Titian, or Tiziano Vecelli (1477-1576)
very child must know "The Tribute Money," painted by Titian, for no artist understood the scene better than he did. Remember that the bad men in Palestine were determined to find something that Jesus, the Christ, had done against the Roman Government so they could trap him. At last they sent one in authority to question him.
But Jesus said, "Bring me a penny, that I may see it." And they brought him a penny.
And Jesus said, "Whose is this image and superscription?"
And the man was forced to say, "Cæsar's."
Then Jesus made that famous reply that people use so often to-day: "Render to Cæsar the things that are Cæsar's, and to God the things that are God's."
Titian shows the moment when the tax-gatherer must say that the penny belonged to Cæsar, the Roman emperor. It had Cæsar's portrait on it and Cæsar's demands written on it. Look carefully at the two faces and the two hands, and tell me what you think of the two men as Titian shows them to us.
