And it is certainly true that whoever has not practised design extensively, and studied the best works, ancient and modern, can never attain to the perfection of adding what may be wanting to the copy which he makes from the life, giving to it that grace and completion whereby Art goes beyond the hand of Nature, which very frequently produces parts that are not beautiful.
Titian left Rome enriched by many gifts from those Signori, more particularly by a benefice of good income for Pomponio his son; but first his second son, Orazio, had completed the Portrait of Messer Battista Ceciliano, an excellent player of the violin, which is a good work, Titian himself having made certain Portraits besides, for Gruidobaldo Duke of Urbino. Arrived at Florence, he was amazed at the sight of the fine works in that city no less than he had been by those of Rome. He then visited Duke Cosimo, and offered to take his portrait; but the Duke did not give himself much trouble in the matter, perhaps because he had no mind to offer a slight to the many noble artists of his own city and dominions.
Having reached Venice, Titian then finished an Allocution (as they call it) for the Marquis del Vasto, and which that Signore had made to his soldiers. He afterwards executed the portrait of Charles V., with that of the Catholic King, and of many other persons. These labours completed, Titian painted a small picture of the Annunciation for the Church of Santa Maria Nuova, and afterwards, using the assistance of his disciples, he painted a Last Supper in the Refectory of S. S. Giovanni and Paolo,[1] with a picture for the High Altar of the Church of San Salvatore, the subject of which was the Transfiguration; and an Annunciation for another Altar in the same Church. But these last works, though there are good qualities in them, were not much esteemed by the master himself, and have not the perfection seen in many of his other paintings. The productions, but more especially the portraits of Titian, are so numerous that it would be almost impossible to make the record of them all. I will therefore speak of the principal only, and that without order of time, seeing that it does not much signify to tell which was painted earlier and which later. He took the Portrait of Charles V. several times, as we have
- ↑ This picture perished in a conflagration.—Ed. Ven.
