the precipices of Pelmo cluster the cottages of Zoppe, which boasts of a Titian altar-piece, one of his few paintings still existing among his native mountains. Two or three miles above Longarone the true Cadore country is entered. Yet along the savage defile for ten miles the road ascends the right bank of the Piave, foaming and roaring below, and comes out at Perarolo. Here a bridge crosses the Boita, which tumbles headlong down a ravine to the left from the valley of the Ampezzo, guarded by the spectral Antelao, the presiding genius of the Cadore country, on the one hand, and by the craggy Pelmo on the other. Turning northward along the side of Monte Zucco we gain sight of the Castle of Cadore, hundreds of feet above the boiling Piave. Approaching from the village of Sotto Castello along the old bridle-road from Venice, on the right hand is the house within whose humble walls, as an inscription tells, Tiziano Vecelli began his celebrated life in 1477. It is only a cottage, and as " L'Anonimo," the author of a "Life of Titian," written less than fifty years after the painter's death, describes it, stands in " the place called Arse- nale," a " place of small circuit, but prettily laid out. In the centre of the piazza is a fountain of fresh and limpid THE C ADORE COUNTRY. 7 water. Noble palaces are in the neighbourhood." This house was identified — as well as the painter's home in Venice — by the abbate Cadorin in 1833. We have sketched the country familiar to Titian in his many jonrneys ; we mnst be more minute in describing the scenes among which he spent his boyhood, and which he kept always fresh in his mind for nearly a hundred years. From the slope at the back of the house we may watch the light of the rising or the setting sun upon the fantastic shapes of his own mountain Marmarolo. Farther up the Castle hill we may come into the presence of the great gods of the painter's childhood, holding a mysterious sway over their own country, and learn to comprehend all their influence over him. By far the most interesting point in the beautiful sce- nery of Cadore and in its history, after the Castle, is the village of Valle- on the Ampezzo road. Here was fought in Titian's life-time the battle of Cadore, of supreme im- portance in the history of the Venetian Republic, and the subject of his great battle-piece, the central object of which is the bridge over the Boita. But we should know of what sort were the " men of Cadore " to know what Titian was. They were descendants of independent mountain tribes, subdued by Rome in the early days of the Empire, who felt the benefit of her civilization and suffered by her downfall. Alaric with his Vizigoths, the Huns under " the scourge of God," the Ostrogoths, the Franks, swept at different times through the country, bringing ruin and distress. Then it submitted to Lombard rule, till Charle- magne made it a Countship, and the first Count a Frank, an event which blended together the Lombards and Ca- dorini, under the common name of Italians. After the 8 TITIAN. dissolution of the Frank empire at the death of Charle- magne, the men of Cadore were in great peril from the invading Hungarians, and were roused to fortify them- selves in those castles, the ruins of which still remain at Bottestagno and Cadore. The tenth century found the Cadorine families enriching themselves by a timber trade with Venice, and the liberties of Cadore rising. The eleventh saw its privileges so consolidated that it became virtually a republic with but slight relations with its Count, who acknowledged the Patriarch of Aquileia as feudal lord. Its affairs were regulated by an annually elected council. In the twelfth century the Patriarch was himself Count of Cadore, but transferred his rights to a nephew, Count of Camino, and the fortunes of Cadore became those of the Caminese family. This first Count bore the name of " Guecello," which in 1321 descended to the Podesta of Cadore, of whose family Tiziano Vecelli came. Many an unhappy contest were the Cadorini drawn into in the feuds between the Counts and the Patriarchs of Aquileia, and often when under the rule of the Patriarchs they had to fight their battles. But their power came to an end. The Republic of Venice had conquered Friuli. The little community had to decide to whom they should render allegiance, whether to the German Emperor or to the gv ± Republic. They held an assembly. They discussed — but at length resolved to go for guidance to the chapel of the Holy Spirit at Valle, two miles away. The procession went, and on returning to the council-hall at Pieve, there arose a universal cry, " Let us go to the good Venetians." So was the choice made by which Titian became a citizen of Venice, an^ the mountain valley was destined to bring glory to the Queen of Cities in her decline. hi 13 titian's birthplace. 9 " Heir of all the ages " of this little community, always mixed up in the world tumults, yet ever preserving a degree of independence, — industrious, thriving in the midst of its misfortunes; — child of a house distinguished beyond its mountain settlement, Tiziano was born in the year 1477. He was the son of Gregorio Yecelli, a dis- tinguished soldier and wise councillor of Cadore, and his wife Lucia. The Vecelli had mostly followed the pro- fession of law or of arms, but Gregorio, having little to leave his children, of whom he had four, may have thought art the more profitable. It must be remembered that Cadore, for all the thrift and energy of its people, was bub a poor country, and the character of the race was affected by its condition. It was so barren that the pro- duce of the laud was only sufficient for a few months' supply. It was one of the chief duties of the Council to buy and store up in the fondaclii, and to distribute the corn supplies for the rest of the year. The produce of their forests and mines they floated down the Piave to Venice. The strong-purposed mountaineers descending to the city came in contact there with the culture and commerce of the world. The little Alpine community became one of merchants without losing the virtues of their hardy life. Titian's early days were peaceful. There is a story of the child painting a Madonna upon a house-wall with the juice of flowers. The fresco is shown in the Casa Sampieri, representing a sitting Madonna with the infant and a boy- angel whose wings have almost disappeared, kneeling. Tradition claims this as the work of the young Titian, and Gilbert suggests in support of it, that the figure of the kneeling boy is that of the painter himself under the in- 10 TITIAN. structions of his first master Rosso, commending himself to the Divine care before going out into the world. But the authors of the great " Life of Titian," while unwilling to destroy so pretty a story, allow indeed that it is the work of a boy, but say it is of the sixteenth century, the work of one of the Vecelli, it may be, but " certainly not Titian." Nor will they admit that Rosso influenced the style of the great artist at so early an age, even if he had a master at all before he left Cadore. CHAPTER II. EARLY LIFE IN VENICE. — THE PERIOD OF THE ' TRIBUTE MONET.' 1491 TO 1508. TITIAN was but a child when he was sent to Venice. He left behind him, with his parents, his brother Francesco and his two sisters — Catarina, who was shortly- after married at Pieve, and Orsa, whom we shall find here- after mistress of his household and the guardian of his motherless children. The Venice to which he came had indeed become a centre of Italian culture, but her sun was setting, though amidst the surrounding glory of Art. Flying from a barbarian yoke, some nobles of Aquileia and the neighbouring towns settled on the cluster of islands at the mouth of the Brenta ; and Rivoalto — the modern Venice — rose in 421. From her independent position upon the bosom of the waters she early sent forth her merchants to the utmost known limits of the world. From every distant region they brought back goods in exchange for those which they carried out, and the manufacturers at home soon learned to rival the foreign producers. Thus her dyes, her glass, her silks, velvets, and lace became renowned. Abstaining from territory in the peninsula, she was content with a naval glory and eastward settle- 12 TITIAN. merits. Before Genoa or Pisa had entered npon com- mercial pursuits, she had carried on an extensive trade in the Greek and Saracen cities of the Levant. The crusades added to her wealth and grandeur. But her splendour dates from the time in which Doge Enrico Dandolo fitted out a hundred galleys in a hundred days to help in the taking of Constantinople in 1204. Three-eighths of the Eastern city fell to her lot, and her venerable Doge took the title of Despot of Romania. When, her power in the East declining, the republic began to extend it over the Italian continent, she gradually obtained a supreme position. For years the riches of Art had been imported from the East to Venice ; though her nobles, busied in pushing for- ward her wealth and renown, had neglected to encourage its highest forms at home. When, however, the period of con- quest was over, when her trade monopolies were destroyed, then strangers found their way to Venice, and painting received a mighty impulse. This was early in the fifteenth century. From the beginning of the fourteenth the prin- cipal buildings had been decorated with feeble frescos, and with such the Hall of Great Council, finished in 1367, was adorned ; and the portraits of contemporary Doges, deemed of the highest importance, were entrusted to men of in- ferior skill and education. About 1400, when these frescos had to be renewed, Venice, having no artists of her own, had to entrust the work to Gentile da Fabriano and Vittore Pisano, under whom arose the school of Murano, which was all-power- ful in Venice until the Bellini — Gentile and Giovanni — produced an entire revolution in the sixteenth century. Their immediate predecessors had indeed softened the WITH BELLINI AT VENICE. 13 stiffness and gaudy colouring of Byzantine art, but were indifferent to the laws of proportion and form, and to the rules of perspective. The style of the Bellini was real- istic : every line, every variation in the face was repro- duced, while the gilded or artificial backgrounds were exchanged for those which were nearer to nature. When the new system of painting in oils, which had already superseded the old process of tempera in the Florentine school, was introduced into Venice, then the colours assumed a character which rivalled the celebrated Venetian dyes. The buildings, the waters, the mountain- fringed plains, the coasts of the Adriatic provided back- grounds rich in colour and variety for the Bellini, Car- paccio, and the painters from the neighbouring mainland who now came into Venice. They were men from Brescia and Bergamo, or from the Friulian mountains, bringing with them their own landscape forms, never forgetting the inspiration of their native scenery, but gathering a fresh one from the colour and the splendour of the sovereign city. What a change for the boy from Cadore to the City lying upon the seas, from all that was majestic in, nature to all that was softly gorgeous in art — from the peasantry, stern and full of purpose, to the luxurious and pleasure- loving citizens ! The fact that Titian was entrusted to his uncle's care in ■ Venice, and that he was given over to the hands of an art- teacher is all that is known for certain, the rest is con- jecture. Sebastiano Zuccato, a mosaicist and no doubt a painter of note, is spoken of as his first teacher, but no- thing is known of Zuccato. Examples of Titian's early style show that he was a care- ful draughtsman, yet we are told of his leaving Gentile 14 TITIAN. Bellini, after his probation with Zuccato, because the master disapproved of his hasty and bold method, and warned him of failure if he persisted. With Giovanni Bellini's workshop he was not more satis- fied, and it is said that he became a partner with Giorgione. But we cannot believe that these were his masters to the exclusion of others equally illustrious, for his style is at no period absolutely that of the one or the other. If we cannot trace the steps by which he acquired a noble position in the early part of the sixteenth century, we must be satis- fied with knowing that the period of his education was that of the Beilinis, Carpaccio, Antonello, Palma, and Giorgione, that he had the last two as companions in study, the others as models for imitation. A fresco of ' Hercules ' on the land side of the Morosini palace is said to be one of Titian's earliest works. The Venetians were fond of such ornaments for their houses, and younger painters, whose means were small, were glad to undertake the work. As a youth, he was a painter of Madonnas, in which he exhibited the devout feeling of the old Venetian school. He may have visited Cadore and there painted the por- traits of Gregorio and Lucia Vecelli, which are lost, and the doubtful ' Madonna ' for the Genova family at Pieve, but we must look elsewhere for the works of his youth. Venice claims many of these, but even the best are doubtful. The ' Virgin and Child ' at the Belvedere in Vienna is the truest specimen of his early style, marked by a certain originality in the tenderness of expression of the Virgin. She holds a covering round the waist of the Child as He stands on a stone parapet, gracefully laying His hands on the mother's fingers. There is a reminiscence of one of EARLY WORKS AT VENICE. 15 his homeward visits in the charming landscape. But thero are traces of the traditions of his pupil life — of the influence of the Bellini and Palma. In the foreground is a soldier after the manner of Giorgione. The effect of the light and shadow upon the curtain behind, which partially intercepts the landscape, is young Titian's own. Even thus early ho cannot conceal his individuality ; and while there is a ten- dency to derive something from each source of influence, he purified it by comparison with nature. It is ea^y to trace the growth of Titian's power in reli- gious compositions, though difficult to decide the date of each picture. Its progress is marked by the production of the ' Madonna and two Saints,' likewise in the Belvedere, which must have been years after that of the * Virgin and Child,' by the ' Man of Sorrows,' and by the ' Christ carry- ing His Cross,' both at Venice. In the 'Man of Sorrows,' in the Scuola di San Rocco, the treatment is original. It is a portrayal of the perfec- tion of resignation, and is to be commended for the finish and minuteness of detail. For the brethren of San Rocco he also composed the second picture mentioned above, which attracted alike ad- miration and worship, and was a source of wealth to the community by the miracles which it performed. It has been assigned to Giorgione, and certainly displays the touch of an artist not inferior to him. The want of pro- portion in the head of the Christ is due to the inexperience of the eager artist. But his varied power is shown in producing other pic- tures of different styles at the same time. In the ' Two Maidens at a Fountain ' of the Borghese Palace at Rome, and the ' Altar Piece of the Bishop of Paphos ' at Antwerp 1G TITIAN. he is Palmesque. The former picture marks a period in the growth of Venetian art and reveals Titian as familiar alike with the Greek ideal and with nature. Here again we have the scenery of the Venetian provinces. His native Cadore had not jet given the impress on his mind so clearly seen hereafter. In ' Artless and Sated Love ' are the typical faces, the fashion of the hair and dress, the mould of form which rule in Palma's 'Violante' at Vienna, and in the * Bella di Tiziano ' in the Sciarra palace. Hence the source of the story of Titian's love for Palma's daughter, and the tendency to confound the works of the two painters. The close of the fifteenth century finds the artist in some relations with men who played a part in that memorable period. It was one in which the nations of Europe, over- stepping their old limits, seemed to bring their forces into a common theatre for the display of their political combina- tions. The most profligate maxims of state policy were openly avowed, and Italy was the great field for intrigue. The principal States of Italy were the republics of Venice and Florence, the duchy of Milan, the Papal see, and the kingdom of Naples. Venice was the most formidable of these powers from her wealth and her powerful navy, "una Italum regina." Lodovico Sforza was at the head of the government in Milan. The Medici ruled in Florence. The Papal chair was filled by the notorious Alexander Borgia. Ferdinand was king of Naples when Sforza invited Charles VIII. from France to begin the confusion of Italy. Venice seemed to offer the most eligible position for the de- liberation of the envoys of the different European Powers, who could not look on uninterested. Here in 1495 was signed that treaty which exhibits the first great combina- tion of princes for mutual defence. The power of Venice LA BELLA DI TIZIANO. From the painting by Titian, in the Sciarra Palace^ Rome. THE PESARO ALTAR-PIECE. 17 attracted suitors, but her relations were conducted in tho spirit of a trading population. A few years after joining a league against France, she is warring side by side with her against the Turks ; extending her sway in Italy, but losing her power in the East. With the greatest of the schemers and the most unscru- pulous of the actors Titian had to do. Tradition men- tions him amongst the eminent men whom Sforza drew to his Court, and in a picture which Charles I. once pos- sessed are portraits of the two notorious Borgias, Alexan- der VI. and CaBsar, probably taken at the time when the ex-cardinal and son of a pope, married to a French princess, was engaged in courting the alliance of Venice for the promotion of his own ambitious schemes. Meanwhile, after two defeats of the Venetians at sea, they joined with the Pope and the King of Hungary in another crusade against the Moslems, and Jacopo da Pesaro, a prelate of the noble and powerful Pesari family of Venice, was appointed to the command of the papal galleys. He is known by the name of " Baffo," from the position which he afterwards obtained as Bishop of Paphos in Cyprus, in which character he appears in the great Frari altar-piece at Venice. But it is probably at the period of his naval appointment that Titian's likeness of him in the act of adoration of St. Peter is to be attributed. It adorned a room in Whitehall in the time of Charles I., and after many vicissitudes, at length found a home in Antwerp half a century ago. "Baffo " is kneeling to receive the Apostle's blessing, in the dress of a Dominican. He holds the Borgia banner in his hand while the Pope commends him to St. Peter. In the distance are the galleys riding at anchor. The portrait of Pesaro in his prime is from life. It is the face of the Frari altar-piece, c 18 TITIAN. dignified and determined. That of Alexander is so life-like in execution that it is difficult to believe it was taken from a portrait. The carefully studied attitudes remind us of an older school, but the predominating character is Pal- mes que. The details of the throne and the imitation of bas-relief ornaments exhibit Titian as an admirer of the antique, but are suggestive of an education as yet incom- plete. He is only revealing a latent power, which is to be shown in its fulness hereafter. Titian comes into direct competition with Giorgione, how- ever, at this early time, and with advantage. The Fondaco de' Tedeschi, a Government building which was the resort of foreign merchants on the Grand Canal and near the Rialto, was destroyed and a new building erected, upon the external decoration of which Giorgione, Morto da Feltre, and Titian were employed in 1507-8. It contained two Halls, in one of which, the Sala della Pitture, of vast pro- portions, a collection of frescos and masterpieces of six- teeuth-century artists was formed. Here hung 'the Re- deemer ' doubtfully assigned to Titian, and now in the Evangelical Church ; together with works of Pal ma, Tin- toretto, Paolo Veronese, and other artists. The State, however, entrusted the decoration of the Fondaco to Giorgione, who shared the work with Titian, at this time his assistant. Titian's principal work, above the southern gateway, was a fresco of ' Judith ' or ' Justitia ' (for it is uncertain which), waving a sword in her right hand, with her left foot on a lifeless head, whilst a soldier in armour grasps the head and looks up into her face, to- gether with other groups and figures, fragments of which are still visible. Zanetti says of these decorations that Giorgione exhibited an " original spirit " and a " light to THE EMPEROR MAXIMILIAN. 19 guide posterity." Titian, at first copying Giorgione, soon surpassed him, and showed such a skill in his treatment of flesh that the "blood seemed to mantle" in it. Some writers say that Giorgione never forgave Titian's superio- rity ; others describe his delight at the success of a friend. During this period, eminent members of the Vecelli family had come to Venice, and no doubt helped to further Titian's interests. He too must have revisited his Alpine home, and on returning from one of these visits brought back to the city his brother Francesco, a boy of twelve, to study drawing. But events were occurring at Cadore, events interesting to him, events that hold a curious place in his art-life, and in which his kinsmen the Vecelli are prominent figures. We have come to a time in which Venice had to struggle for existence against France, Spain, Germany, and Italy ; and in which the Cadore dependency had to bear the full force of the blows which the German Emperor Maximilian aimed at the Kepublic. Of old the Emperors had been crowned in Rome, and Venetian passes lay between him and the Im- perial City. Bold and enterprising, he had made a name in Europe, and his picturesque figure, in his "little old green coat and cap with a great green hat over it," was familiar to the Tyrolese. He called upon Venice to let him pass, and when she refused, he resolved to make his way with the sword. Cadore was the first bar to his progress. He took his place in its commanding castle, depending for supplies on the Ampezzo valley. The Cadorini formed a committee — of which two Vecellis, one a cousin of Titian, were prominent members — to unite with the powers at Venice for the safety of the community. D'Alviano, a first-rate soldier, who had won a reputa- 20 TITIAN. tion in the Neapolitan wars, was sent to attack from the Bel- luno valley ; Cornaro, brother of the Queen of Cyprus, was associated with him as " Proveditore," and the General Savorgnano advanced from Friuli to Lorenzago on the Piave, ten miles above Cadore. He also hemmed in the Germans by occupying Tre Ponti and Pelos. The two Vecelli, Andrea and Tiziano, urged D'Alviano to cut off the Emperor's supplies by moving up the Val di Zoldo. D'Alviano and Cornaro agreed, and the Vecelli were de- spatched to Lorenzago to concert a combined movement with Savorgnano. D'Alviano, with 4,000 troops and a de- tachment of the celebrated Stradiot horse, made his way up the defile to Forno, crossed the Boita bridge, which we have prominently mentioned above, surprised the German gar- rison at Venas, and took up a strong position at Valle, about two miles from Cadore. The flames from a house which the Stradiots had set fire to brought out the Ger- mans from the castle, in the hope of surprising the Vene- tian general ; but he was ready for them with his men in line before Valle, himself mounted on a horse. He had sent forward a Captain Gambara to lie in ambush at Nebbiu on the slope of Antelao ; another force 800 strong, under Ranieri, to form his right on towards Cadore. The Germans advanced between to engage the centre, when these troops swept down upon them from the right and left, and drove them in heaps over the low walls which intersected the fields. No quarter was given. Those who did not die upon the field fell into the hands of the ranging Stra- diots. A few only reached their native Tyrol. Savorg- nano was not on the field till the battle was over. In Ti- tian's picture is introduced the form of a girl struggling for life^— one, perhaps, of those who were found among the THE BATTLE OF C ADORE. 21 slain. D'Alviano took the castle, fired Cadore, and returned to enjoy a public triumph in Venice. The old war-spirit of the Vecelli roused once more, diverted Francesco from the pursuit of art. He joined the army of the Republic, and left Titian to his Madonnas. We may see them, the ' Virgin with the Cherubs,' and again with ' St. Stephen, St. Jerome, and St. George,' at Vienna; another, with 'St. Stephen, St. Ambrose, and St. Maurice,' at the Louvre ; and still farther on in the painter's career, the ' Virgin with the Roses,' in Florence at the Uffizi, and the ' Madonna with St. Bridget,' in Madrid ; together with a charming picture equal to these at Burleigh House, the seat of the Marquis of Exeter. He visited Venice in 1506, and though taunted with being an engraver and ignorant of colour, the perfect finish of his works held back Palma and Titian from a tendency to the opposite extreme. Titian, however, painted from no pointed outlines. His figures were put in with the brush dipped in a brown solution, and then altered and perfected as his thought changed. The state of the backs of some of his pictures at the present day has revealed this. In the Madonnas of this period to which we have al- luded, we are astonished at the rapid change which is coming upon Venetian art, from the formal to the natural. There is all the influence of Palma shown in the treatment^ of the subjects, with greater solidity of colouring, a more perfect combination of tints, and mastery of the effects of light and shade. In the ' St. Bridget ' of Madrid there is again the face of Palma's Violante ; but Titian is acquiring 22 TITIAN. a dignity, a grace, and a fresh natural style of colouring peculiarly his own. The face of the male figure, St. Hulfus, in this picture is probably a portrait, for thus it was the habit of people to hand their features down to the admiration of their descendants. Portraiture, however, in the form of the bust still prevailed. Griovanni Bellini in Venice had the privilege of painting the living Doges, whose likenesses from very early times, as we mentioned before, were esteemed of the highest value by the Venetians ; but there is a copy in the Vatican of an old Doge, Marcello, by Bellini's pupil Titian, who afterwards succeeded to his office, which is an embodiment of his matchless skill. There is another too in the possession of Count Barbarigo at Padua, sold after Titian's death to a member of the family, which had hung for years in his father's house and was a copy of an earlier portrait of the Doge Marco Barbarigo. We have traced the painter's progress up to a period which marks his reputation, the period of ' The Tribute Money,' now at Dresden, formerly in the possession of the Duke of Ferrara. A story is told of the origin of the picture, which, if true, confirms what is certainly true, the influence of Diirer upon Venetian artists. The story runs that some Germans who visited Titian's studio spoke in disparagement of Venetian art in comparison with Diirer's perfection, and that Titian replied with a smile that had he thought finish was the end and aim of art, he too would have fallen into Diirer's excesses. Experience, how- ever, had taught him to prefer a bold to a narrow path ; and that he would show how the most minute detail could be exhibited without sacrifice of breadth, and so produced ' The Tribute Money,' a picture which has commanded the THE TRIBUTE MONEY. 