The Palace and Park by Phillips, Forbes, Latham, Owen, Scharf, and Shenton

[Born at Pieve di Cadore, in Lombardy, 1477. Died at Venice, 1576. Aged 99.] In the works of Titian, Venetian art reached its culminating point. He was the pupil of Bellini; but the disciple soon surpassed his master. Titian first instituted the custom of painting full-length portraits, and his pictures of this kind, of which he painted many, have never been surpassed. In the representation of undraped female forms he also displayed the hand of a master. In softness, transparency, and delicacy of colouring, he stands alone. All his figures seem to express a high consciousness and enjoyment of existence. He was followed, throughout his career, with great honours. Charles V., whose portrait he painted, made him Count Palatine, and he received invitations from other crowned heads. He died of the plague in Venice, and was buried with great ceremony, at a time when raging pestilence had suspended the ordinary rites of burial. Towards the close of his life his subjects were chiefly religious. [He was buried at the Chiesa delle Frazi, at Venice. This Bust is by Alessandro d’Este. There is in the Church of St. John and St. Paul, at Venice, a fine bust of Titian, which stands by the side of that of Palma Vecchio; it was placed there forty-five years after his death, by Palma il Giovine. There is little doubt that this and its companion of Palma were the work of Jacops Albarelli, the intimate friend of Palma Giovine, whose bust he also executed. Ridolfi mentions a Bust of the great painter, by his friend Jacopo Sansovino. There is, in the Vienna Gallery, a superb portrait of him, by his own hand.]