Church of San Giovanni Elemosynario, which they intended him to paint, in competition with one representing that Saint in his Episcopal habits, which had previously been executed there by Titian. But whatever care and pains Pordenone took, he could not equal nor even approach the work of the former. Titian was then appointed to paint a picture of the Annunciation for the Church of Santa Maria degli Angeli, at Murano; but those who gave the commission for the work, not wishing to pay so much as five hundred crowns, which Titian required as its price, he sent it, by the advice of Pietro Aretino, as a gift to Charles V., who being greatlydelighted with the work, made him a present of two thousand crowns.[1] The place which the Picture was to have occupied at Murano, was then filled by one from the hand of Pordenone.
When the Emperor, some time after this, returned with his army from Hungary, and was again at Bologna, holding a conference with Clement VII., he desired to have another portrait taken of him by Titian,[2] who, before he departed from the city, also painted that of the Cardinal Ippolito de’ Medici in the Hungarian dress, with another of the same Prelate fully armed, which is somewhat smaller than the first; these are both now in the Guardaroba of Duke Cosimo.[3] He painted the portraits of Alfonso, Marquis of Davalos, and of Pietro Aretino, at the same period, and these things having made him known to Eederigo Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua, he entered the service of the latter, and accompanied him to his states. At Mantua our artist made a Portrait of the Duke which appears to breathe, and afterwards executed that of his brother, the Cardinal. These being finished, he painted twelve beautiful Heads of the Twelve Csesars, to decorate one of the Rooms erected by Giulio Romano, and when they were done, Giulio painted a Story from the Lives of the Emperors beneath each head.[4]
- ↑ The present was to the Empress Isabella, as we learn from a letter of Pietro Aretino, and the two thousand crowns came from her, andnot fromthe Emperor. —Ed. Flor., 1832-8.
- ↑ This portrait also is believed to be at Madrid.
- ↑ The first of these portraits is in the Pitti Palace, the second is in the Louvre.
- ↑ Ridolfi speaks of these heads as in one of the Royal Collections in England, but they are not now to be found; and the twelve heads said to be by Titian in the Royal Gallery of Munich, are believed by many to be those here in question.
