The noble figure of St. Mark must be of Titian’s designing, but is certainly not of his painting, while the corresponding figure on the other side is neither the one nor the other.  Some consolation is afforded by the figure of the kneeling Doge himself, which is a masterpiece—­not less in the happy expression of naive adoration than in the rendering, with matchless breadth and certainty of brush, of burnished armour in which is mirrored the glow of the Doge’s magnificent state robes.

CHAPTER IV

Portraits of Titian’s daughter Lavinia—­Death of Aretino—­“Martyrdom of St. Lawrence”—­Death of Charles V.—­Attempted assassination of Orazio Vecellio—­“Diana and Actaeon” and “Diana and Calisto”—­The “Comoro Family”—­The “Magdalen” of the Hermitage—­The “Jupiter and Antiope” and “Rape of Europa”—­Vasari defines Titian’s latest manner—­“St. Jerome” of the Brera—­“Education of Cupid”—­“Jacopo da Strada”—­Impressionistic manner of the end—­“Ecce Homo” of Munich—­“Nymph and Shepherd” of Vienna—­The unfinished “Pieta”—­Death of Titian.

It was in the month of March 1555 that Titian married his only daughter Lavinia to Cornelio Sarcinelli of Serravalle, thus leaving the pleasant home at Biri Grande without a mistress; for his sister Orsa had been dead since 1549.[47] It may be convenient to treat here of the various portraits and more or less idealised portrait-pieces in which Titian has immortalised the thoroughly Venetian beauty of his daughter.  First we have in the great Ecce Homo of Vienna the graceful white-robed figure of a young girl of some fourteen years, placed, with the boy whom she guards, on the steps of Pilate’s palace.  Then there is the famous piece Lavinia with a Dish of Fruit, dating according to Morelli from about 1549, and painted for the master’s friend Argentina Pallavicino of Reggio.  This last-named work passed in 1821 from the Solly Collection into the Berlin Gallery.  Though its general aspect is splendidly decorative, though it is accounted one of the most popular of all Titian’s works, the Berlin picture cannot be allowed to take the highest rank among his performances of the same class.  Its fascinations are of the obvious and rather superficial kind, its execution is not equal in vigour, freedom, and accent to the best that the master did about the same time.  It is pretty obvious here that only the head is adapted from that of Lavinia, the full-blown voluptuous form not being that of the youthful maiden, who could not moreover have worn this sumptuous and fanciful costume except in the studio.  In the strongest contrast to the conscious allurement of this showpiece is the demure simplicity of mien in the avowed portrait Lavinia as a Bride in the Dresden Gallery.  In this last she wears a costume of warm white satin and a splendid necklace and earrings of pearls.  Morelli has pointed out that the fan, in the form of a little