Such are some of the obvious results of a change of date, but the larger question as to the development of Titian’s art must be left to the future historian, for the importance of fixing a date lies in the application thereof.[164] HERBERT COOK.

THE DATE OF TITIAN’S BIRTH

Reply by Dr. Georg Gronau.  Translated from the “Repertorium fuer Kunstwissenschaft,” vol. xxiv., 6th part

In the January number of the Nineteenth Century appears an article by Herbert Cook under the title, “Did Titian live to be Ninety-Nine Years Old?” The interrogation already suggests that the author comes to a negative conclusion.  It is, perhaps, not without interest to set forth the reasons advanced by the English connoisseur and to submit them to adverse criticism.

(Here follows an abstract of the article.)

The reasoning, as will have been seen, is not altogether free from doubt.  It has been usual hitherto in historical investigations to call in question the assertions of a man about his own life only when thoroughly weighty reasons justified such a course.  Is the evidence of a Dolce and of a Vasari so free from all objection that it outweighs Titian’s personal statement?  Before answering this question it should be pointed out that we possess two further statements of contemporary writers on the subject of Titian’s age, statements which have escaped the notice of Mr. Cook.  One is to be found in a letter from the Spanish Consul in Venice, Thomas de Cornoga, to Philip II., dated 8th December 1567 (published in the very important work by Zarco del Valle[165]).  After informing the king of Titian’s usual requests on the subject of his pension, and so on, he continues:  “y con los 85 annos de su edad servira a V.M. hasta la muerte.”

Somewhere, then, in the very year in which Titian, according to Vasari, was “above seventy-six years of age,” he seems to have been eighty-five, according to the report of another and quite independent witness, and if so, he would have been born about 1482.

We have then three definite statements: 

Vasari (1566 or 1567) says “over 76”
The Consul (1567) " “85”
Titian himself (1571) " “95”

This new information, instead of helping us, only serves to make still greater confusion.

The other piece of evidence not mentioned by Mr. Cook was written only a few years after Titian’s death.  Borghini says in his Riposo, 1584:  “Mori ultimamente di vecchiezza (!not, then, of the plague?), essendo d’eta d’anni 98 o 99, l’anno 1576.” ...  This is the first time that the traditional statement as to the master’s age appears in literature.  In this state of things it is worth while to look closer into the evidence of Dolce and Vasari to see if they are not after all the most trustworthy witnesses.