CHAPTER VIII.—TITIAN AND THE VENETIAN RENAISSANCE
On the Venetian Renaissance in general we have the works cited at the head of Notes for Chapter VII and for biographies and lists D. V. Hadeln, new ed. Ridolfi, Le Maraviglie dell’ Arte, Berlin, 1914. A brief survey by the late Kenyon Cox, in Concerning Painting, New York, 1917, pp. 98–132, is valuable.
[78]. Titian. Crowe and Cavalcaselle’s The Life and Times of Titian, in 2 vols., London, 1881, is still the fullest repository of information. Georg Gronau’s popular but carefully done Titian, London and New York, 1904, takes account of later documentary discoveries. As a painter’s analysis of technical aims Charles Rickett’s Titian, London, 1910, is noteworthy. Nearly all of Titian’s works are published in Klassiker der Kunst, No. III, Stuttgart, 1906. Several newly discovered pictures are reproduced in the recent volumes, 1918–22, of the Burlington Magazine, Art in America, and Zeitschrift für bildende Kunst.
[79]. Titian’s Age. All the available material on this disputed matter is offered by Mr. Herbert Cook and Dr. George Gronau in a controversy printed as appendices to Cook’s Giorgione, London, 1907. The early evidence is very conflicting.
| Writing | in | 1557 | Dolce implies | Titian | was | born | about | 1489 |
| „ | „ | 1566–7 | Vasari | „ | „ | „ | „ | 1489 |
| „ | „ | 1564 | A Spanish Envoy | „ | „ | „ | 1474 | |
| „ | „ | 1567 | A Spanish Consul | „ | „ | „ | 1482 | |
| „ | „ | 1571 | Titian himself | „ | „ | „ | „ | 1477 |
| „ | „ | 1584 | Borghini | „ | „ | „ | „ | 1478–9 |
Writing in 1545 and 1548 Titian refers to his old age and disabilities (Cook, p. 141 note), expressions more natural if he was sixty-eight and seventy-one than they would be if he were only fifty-six and fifty-nine.
Mr. Cook’s theory that Titian and his Spanish official friends grossly exaggerated his age to secure prompter remittances from the Emperor seems to me gratuitous and flimsy. Dr. Gronau convinces me that neither Dolce nor Vasari can be regarded as serious witnesses. L. Hourticq in La Jeunesse de Titien, Paris, 1919, adds next to nothing to Cook in maintaining the later date for Titian’s birth.
The whole weight of evidence points to the fact that Titian told the broad truth about his age, perhaps, indulging in a round number. I am sure he was well over ninety when he described himself as ninety-five in the letter of 1571, and that he died all but a centenarian.
[80]. Pietro d’Achiardi, Sebastiano de Piombo, Roma, 1908.
[81]. Max von Boehn, Giorgione und Palma Vecchio, Leipzig, 1908.
[82]. Bernard Berenson, Lorenzo Lotto, London, 1905. Comprises also careful studies of Alvise Vivarini, Cima, Montagna and other Venetic painters. In The Study and Criticism of Italian Art, 3rd series, London, 1916, the superb Saint Justine of the Valsecchi Collection is rightly restored to Giovanni Bellini, l.c. p. 38 ff.
[83]. Correggio. The standard work, C. Ricci, Antonio Allegri da Coreggio, New York, 1896. A delightful critical study, T. Sturge Moore, Correggio, London and New York, 1906. The complete works in Klassiker der Kunst, No. XVII, Stuttgart.
A new and convincing view of Correggio’s date of birth and early development in Venturi, Storia, Vol. VII, pt. iii, pp. 1152 ff.
[84]. Evelyn March Phillipps, Tintoretto, London, 1911. Many of the extraordinary tempera sketches are reproduced in the Burlington Magazine for January and February, 1910. H. Thode, Tintoretto, Leipzig, 1901.
Many eloquent criticisms by Ruskin in Modern Painters and Stones of Venice (see indices) and in the Guide to the Academy at Venice, Library ed. Vol. XXIV.
[85]. Paolo Veronese. See Kenyon Cox’s masterly essay in Old Masters and New, New York.
[86]. G. B. Tiepolo. The standard work is by Pompeo Molmenti. G. B. Tiepolo, Milan, 1909.
[87]. G. A. Simonson. Francesco Guardi, London, 1905. Numerous additions by the same author in the Burlington Magazine for succeeding years.