pupil of Mr. Laing, the architect of the custom-house. Among Mr. Tite's earlier buildings, are the Scotch church (Gothic), Regent's Square, built for the congregation of which the Rev. Edward Irving was minister; the Weigh-house chapel, Fish Street Hill; the Blackwall, Brighton, and South-western railway termini, and several commercial buildings. He was, however, brought prominently before the public by the Royal exchange, erected by him in 1841-44, and which is remarkable as possessing the grandest Corinthian portico, and being One of the latest classical buildings on so important a scale in the metropolis Since the completion of the Royal exchange, Mr. Tite has erected no public building of importance, but he has had, perhaps, the largest commercial practice of any London architect. Besides numerous private chambers, &c., he erected the central and branch offices of the London and Westminster bank, several railway stations in England and Scotland, and those on the Havre and Rouen line in France. In ecclesiastical architecture, his only recent work is the Italo-Byzantine memorial church at Gerard's Cross, Bucks (1859), which is noteworthy as the only church erected in England for several years in any other than a Gothic style. He is at present engaged on the vast pile of commercial buildings erecting on the site of the old East India house. Mr. Tite was elected F.R.S. in 1835; he is also a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries; the Geological Society, &c. In 1861 he was elected president of the Institute of British Architects. He has taken a somewhat active part of late years in political affairs. He was chairman of the short-lived Administrative Reform Association. In 1855 he was elected M.P. for Bath, and has been returned at each subsequent election. Mr. Tite has contributed some papers on Roman London, and other subjects, to the Archæologia.—J. T—e.
TITIAN or TIZIANO VECELLI, the most distinguished painter of the Venetian school, was born at Capo del Cadore, in the Venetian state, in 1477. He studied painting in Venice, first with Sebastiano Zuccati, then with Gentile Bellini, and finally with Giovanni Bellini, in whose studio he had Giorgione as a fellow-pupil: they were both born in the same year. The earlier works of Titian are very highly finished, after the manner of the eminent Venetian painters of his time, as John Bellini, Basaiti, Cima da Conegliano, and others; it was only as he advanced in life that his manner became bold and free. In 1512 Titian was commissioned by the Venetians to continue the works in the council hall, which the great age of Bellini prevented him from completing, for which he obtained in 1516 the office of la sanseria, giving him the duty and privilege of painting the portraits of the doges as long as he held the office. It was worth one hundred and twenty crowns a year, and Titian painted five doges; two others at the end of his time he could not paint on account of his age. After this appointment he rose rapidly to distinction. In 1516 he was employed at the court of Alfonso I., duke of Ferrara, and it was there he painted the "Bacchus and Ariadne," in the National gallery. In 1516 he painted the magnificent picture of the "Assumption of the Virgin," now in the academy of Venice; and in 1528 the "St. Peter Martyr," or death of Pietro Martire, for the church of SS. Giovanni e Paolo. Titian's great patrons, however, were Charles V. and his son Philip II. of Spain. He painted the emperor twice at Bologna, in 1530 and 1532. Charles created him a count palatine and a knight of the order of St. Jago in 1533, and granted him also a pension of four hundred crowns a year, which was continued by Philip. Titian is supposed to have visited Spain at this time, but this is uncertain, and is disputed by Cadorin. The Real museo of the Prato at Madrid possesses forty-three pictures by Titian, including some of his finest works, as for instance the "Martyrdom of St. Lawrence." Titian visited Rome in 1545-46, and painted Paul V., who, after the death of Sebastian del Piombo in 1547, offered his post of keeper of the leaden seals to the Venetian painter, but Titian declined the honour; it would have involved his living at Rome. Michelangelo visited Titian while he was at Rome, and expressed a high opinion of his powers as a painter, but he noticed his want of thoroughness in drawing. Such is the report of Vasari. Ariosto, who was painted by Titian at Ferrara in 1516, has paid the painter an appropriate compliment in his Orlando Furioso, saying that he was as great an honour to Cadore as Sebastian del Piombo to Venice, or Raphael to Urbino:—
" Bastiano, Rafael, Tizian, ch' onora
Non men Cadore, che quei Venezia e Urbino."
An admirable early portrait of Ariosto by Titian is now in the National gallery. Titian's brother, Francesco Vecelli, was also an excellent painter, but he turned his attention to commerce in the latter part of his life. At Cadore, in the church of San Vito, is a fine altar-piece by him, signed F. V. P. mdxxiv. He died unmarried in 1560, aged seventy-five. It is only of late years that it has been ascertained that Titian was married: he had three children by his wife Cecilia—Pomponio, born in 1525; Orazio, his favourite, born about 1527; and Lavinia, the daughter he has frequently painted, born in 1529 or 1530; his wife died in the summer of the latter year. Titian, therefore, survived her thirty-six years; he died at Venice of the plague, on the 27th of August, 1566. His son Orazio, an excellent portrait painter, was a victim to the same pestilence. Lavinia married Cornelio Scarcinelli in 1547, and died in 1560 in bringing her sixth child into the world. Pomponio Vecelli, who was brought up to the priesthood, and led a scandalous life, survived his father some years; he was living in 1594. In later life Titian is said to have had a mistress named Violante, and she has been called the daughter of his pupil the elder Palma; but Palma's daughter Violante can have been but a girl at the time of Titian's death. Titian, Aretine, and the architect Sansovino, were inseparable friends. To comprehend fully the great powers of Titian it is necessary to have seen his works at Venice or at Madrid, where alone he is seen to the utmost advantage. He is unquestionably the capo-suola of the Venetian painters, and ranks, by common consent, with Raphael, Correggio, Leonardo da Vinci, and Michelangelo. He is considered by some the prince of colourists. In portrait painting and in landscape he was the greatest master of his time. The National gallery is rich in examples by Titian, in the three departments in which he excelled, three of the examples having landscape backgrounds of the highest order—the "Noli me Tangere," the "Triumph of Bacchus," and the "Virgin and Child, with St. Catherine."—(Vasari, Vite dei Pittori, &c.; Ridolfi, Marariglie dell' Arte, &c.; Zanetti, Delia Pittura Veneziana; Ticozzi, Vite dei Pittori Vecelli di Cadore, 1817; but above all Cadorin, Dello Amore ai Veneziani di Tiziano Vecellio, Venice, 1833. There are also two English lives of Titian, but they are of little value in reference to biographical facts—Notices of the Life and Works of Titian, by A. Hume, London, 1829, which contains a descriptive catalogue of engravings of his works; and the gossiping life by Northcote— The Life of Titian, with anecdotes of the distinguished persons of his time, 2 vols. 8vo, London, 1830.)—R. N. W.
TITON DU TILLET, Everard, was born at Paris in 1677, and received his education at the Jesuits' college in that city. He subsequently entered the military profession, and served with the French army till the peace of Ryswick; after which he purchased the place of maitre d'hotel to the dauphiness, mother of Louis XV. Losing this situation on the death of the dauphiness, and having no other business in hand, he set out on his travels, and made a literary and antiquarian tour in Italy. After his return to France he received the appointment of provincial commissary at war, and subsequently became counsellor to the parliament of Paris. Du Tillet was a generous patron of letters, and was a perfect enthusiast in his admiration of the Grand Monarque, and of the men of genius of that age. In 1708 he conceived the peculiarly French project of erecting a monument in bronze, called Parnasse Française, or the French Parnassus, to commemorate the glories of Louis XIV. and the genius of the most celebrated poets and musicians who adorned his reign. This unfortunate monument, for it was never erected, was not completed till 1718. It represented a steep mountain, on the top of which was seated Louis XIV. in the character of Apollo, and holding a lyre in his hand. The three French graces, Madame de la Suze, Madame des Houlieres, and Mademoiselle de Scuderi, occupied places beneath the deified sovereign; and still lower down, on a grand terrace which encircled this mimic mountain, were erected statues of Peter Corneille, Moliere, Racan, Segrais, La Fontaine, Chapelle, Racine, Boileau, and Sully. The less illustrious poets were represented by medallions, struck in their honour, and distributed here and there on the poetic mountain. But after all the labour, care, and expense which Du Tillet had bestowed on it, the grand project was in a manner blown to the winds through the stinginess of a minister of finance. Desforts had a sharper eye, it seems, to the state of his coffers than the glorification of the nation, and refused to undertake the expense of erecting such a costly monument. Du
