TITIAN
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TITIAN
pathetic and life-like of masterpieces. The School of
Bologna and Rubens (Miracles of St. Benedict, St.
Francis, etc.) many times borrowed the distinguished
and magisterial mise-en-schne, the grand and stirring
effect, and these horses, soldiers, lictors, these power-
ful stirrings of crowds at the foot of a stairway, while
over all are the light of torches and the flapping of
banners against the sky, have been often repeated.
Less successful were the pendentives of the cupola at
Sta. Maria della Salute ("Death of Abel", "Sacrifice
of Abraham", "David and Goliath"). These violent
scenes viewed in perspective from below — like the
famous pendentives of the Sistine Chapel — were by
their very nature in unfavourable situations. They
were nevertheless much admired and imitated, Ru-
bens among others applying this system to his forty
ceihngs (the sketches only remain) of the Jesuit
church at Antwerp.
At this time also, the time of his visit to Rome, the artist began his series of reclining Venuses (the
flesh-tints with the gold of the hair, the delicate tone
of the linen, countless other beauties of detail merged
in the harmony of the whole, nothing obtrudes itself
independently. " It is impossible to enumerate, even
briefly, Titian's splendid gallery of portraits; princes
or doges, cardinals or monks, artists or writers, no
other painter was so successful in extracting from each
physiognomy so many traits at once characteristic and
tjeautiful. Holbein was also individual, but how much
less the artist ; Van Dyck is perhaps more graceful but
how much more monotonous and affected. Among
portrait-painters Titian is comparable only to the
greatest, a Rembrandt or a Velasquez, with the in-
terior life of the former, and the clearness, certainty,
and obviousness of the latter. The last-named quali-
ties are sufficiently manifested in the "Paul III" of
Naples, or the sketch of the same pope and his two
nephews, the "Aretino" of the Pitti Palace, the
"Eleanora of Portugal" (Madrid), and the series of
Charles Fifths of the same museum, the "Charles
Presentation of the Blessed Virgin, Titian, the Academy. Rome
"Venus" of the UfEzi, "Venus and Love" at the same
mu.seum, "Venus and the Organ-Player, " Madrid), in
which must be recognized the effect or the direct re-
flection of the impression produced on the master by
contact with ancient sculpture. Giorgione had al-
ready dealt with the subject in the splendid Dresden
picture, but here a purple drapery substituted for its
background of verdure was sufficient to change by its
harmonious colouring the whole meaning of the scene.
Furthermore Titian had from the beginning of his
career shown himself to be an incomparable portrait-
painter. Portraits like that of Alfonso d'Este (Ma-
drid), of the "L^nknown Young Man" (Munich), and
the "Man with a Glove" (Louvre) would suffice to
place their author in the foremost rank of painters.
But a canvas like the "La Bella" (Eleanora de Gon-
zaga. Duchess of Urbino, at the Pitti Palace) presents
something rarer still. The harmony, blue, lilac,
white, and gold, is from the standpoint of colour in
perfect accord with the lovely and smiling character
of the countenance. In charm and magic the execu-
tion surpasses even the "Flora" of the Uilizi. "It is
such portraits", says Burckhart, "and others of the
same order, such as the 'Caterina Cornaro' of the
Ilffizi, which sometimes mislead modern painting espe-
cially the French School." "Why," he continues,
"are these eternal forms, while the moderns rarely rise
above beautiful sketches or studies? It is because (he
motif and the moment, the light, the colour, and the
form, all were born and grew at the same time in
Titian's soul, and whatever is created in such wise is
eternal. The voluptuous pose, the harmony of the
V with a Greyhound" (1.533), and especially the
"Charles V at Muhlenberg" (1,548), an equestrian
pictiu-e which as a symphony of purples is perhaps the
ne plus ultra of the art of painting.
During the last twentj'-five years of his life (1.5.50- 76) the artist, more and more absorbed in his work as a portrait-painter and also more self-critical, unable to be satisfied and insatiable of perfection, finished only a few great works. Some of his pictures he kept for ten years in his studio, never wearying of returning to them and retouching them, constantly adding new ex- pressions at once more refined, concise, and subtle. His palette lost the incomparable freshness which characterized the great work of his maturity; the tone became softened, the matter itself grew heavier and more dense, there is less variation, resplendency, and brilliance, but in the gamut selected there were never more powerful notes nor bolder execution. The artist subjects to his ideas and methods the simplification which summed up the experiences of a long life. For each of the problems which he successively undertook he furnished a new and more perfect formula. He never again equalled the emotion and tragedy of the "Crowning with Thorns" (Louvtc), in the expression of the mysterious and Ihe divine lie never equalled the poetry of the " Pilgrims of Kmmaus", while in superb and heroic brilliancy he never again executed any- thing more grand tlmn "The Doge Grimani adoring Faith" (Venice, Doge's Palacel, or the "Trinity", of Madrid. On the otiier hand from the standpoint of flesh tints, his most moving pictures are those of his old age, the "Dana;" of Naples and of Madrid, the
