The Louvre: Fifty Plates in Colour

by Paul G. Konody; Maurice W. Brockwell

TITIAN

Although we have only limited space to deal with the differences of the critics as to the probable date of Titian’s birth, we may point out that it was, until recent times, placed in the year 1477. Mr. Herbert Cook has, however, put forward a very strong case in favour of the year 1489, pointing out the remarkable fact that there is no record of Titian earlier than Dec. 2, 1511, or, according to the usual chronology, until he was thirty-five years of age! Again, L. Dolce, in 1557, wrote that Titian was “scarcely twenty years old when Giorgione was painting the façade of the Fondaco de’ Tedeschi”; and we know that Titian was his assistant on that work in 1507–8. Vasari also asserts, as Mr. Cook reminds us, that the famous Venetian was “about seventy-six years old in 1566–67,” when he visited him in Venice. No reliance is to be placed on the date contained in the well-known letter which Titian addressed to Philip II. in 1571, as he evidently had a motive in referring to himself as “an old servant of ninety-five.” There is, however, no doubt that Titian died in 1576.

PLATE XI.—PALMA VECCHIO
(1480–1528)
VENETIAN SCHOOL
No. 1399.—THE ADORATION OF THE SHEPHERDS, WITH A FEMALE DONOR
(L’Annonce aux Bergers)

The Virgin is seated and holds the Infant Jesus on a cradle formed of basket-work; she wears a red robe with blue and green draperies and a white veil, under which her brown hair is seen. To her right St. Joseph is seated leaning on his staff; before him a shepherd boy kneels in adoration to the Infant Christ. To the left kneels the donatrice, her hands folded. In the ruined shed behind the Holy Family are the ox and ass. To the right of the composition is a landscape background in which several figures appear. A small group of angels in the sky.

Painted in oil on canvas.

4 ft. 7 in. × 6 ft. 11 in. (1·40 × 2·10.)

Titian, who was a native of Cadore, left his home at an early age for Venice. He was first placed as a pupil of Sebastian Zuccato, a mosaicist and perhaps a painter; he then seems to have worked in the studio of Gentile Bellini before passing into that of Giovanni, where he met Giorgione. Titian, like Giotto, has been called “the Father of modern painting.” The early Florentine had provided his countrymen with a set of fundamental principles of art, but it remained for the illustrious Venetian to endow his contemporaries and artistic descendants with a more complete equipment and a new sense of pictorial effect. The profound impression exerted by Giorgione on the youthful Titian inspired him to achieve those idyllic compositions and “poesies” which stand out so prominently among the world’s pictures.

Titian’s earliest picture in the Louvre is the Virgin and Child, with St. Stephen, St. Ambrose, and St. Maurice (No. 1577), of about 1508–1510. It is very reminiscent of a picture by Titian in the Vienna Gallery (No. 166), in which he has substituted St. Jerome for St. Ambrose.

No doubt can exist as to the authenticity of the so-called Portrait of Alfonso da Ferrara and Laura de’ Dianti (No. 1590), but the title under which it has passed for many years is probably incorrect. It was in the collection of Charles I., and was then described as “Tytsian’s Mrs., after the life by Tytsian.” In the collection of Jabach it was called La Maîtresse du Titien, and as such was sold to Louis xiv. for £100. This picture would correctly be described under the less ambitious title of A Woman at her Toilet and a Man holding Two Mirrors. Laura was the daughter of a hatter of Ferrara. She was persona grata at the court of Alfonso i., Duke of Ferrara (reigned 1505–1534), and there held the title of Illustrissima Donna Laura Eustochia d’Este. The Duke’s first wife, Anna Sforza, died in 1497, when he was twenty-one years old. In 1501 he married, as his second wife, Lucrezia Borgia (died 1519), the natural daughter of Pope Alexander vi. It seems probable that shortly afterwards the Duke took Laura as his third wife, and that she was painted by Titian a little later. The Louvre picture (No. 1590) appears on stylistic grounds to be a work of about 1515–1517. A portrait which can be more certainly identified as that of Laura is the single figure picture, painted by Titian about 1523, in the collection of Sir Frederick Cook at Richmond.

The influence of Giorgione is still clearly seen in Titian’s Man with a Glove (No. 1592, [Plate XII.]). It is a noble portrait of an unknown man; the colour is rich, and the light and shade are contrasted with great mastery; the bare right hand and the gloved left holding the second glove are admirably modelled. The canvas, which seems to have been painted about 1518, is signed “ticianvs f.” Soon afterwards Titian must have painted the Portrait of a Man in Black with the Thumb of his Left Hand in the Belt of his Doublet (No. 1591), the Madonna with the Rabbit (No. 1578), which is inscribed Ticianus F., and the magnificent Entombment (No. 1584, [Plate XIII.]). This priceless picture, which was painted not later, than 1523 for Federigo Gonzaga, passed from Mantua into the collection of Charles i. It was sold off by Cromwell for £128 and, after being one of the masterpieces for a few years in the collection of Jabach, was acquired by Louis xiv. The deep religious feeling and the rich, sonorous harmony of colour make this one of the world’s most precious pictures. Notice the sunburnt arm of Joseph of Arimathæa; it is significant of the art of Venice.

PLATE XII.—TITIAN
(1489?–1576)
VENETIAN SCHOOL
No. 1592.—THE MAN WITH A GLOVE
(L’homme au Gant)

He is standing and seen nearly in full face, the head turned three-quarters to the right, the eyes directed to the right. He wears a black costume with a white pleated under-garment, a gold chain round his neck, and white frills in his sleeves. His right hand, with a ring on the forefinger, holds his girdle. His left hand, gloved and holding the second glove, rests on a stone plinth.

Painted in oil on canvas.

Signed on the plinth:—“ticianvs. f.”

3 ft. 3½ in. × 2 ft. 11 in. (1·00 × 0·89.)

At an interval of about eight years we come to the St. Jerome (No. 1585), a religious scene set, curiously enough, in a moonlight landscape, which has darkened. The exact interpretation to be placed upon the Allegory in honour of Alfonso d’Avalos (No. 1589), of about 1533, has been much discussed; it is supposed to represent Alfonso bidding farewell to his wife on his departure for the wars, and entrusting her to the safe keeping of Chastity, Cupid, who bears a sheaf of arrows, and a third figure. The Portrait of Francis I. (No. 1588), whom Titian never saw, appears to have been painted about 1536 from a medal, and represents the King in profile. François i. died in 1547. It belongs to the same period as the Portrait of a Man in Damascened Armour with a Page holding his Helmet in the collection of Count Potocki. Another portrait, painted about 1543, represents a Man with a Black Beard resting his Hand on the Ledge of a Pilaster (No. 1593). By this time Titian’s art was rapidly maturing, as we see from his magnificent and imposing Supper at Emmaus (No. 1581) of the same year. It had passed from Mantua to England before being acquired by that excellent connoisseur, Jabach. It is said to be signed Ticianus f., while the Christ Crowned with Thorns (No. 1583), which was painted for a church in Milan about 1550, is inscribed titianvs f. When Charles i., as Prince of Wales, visited Madrid in 1623, he was presented with the Jupiter and Antiope (No. 1587), which has the alternative title of the Venus del Pardo. It had been painted for Philip ii., and had already escaped the fire which broke out in the Prado. Jabach acquired it for 600 guineas, and passed it on to Cardinal Mazarin, from whom it was acquired for 10,000 livres tournois by Louis xiv. It escaped destruction by fire in the Old Louvre in 1661. It has been very much repainted from time to time.