TITIAN. (who blushed at the condescension of so great a monarch), that the merit of a Titian was worthy of the attendance of an emperor.
The excellence of Titian was not so remarkably apparent in the historical compositions which he painted as in his portraits and landscapes, which seem to be superior to all competition; and even to this day, many of them preserve their original beauty, being as much the admiration of the present age as they have deservedly been of the ages past. — It is observed of Titian by most writers, that in the different periods of his life he had four different manners; one resembling his first instructor Bellino, which was somewhat stiff; another, in imitation of Giorgione, more bold, and full of force; his third manner was the result of experience, knowledge, and judgment, beautifully natural, and finished with exquisite care, which manner was peculiarly his own; and in those pictures which he painted between the years of approaching old age and his death may be noticed his fourth manner. His portraits were very differently finished in his early, and in his latter time, according to the testimony of Sandrart. At first he laboured his pictures highly, and gave them a polished beauty and lustre, so as to produce their effect full as well when they were examined closely as when viewed at a distance; but afterwards, he so managed his penciling, that their greatest force and beauty appeared at a more remote view, and they pleased less when they were beheld more nearly. So that many of those artists who studied to imitate him, being misled by appearances which they did not sufficiently consider, have imagined that Titian executed his work with readiness and a masterly rapidity; and concluded that they should imitate his manner most effectually by a freedom of hand and a bold pencil: Whereas in reality, Titian took abundance of pains to work up his pictures to so high a degree of perfection; and the freedom that appears in the handling was entirely effected by a skilful combination of labour and judgment.
It cannot be truly affirmed, that Titian equalled the great masters of the Roman school in design; but he always took care to dispose his figures in such attitudes as showed the most beautiful parts of the body. His taste in designing men was not generally so correct or elegant as it appeared in his boys and female figures; but his colouring had all the look of real flesh, his figures breathe. He was not so bold as Giorgione, but in tenderness and delicacy he proved himself much superior to him and all other artists. The expression of the passions was not his excellence, though even in that respect many of his figures merited the justest commendation; but he always gave his figures an air of ease and dignity. His landscapes are universally allowed to be unequalled, whether we consider the forms of his trees, the grand ideas of nature which appear in his scenery, or his distances which agreeably delude and delight the eye of every observer; and they are executed with a light, tender, and mellow pencil. He learned from nature the harmony of colours, and his tints seem astonishing, not only for their force, but their sweetness; and in that respect his colouring is accounted the standard of excellence to all professors of the art.
It would prove almost an endless task to enumerate the variety of works executed by this illustrious artist, at Rome, Venice, Bologna, and Florence, as well as those which are to be seen in other cities of Italy, in England, Spain, Germany, and France; but there are two, which are mentioned as being truly admirable. One is, a Last Supper, preserved in the Refectory at the Escorial in Spain, which is inimitably fine; the other is at Milan, representing Christ crowned with Thorns. The principal figure in the latter
has an attitude full of grace and dignity more than mortal, and the countenance shows a benevolence and humility, combined with dignity and pain, which no pencil but that of Titian could so feelingly have described. It is admirably coloured, and tenderly and delicately penciled; the heads are wonderfully beautiful, the composition excellent, and the whole has a charming effect by the chiaro-scuro.
He was of so happy a constitution, that he was never ill till the year 1576, when he died of the plague, at 99 years of age. His disciples were Paulo Veronese, Giacomo Tintoret, Giacomo de Porte Bassano, and his sons.