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Page 75
"Then what pictures are here?" asked Bettina, as Mr. Sumner paused.
"His greatest religious paintings, those gorgeous church pictures, most
of which were painted in his youth, are here."
"May I interrupt a moment," queried Barbara, "to ask what you meant when
you said that some of Titian's pictures wrought a revolution in art?"
"This is a good time in which to explain my meaning. Titian's nature was
not devout. You will see it in every one of these religious paintings
you are about to study. The subjects seem only pretexts, or foundations,
for the gorgeous display of a rare artistic ability. To paint beauty for
beauty's sake only, in form, features, costumes, and accessories was
Titian's native sphere, and gloriously did he fill it. In these church
pictures, the Madonna and Child are almost always entirely secondary in
interest. In many, the family of the donor, with their aristocratic
faces and magnificent costumes, and the saints with waving banners, are
far more important. A fine example of this is the _Madonna of the
Pesaro family_ in the Church of the Frari. With such a _motif_
underlying his work, the great painter fell easily into the habit of
portraying ideal figures, especially of women,--'fancy female figures,'
one writer has termed them,--whose sole merit lies in the superb
rendering of rosy flesh, heavy tresses of auburn hair, lovely eyes, and
rich garments. Such are his _Flora_, _Venuses_, _Titian's Daughter_--of
which there are several examples--_Magdalens_, etc.; together with many
so called portraits, such as his _La Donna Bella_ in the Pitti,
Florence.
"Titian could paint such pictures so free from coarseness, so
magnificent in all art qualities, that the world was delighted with
them. After him, however, the lowered aim had its influence; poorer
artists tried to follow in his footsteps, and the world of art soon
became flooded with mediocre examples of these meaningless pictures. All
this hastened rapidly the decay of Italian art.
"But you must remember," Mr. Sumner hastened to say, as he watched the
faces about him, "that I am giving you my own personal thoughts. To me,
the purity of sentiment and the lofty _motif_ of a picture mean so much
that they always influence my judgment of it. With many other people it
is not so. They revel in the color, the line, the tone, the grouping,
the purely art qualities. In these Titian, as I have said, is perfect,
and worthy of the high place he holds in the art-world.
"I hope you will take great pains to study him here by yourselves,--in
the Academy and in the various churches,--wherever there are examples of
his work. Let each form his own judgment, founded on that which he finds
in the pictures. The work of any artist of the High Renaissance, whose
aim is purely artistic, is not difficult to understand. His means of
expression were so ample that it is easy indeed to read that which he
says, compared with the earlier masters. You will find two of Titian's
most notable pictures in the Academy,--the _Assumption of the Virgin_,
one of the few in which the Madonna has due prominence, and which shows
the artist's best qualities, and _Presentation of the Virgin_."
"What other Venetian Masters ought we particularly to study?" asked
Barbara.
"Look out for Crivelli's _Madonnas_, and all of Paul Veronese's work. He
was really the most utterly Venetian painter who ever lived. He painted
Venice into everything: its motion, its color, its intoxicating fulness
are all found in his mythological and banquet scenes. You will find his
pictures in the Ducal Palace, in the Academy, and a fine series in San
Sebastiano, which represents legendary scenes in the life of St.
Sebastian. Go to Santa Maria Formosa and look at Palma Vecchio's _St.
Barbara_, his masterpiece. You will also find several of this artist's
pictures in the Academy worth looking at. His style at its best is
grand, as in the _St. Barbara_, but he did not always paint up to it, by
any means.
"As to the rest, study them as a whole. The Venice Academy is an epitome
of Venetian painting, from its earliest work down through the High
Renaissance into the Decadence. It was full of pure and devotional
sentiment, rendered with good, oftentimes rich, color, until after the
Bellini. Then the portrayal of purely physical beauty, with refinement
of line and gorgeousness of color, became pre�minent. The works of
several artists of note, Palma Vecchio, Palma Giovine, Bonifazio
Veronese, and Bordone, so resemble each other and Titian's less
important works, that there has been much uncertainty as to the true
authorship of many of them."
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