[83] ii. 213.  We now know that he died in 1510.

[84] Crowe and Cavalcaselle, ii. 119.  Bode:  Cicerone.

CHAPTER IV

ADDITIONAL PICTURES—­PORTRAITS

Vasari, in his Life of Titian, in the course of a somewhat confused account of the artist’s earliest years, tells us how Titian, “having seen the manner of Giorgione, early resolved to abandon that of Gian Bellino, although well grounded therein.  He now, therefore, devoted himself to this purpose, and in a short time so closely imitated Giorgione that his pictures were sometimes taken for those of that master, as will be related below.”  And he goes on:  “At the time when Titian began to adopt the manner of Giorgione, being then not more than eighteen, he took the portrait of a gentleman of the Barberigo family who was his friend, and this was considered very beautiful, the colouring being true and natural, and the hair so distinctly painted that each one could be counted, as might also the stitches[85] in a satin doublet, painted in the same work; in a word, it was so well and carefully done, that it would have been taken for a picture by Giorgione, if Titian had not written his name on the dark ground.”  Now the statement that Titian began to imitate Giorgione at the age of eighteen is inconsistent with Vasari’s own words of a few paragraphs previously:  “About the year 1507, Giorgione da Castel Franco, not being satisfied with that mode of proceeding (i.e. ’the dry, hard, laboured manner of Gian Bellino, which Titian also acquired’), began to give to his works an unwonted softness and relief, painting them in a very beautiful manner....  Having seen the manner of Giorgione, Titian now devoted himself to this purpose,” etc.  In 1507 Titian was thirty years old,[86] not eighteen, so that both statements cannot be correct.  Now it is highly improbable that Titian had already discarded the manner of Bellini as early as 1495, at the age of eighteen, and had so identified himself with Giorgione that their work was indistinguishable.  Everything, on the contrary, points to Titian’s evolution being anything but rapid; in fact, so far as records go, there is no mention of his name until he painted the facade of the Fondaco de’ Tedeschi in company with Giorgione in 1507.  It is infinitely more probable that Vasari’s first statement is the more reliable—­viz. that Titian began to adopt Giorgione’s manner about the year 1507, and it follows, therefore, that the portrait of the gentleman of the Barberigo family, if by Titian, dates from this time, and not 1495.

[Illustration:  Dixon photo.  Collection of the Earl of Darnley, Cobham Hall

PORTRAIT OF A GENTLEMAN]