This phrase could hardly be applied to a man over thirty, so that Titian’s birth cannot reasonably be dated before 1486 or so, and is much more likely to fall later.  The previous deduction that it was 1488-9 is thus further strengthened.

The evidence, then, of Dolce, writing in 1557, is clear and consistent:  Titian was born in 1488-9.  Now let us see what is stated by Vasari, who is the next oldest authority.

The first edition of the Lives appeared in 1550—­that is, just prior to Dolce’s Dialogue—­but a revised and enlarged edition appeared in 1568, in which important evidence occurs as to Titian’s age.  After enumerating certain pictures by the great Venetian, Vasari adds: 

“(a) All these works, with many others which I omit, to avoid prolixity, have been executed up to the present age of our artist, which is above seventy-six years....  In the year 1566, when Vasari, the writer of the present history, was at Venice, he went to visit Titian, as one who was his friend, and found him, although then very old, still with the pencil in his hand, and painting busily."[155]

According to Vasari, then, Titian was “above seventy-six years” when the second edition of the Lives was written, and as from the explicit nature of the evidence this must have been between 1566, when he visited Venice, and January 1568, when his book was published, it follows that Titian was “above seventy-six years” in 1566-7—­in other words, that he was born 1489-90.

Still confining ourselves to Vasari, we find two other passages bearing on the question: 

“(b) Titian was born in the year 1480 at Cadore.[156]

“(c) About the year 1507 Giorgione da Castel Franco began to give to his works unwonted softness and relief, painting them in a very beautiful manner....  Having seen the manner of Giorgione, Titian 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....  At the time when Titian began to adopt the manner of Giorgione, being then not more than eighteen, he took the portrait,” etc.[157]

This passage (c) makes Titian “not more than eighteen about the year 1507,” and fixes the date of his birth as 1489-90, therein agreeing with the previous deduction at which we arrived when examining the passage in Vasari’s second edition.  Thus in two places out of three Vasari is consistent in fixing 1489-90 as the date.  How, then, explain (b), which explicitly gives 1480?