public view) met the former, and began as friends to rejoice with him, declaring that he was acquitting himself better on the side of the Merceria than he had done on that of the Grand Canal, which remark caused Giorgione so much vexation, that he would scarcely permit himself to be seen until the whole work was completed, and Titian had become generally known as the painter; nor did he thenceforward hold any intercourse with the latter and they were no longer friends.
In the year 1508, Titian published a wood engraving of the Triumph of Taith; it comprised a vast number of figures; our first Parents, the Patriarchs, the Prophets, the Sybils, the Innocents, the Martyrs, the Apostles, and Our Saviour Christ borne in triumph by the four Evangelists and the four Doctors, followed by the holy Confessors: here Titian displayed much boldness, a fine manner, and improving facility. I remember that Fra Bastiano del Piombo, speaking on this subject, told me that if Titian had then gone to Rome, and seen the works of Michelagnolo, with those of Raphael and the ancients, he was convinced, the admirable facility of his colouring considered, that he would have produced works of the most astonishing perfection, seeing that, as he well deserved to be called the most perfect imitator of Nature of our times, as regards colouring, he might thus have rendered himself equal to the Urbinese or Buonarroto, as regarded the great foundation of all, design. At a later period Titian repaired to Vicenza, where he painted the Judgment of Solomon, on the Loggetta wherein the Courts of Justice are held; a very beautiful work. Returning to Venice, he then depicted the façade of the Grimani; at Padua he painted certain frescoes in the Church of Sant’ Antonio, the subjects taken from the life of that Saint;[1] and in the Church of Santo Spirito he executed a small picture of San Marco seated in the midst of other saints, whose faces are portraits painted in oil with the utmost care; this picture has been taken for a work of Giorgione.
Now the death of Giovan Bellino had caused a Story in the Hall of the Great Council to remain unfinished, it was that which represents Federigo Barbarossa kneeling before
- ↑ Not in the Chiirch, but the Scuola of St. Anthony. Ridolfi, Maraviglie, &c., declares that these works obscure the glory of Titian.
