A ' de m on plzoto j N TITIA o ’ Be ll s M in iatu re S e rie s o f Pain te rs T I T I A N H O P E I EA ‘S LONDON G EO R G E BELL S O N S 1 90 6 TABLE O F CO N TENT S PA GE BOO 'S ON TITIAN LI FE OF T ITIAN T HE AR T OF T ITIAN OU R I LLUSTRATIONS LIST OF TH E ARTIST’S CHI EF WOR ' S ’ CH R ONOLOGY OF THE ARTIST S LIFE 3 9 5 37 5 LI S T O F I LLUSTRATI ON S ' TITIAN F rantispzece S AC RED AND PRO FA N E LOVE T HE DU ' E OF N ORFOL' T HE PRESENTATION OF THE VIRGI N T HE VENUS DEL PRADO MADON N A CASA PESARO LA GLORIA PIETA B OO 'S ON TITI AN A E T 6 1 60 P . R INO . Lettere . vols . Paris , 9 , a si p s m . E E o f B . B R N SON . The Venetian Painters the R enaissance . C 'H . J . B UR ARDT . Der Cicerone Vol iii 1 8 8 . Sixth Edition . Leipzig , 9 WE A L CRO and C VALCAS ELLE . ife and Times 1 88 1 . 2 of Titian vols . London , , A 1 0 . G . GRON U . Titian . London , 9 4 ’ M Z l Art U . E . NT Histoire de pendant la L R . e enaissance . Vol . iii Paris Titien ’ e t l Ec o le Ve n étie n n e la Formation de . - R e vue des D eu x M ondes 1 8 . , 94 A E H P W CL UD P ILI S . The Earlier ork of h . M Titian Portfolio onograp s , N o . 34 . 1 8 L W October , 97. The ater ork of . d 1 8 8 . I bi . Titian . , No . 37 uly , 9 ’ G A V GIOR IO V SARI . Le ite e piu eccellenti . M . pittore , etc Ed . G . ilanesi Vol viii 1 88 1 Florence , . LIFE OF TITI AN HE northern boundary of the ancient T Venetian R epublic roughly corresponded with the present Italian frontier , following generally the line of the Alpine chain . On a - clear day , from the north eastern side of Venice , or from the open lagoon , the snowy peaks may be distinc tly seen bounding the northern ' horizon , a glittering crescent of rarest beauty and grandeur . At the foot of these great mountains , where the valley of the Ampezzo opens its winding way among them , lies the little upland town of t Pieve di Cadore , and here , in or about the lli 1 Ve c e . year 477, Tiziano was born The hills set their seal upon the lad , young though he was when he left them ; while among the greatest of Venetian citizens , he never ceased to be the Cadorine . Though under the rule and protection of the R epublic at the close of the fifteenth century , Pieve still preserved a considerable degree of local independence , giving scope for t an d much civic ac ivity devotion , and among the Cadorine citizens the Ve c e lli family ranked . V e c e lli hitgDh Gregorio , the father of the painter, is s poke n of as equally distinguished by his TITIAN wisdom in the Council of Cadore and by bravery as a soldier in the field . Proudly as the folk of the little township maintained their position , they were, like mountain people gener ally , far from wealthy . The soil of the vicinity produced a bare sufficiency for their needs ; indeed , frequently they were obliged to import food -stuffs from the plains 0 supplement their comparatively scanty harvests . The extent of their forests served to balance the bareness of their fields , and for timber they found a steady market in the growing and mercantile metro polis in the lagoon . Thus the connection between the two cities was , perhaps , even stronger commercially than it was politically , and Titian doubtless followed in the train of many a predecessor when he left his mountain home at an early age to be apprenticed to a master craftsman in the busy capital . The parallel between the son of a Scottish L laird seeking his fortune in southern ondon , and the young Ve c e lli being sent by his father to Venice on the same quest , is one that can hardly ’ fail to occur to the student of the painter s life . Titian was the second child of a family of four , that was born to Gregorio and his wife L ucia . Francesco, the eldest , was about two t years older than his brother , and below hem — came two sisters , Orsola and Catarina . The boys , apparently , were both precocious , and at the ages of twelve and ten respectively had shown such a remarkable leaning towards the artistic career that Gregorio decided they HI S LIFE 3 Should even then leave home and begin their apprenticeship . He accordingly took them to Venice , and gave them into the care of his brother , who also in his turn had emigrated b ills from the to the lagoons , and was now ' established as a Venetian citizen . This brother took the boy [Titian] at once to S ebastian Z u c c a to but he passed him on to the studio of Gentile Bellini , and so brought him under the influence of that great family which for years dominated the whole art of Venice . From this point on , until Titian had reached manhood, there is singularly little recorded of him . Practically all that is left for the biographer to work upon is the environment — which we know must have been his , to picture this as clearly as may be , and then , Of in imagination , place a lad glowing genius in these surroundings, and try to realise what they must have been to him . Venice in 1 48 7 was virtually at the height of her power , and in the fullness of her beauty , vibrating with as yet unchecked vitality , and active growth . The beauty of decay , which we now associate with her name, was then undreamed of rather was she , as Philip de 1 Commines wrote but eight years later , in 495 ' la plus triomphante cité que j ’ aye jamais vue . Venice lies on the lagoon , roughly speaking, in two large divisions , separated the one from the other by the Grand Canal , which curves 1 —2 4 TITIAN h h between t em like an inverted S . In eac of these divisions lay one of the two great centres ’ of the city s ancient life . On the side east of M the Canal lay the Piazza di San arco , flank ’ S a n M ing which were the Doge s church , arco , and his sumptuous palace , with its Chamber of h the Grand Council . Here was t e seat of the R ’ epublic s government , and thence went forth her political power and influence . On the western side of the Canal lay the Piazza d i R ’ - ialto , at once the city s market place and Exchange . Under its colonnades were the the counters of merchants , and from it was ’ spun the web of the R epublic s commerce with L the world . ike brain and heart, the two piazzas together maintained the vitality and influence of the State . One bridge alone , R placed near the ialto , spanned the canal , and leading from this bridge , as directly as the smaller canals permitted , ran then , as now , a M ercer/id winding lane , the , the main artery M ercer/id between the two squares . Along the were the chief shops, displaying all the varied wares brought, from far and near , and passing to and fro from Council Chamber to Exchange were the busy citizens , themselves at once h h nobles and merc ants , the most potent of t eir time , and proudly conscious of their state and fortune . ' M ercm a h Exposed for sale in the , along wit the merchandise , were also to be seen , from time to time , works by the various painters who h practised their art wit in the city , and kept HI S LIFE 5 ’ their shops alon gside of the merchants counters in the Piazza di Rialto . In the piazza the in s tru musicians , too, foregathered , made their t . ments , and gave instruc ion in their art It would indeed be difficult to overestimate the activity , the interest, the importance , the gaiety, the noise , and the life which coursed along , and circled around , these two piazzas and their connecting lane , in the days when the little mountain -bred Tiziano was made an in s ign ifi - cant seeming , small member of the crowd , and left to fit himself into the life of a painter ’ s apprentice , in one of the workshops of the vicinity . The Venetian artists of this day belonged n to two schools . Herr Gro au calls them respectively the S eniors and the Juniors . The former , represented principally by the Viv a rin i e c c le s i family of the , maintained the a s tic a l tradition in art , and painted the many - panelled altar piece still in vogue , in which each painting fitted into some framed space , and formed a portion of a larger de s ign of a rc hite c tural character . The Juniors , on the other n ha d , represented by the Bellini family , repudiated this secondary position for their art .