The Later Works of Titian Part 5

[Footnote 46: It is impossible to discuss here the atelier repet.i.tions in the collections of the National Gallery and Lord Wemyss respectively, or the numerous copies to be found in other places.]

[Footnote 47: For the full text of the marriage contract see Giovanni Morelli, _Die Galerien zu Munchen und Dresden_, pp. 300-302.]

[Footnote 48: Joshua Reynolds, who saw it during his tour in Italy, says: "It is so dark a picture that, at first casting my eyes on it, I thought there was a black curtain before it."]

[Footnote 49: Crowe and Cavalcaselle, vol. ii. p. 272.]

[Footnote 50: They were, with the _Rape of Europa_, among the so-called "light pieces" presented to Prince Charles by Philip IV., and packed for transmission to England. On the collapse of the marriage negotiations they were, however, kept back. Later on Philip V. presented them to the Marquis de Grammont. They subsequently formed part of the Orleans Gallery, and were acquired at the great sale in London by the Duke of Bridgewater for 2500 apiece.]

[Footnote 51: This great piece is painted on a canvas of peculiarly coa.r.s.e grain, with a well-defined lozenge pattern. It was once owned by Van Dyck, at the sale of whose possessions, in 1556, a good number of years after his death, it was acquired by Algernon Percy, Earl of Northumberland. In 1873 it was in the exhibition of Old Masters at the Royal Academy.]

[Footnote 52: The best repet.i.tion of this Hermitage _Magdalen_ is that in the Naples Museum; another was formerly in the Ashburton Collection, and yet another is in the Durazzo Gallery at Genoa. The similar, but not identical, picture in the Yarborough Collection is anything but "cold in tone," as Crowe and Cavalcaselle call it. It is, on the contrary, rich in colour, but as to the head of the saint, much less attractive than the original.]

[Footnote 53: This picture was presented by Philip IV. to Prince Charles of England, and was, at the sale of his collection, acquired by Jabach for 600, and from him bought by Cardinal Mazarin, whose heirs sold it to Louis XIV. The Cardinal thus possessed the two finest representations of the _Jupiter and Antiope_ legend--that by Correggio (also now in the Louvre) and the t.i.tian. It was to these pictures especially that his touching farewell was addressed a few hours before his death.]

[Footnote 54: See Crowe and Cavalcaselle, vol. ii., Appendix, p. 340.]

[Footnote 55: See as to the vicissitudes through which the picture has pa.s.sed an article, "Les Restaurations du tableau du t.i.tien, _Jupiter et Antiope_" by Fernand Engerand, in the _Chronique des Arts_ of 7th May 1898.]

[Footnote 56: This picture came to England with the Orleans Gallery, and was until lately at Cobham Hall in the collection of the Earl of Darnley. It has now pa.s.sed into that of Mrs J.L. Gardner of Boston, U.S.

It is represented in the Prado Gallery by Rubens's superb copy. A Venetian copy on a very small scale exists in the Wallace Collection.]

[Footnote 57: A very clever adaptation of this work is No. 490 in the Prado Gallery under the name of the master. It is remarkable for the contrast between the moonlight which irradiates the Christ and the artificial light supplied by the lantern carried by one of the soldiers.]

[Footnote 58: This picture is mentioned in the list of 1574 furnished by t.i.tian to Secretary Antonio Perez. A _Perseus and Andromeda_ by, or attributed to, t.i.tian was in the Orleans Gallery. Is this the canvas now in the Wallace Collection, but not as yet publicly exhibited there? This last piece was undoubtedly produced in the _entourage_ and with the a.s.sistance of t.i.tian, and it corresponds perfectly to Vasari's description of the _Deliverance of Andromeda_. It has the loose easy touch of the late time, but obscured as it at present is by dirt and successive coats of now discoloured varnish, no more definite opinion with regard to its merits can be given. No. 135 in the Hermitage is a canvas identical in subject and dimensions with this last-named picture.

It was once attributed to Tintoretto, but is now put down to the school of t.i.tian.]

[Footnote 59: Somewhat earlier in the order of the late works should come in, if we may venture to judge from the technique of a work that is practically a ruin, the _Adam and Eve_ of the Prado, in which, for the usual serpent with the human head of the feminine type, t.i.tian has subst.i.tuted as tempter an insignificant _amorino_. Far more enjoyable than this original in its present state is the magnificent copy, with slight yet marked variations, left behind by Rubens. This is also to be found in the Prado. A drawing by the great Antwerper from t.i.tian's picture is in the Louvre. This is more markedly Flemish in aspect than the painted canvas, and lacks the foolish little Love.]

[Footnote 60: Formerly in the collection of the Earl of Dudley, upon the sale of which it was acquired by Mr. Ludwig Mond. It was in the Venetian exhibition at the New Gallery. There is an engraving of it by Pieter de Jode, jun.]

[Footnote 61: This is No. 186 in the catalogue of 1895. An etching of the picture appeared with an article "Les ecoles d'Italie au Musee de Vienne," from the pen of Herr Franz Wickhoff, in the _Gazette des Beaux Arts_ for February 1893. It was badly engraved for the Teniers Gallery by Lissebetius.]

[Footnote 62: Now in the Accademia delle Belle Arti of Venice.]

[Footnote 63: It was the intention of the writer to add to this monograph a short chapter on the drawings of t.i.tian. The subject is, however, far too vast for such summary treatment, and its discussion must therefore be postponed. Leaving out of the question the very numerous drawings by Domenico Campagnola which Morelli has once for all separated from those of the greater master, and those also which, while belonging to the same cla.s.s and period, are neither t.i.tian's nor even Campagnola's, a few of the genuine landscapes may be just lightly touched upon. The beautiful early landscape with a battlemented castle, now or lately in the possession of Mr. T.W. Russell (reproduction in the British Museum marked 1879-5-10-224) is in the opinion of the writer a genuine t.i.tian. _The Vision of St. Eustace_, reproduced in the first section of this monograph ("The Earlier Work of t.i.tian") from the original in the British Museum, is a n.o.ble and pathetic example of the earlier manner. Perhaps the most beautiful of the landscape drawings still preserving something of the Giorgionesque aroma is that with the enigmatic female figure, entirely nude but with the head veiled, and the shepherds sheltering from the noonday sun, which is in the great collection at Chatsworth (No. 318 in Venetian Exhibition at New Gallery). Later than this is the fine landscape in the same collection with a riderless horse crossing a stream (No. 867 in Venetian Exhibition at New Gallery). The well-known _St. Jerome_ here given (British Museum) is ascribed by no less an authority than Giovanni Morelli to the master, but the poor quality of the little round trees, and of the background generally, is calculated to give pause to the student. A good example of the later style, in which the technique is more that of the painter and less that of the draughtsman, is the so-called _Landscape with the Pedlar_ at Chatsworth. But, faded though it is, the finest extant drawing of the later period is that here (p. 78) for the first time reproduced by the kind permission of the owner, Professor Legros, who had the great good fortune and good taste to discover it in a London book-shop. There can be no doubt that this ought to be in the Print Room at the British Museum. A good instance, on the other hand, of a drawing which cannot without demur be left to t.i.tian, though it is a good deal too late in style for Domenico Campagnola, and moreover, much too fine and sincere for that clever, facile adapter of other people's work, is the beautiful pastoral in the Albertina at Vienna (B. 283), with the shepherd piping as he leads his flock homewards.]