Titian: a collection of fifteen pictures and a portrait of the painter

by Estelle M. Hurll

The original source of biographical material relating to Titian is in Vasari’s “Lives of the Painters,” the best edition of which is the Foster translation, annotated with critical and explanatory comments by E. H. and E. W. Blashfield and A. A. Hopkins. The most complete modern biography is that by Crowe and Cavalcaselle, in two large volumes (published in 1877), but as this is now out of print, it can be consulted only in the large libraries. Some of the conclusions of these writers have been challenged by later critics, Morelli and others, and should not be accepted without weighing the new arguments. The volume on “Titian: A Study of his Life and Work,” by Claude Phillips, Keeper of the Wallace Collection, London, is in line with the modern methods of criticism, and is written in a delightful vein of appreciation. The two parts of the book, The Earlier Work and The Later Work, correspond to the two monographs for “The Portfolio,” in which the work was first published.

In the general histories of Italian art, valuable chapters on Titian are contained in Kugler’s “Handbook of the Italian Schools” (to be read in the latest edition by A. H. Layard) and Mrs. Jameson’s “Early Italian Painters” (to be read in the latest revision by Estelle M. Hurll). A monograph on Titian is issued in the German Series of Art Monographs, edited by H. Knackfuss.

Interesting suggestions upon the study of Titian’s art will be found in the following references: In Mrs. Oliphant’s “Makers of Venice;” in Berenson’s “Venetian Painters of the Renaissance;” in Symonds’s volume on Fine Arts in the series “Renaissance in Italy.” Burckhardt’s “Cicerone” has some valuable pages on Titian, but the book is out of print. A List of Titian’s work is given in Berenson’s “Venetian Painters.”

III. HISTORICAL DIRECTORY OF THE PICTURES OF THIS COLLECTION.

Portrait frontispiece. Probably the portrait mentioned by Vasari as painted in 1502. In the Prado Gallery, Madrid. Size: 2 ft. 10 in. by 2 ft. 1½ in.

1. [The Physician Parma.] It appears that there is no direct testimony to prove the authorship of this picture, the attribution to Titian having been made by an early director of the gallery, following certain evidence from Rudolfi. Herr Wickhoff claims the picture for Domenico Campagnola, and the recent biographer of Giorgione (Herbert Cook) includes it among the works of that painter. The attribution to Titian is, however, not disputed by the two severest of modern critics, Morelli and Berenson. In the Vienna Gallery. Size: 3 ft. 6 in. by 2 ft. 7 in.

2. [The Presentation of the Virgin (Detail).] Painted for the brotherhood of S. Maria della Carità, and now in the Venice Academy. Date assigned by Berenson 1540. Size of entire picture: 11 ft. 5 in. by 25 ft. 6½ in.

3. [The Empress Isabella.] Probably one of the two pictures referred to in a letter of 1544 from Titian to Charles V. In the Prado Gallery, Madrid. Size: 3 ft. 10 in. by 3 ft. 2½ in.

4. [Madonna and Child with Saints.] An early work in the Vienna Gallery, similar to a picture in the Louvre, to which it is considered superior by Crowe and Cavalcaselle. Called an “atelier repetition” by Claude Phillips. Size: 3 ft. 5 in. by 4 ft. 3 in.

5. [Philip II.] Painted 1550, and now in the Prado Gallery, Madrid. Size: 6 ft. 4 in. by 3 ft. 7¾ in.