nobler renown: we tremble and we burn as we contemplate the high example their history holds up, and traverse the abode once familiar with their voice, where their eye kindled and their hand wrought, with a feeling of devotion akin to that of the pious pilgrim pouring out the worship of the heart and spirit in the sanctuary where rest his dearest hopes. Among the few splendid examples of the felicitous career of genius is recorded that of the master-painter of his country-the first colourist in the world-the great Titian. He was the architect of his own fortunes,-invested with noble titles, the resident of a palace, attended by an almost princely retinue from court to court, the honoured companion of monarchs, and the envy of their courtiers. What is still rarer, he maintained the high reputation and dignity he had acquired, during a long and laborious life, up to its close. The noble edifice in which this celebrated man passed the latter years of his life is situated on the Canal Grande, next to that of the more splendid Pisani, as seen in the plate. The latter, besides being admired for the beauty of its external appearance, is recommended to notice by the era in which it was constructed. It is adorned with some of the finest paintings of Paul Veronese, among which is that of the family of Darius at the feet of Alexander the Great. The general effect of the richness and frequency of the cornices, the form of the balustrades, and, above all, the magnificent entablature by which it is decorated, are regarded by the most skilful architects as so many evidences of the improvement which had taken place in the arts at the period of its D erection. Some decorations in the morisco style are still to be seen about the arches of the windows, and elegant minutely wrought pilasters, corresponding to the basement, support the angles of the edifice. The size and massy strength of the capitals are also conspicuous, and carry the reader back to the era immediately preceding that in which the great masters of the modern school were preparing to exercise their genius-the celebrated precursors of the yet more celebrated Palladio. Titian's house, adjoining the Pisani, formerly belonged to the Barberigo family, several of whose members rose to the dignity of doge. One of the most distinguished of these was Marco Barberigo, who succeeded the still more celebrated Mocenigo in 1483. He was a man of high talents and great popularity, and is stated by Sansovino to have been the first doge on whom was conferred the honour of a public coronation on the grand staircase of the ducal palace, where he was harangued by a Turkish orator, sent on that special mission by the grand signor, to congratulate the head of the republic. Venice enjoyed perfect tranquillity under his government. He built the façade of the ducal palace, which surmounts the grand staircase, covered with marble ;—was a politic lover of peace, revered religion, was just and liberal, and blest with a family of noble sons. Over his tomb was inscribed the following rare and honourable testimony to his worth: Servavi morbo patriam, belloque fameque, "From the Rialto," observes a celebrated living poet in his private book, obligingly shown to the writer, "I took a gondola and went to the Palazzo Barberigo, where I saw the room in which Titian is said to have painted some of his best pictures. Many of them are in their original state-nothing at least but time has touched them. The other chambers are filled with the portraits of doges and cardinals, ancestors of the Barberigo family. The ceiling is deeply channelled, as are most in Venice, and richly painted with small Japan-like ornaments in bronze and gold. The walls are of a light green. I went next to the church of Santa Maria de' Frari, where I saw the vault of the Pesaro family, and over it a magnificent picture of Titian's-the Virgin and Child. Near the wall, on the other side, is a small slab of white marble in the floor, which is of the rhomb or lozenge-shape, and is thus inscribed : Qui giace il gran Titziano de' Vecelli, The windows of the apartment in which Titian died, as may be seen in the plate annexed, are still closed; and his painting-room is said to be preserved, with proper feeling, exactly in the state in which he left it. It is decorated with his own productions, consisting chiefly of his latest works, among which are the Magdalen and the Salvator Mundi (so often to be seen in prints), and also an unfinished sketch of St. Sebastian, the subject on which he was engaged at the period of his death. He lived to the advanced age of ninety-nine, and is known to have taken his own portrait in the very year of his decease; a copy of which, once in the collection of Charles I., in correctly, we believe, pronounced to be an original, the writer of the present account had the gratification of having submitted to his inspection, while thus engaged in recalling some of the leading features of his life and works. It represents him in extreme old age, dressed in his furred gown, with a white sleeve appearing from under it, and with the light velvet cap he is known to have worn. But a still finer portrait is that introduced into the splendid picture of the Marriage of Cana, by Paul Veronese, now in the select and admirable collection of Mr. Rogers. It has been thought not unworthy of mention that the apartment in the palace of Titian, stated to have been his painting-room, opens upon a southern aspect. Whether or not this be deserving the attention of artists, the merit of the pictures it contains by him and by others before the æra in which he flourished, can admit of no question; and cold indeed must be the spirit that in Titian's palace—in the very room in which he embodied his magnificent conceptions and power of colours-can fail to mark it as a proud event, a white day, in the artist's or the tourist's life. Tiziano Vecellio, sprung from the family of the Vecelli —a name of some repute and antiquity-was born in the year 1477, at the little town of Cadore, on the confines of the Friuli. His father, whose name was Gregorio, procured for him, before the age of ten, his earliest instructions in that art by which he was to shed lustre on his country. He first studied under a native artist of Cadore, whose name, on the best authority*, is said to The Abate Gei of Cadore. Lanzi, vol. iii. pp. 101. have been Antonio Rossi. Of this old master a few specimens yet remain, pronounced by critics to be inferior only to those of Giovanni Bellini and his more illustrious scholars, among whom Giorgione and Titian ranked at the head, before the latter, as is reported, became the pupil of his great contemporary. Having imbibed, under the learned Giovanni Egnazio, a taste for letters as well as the arts, during his education at Cadore, he was subsequently placed under the direction of Sebastiano Zuccati, a mosaic painter of Trevisi, settled at Venice, whither he was permitted by his father to resort, about 1495; and where he is stated to have studied, first under Gentile Bellini*, and next under his brother Giovanni, the latter of whom stood high in the estimation of his fellow-citizens. For some period Titian executed works in the yet cold and hard style of his master, from whose example, however, he acquired that diligence, close observation, and minute study of nature so perceptible even in his most splendid and mature productions, and which enable the critic to distinguish them from those of his illustrious contemporaries. Such at first was Titian's proficiency in this minute and studied style, as to induce him to try his skill in competition with Albert Durer; and he painted at Ferrara the Christ, to whom the Pharisee is seen in the act of offering the piece of coin †. He succeeded in surpassing the model he had in view, the whole being so exquisitely and highly wrought, that, in the words of Lanzi, * Ridolfi and Felebien, Vies des Peintres. + A painting now in the Dresden collection. to be met with in Italy. Trevoux, 1725. Copies only are |