the dusky
recesses of the apse, it was tempered by and merged in its stately
surroundings. The band of Apostles almost formed a part of the
whispering crowd below, and the glorious Mother was beheld soaring
upwards to the golden light and the mysterious vistas of the vaulted
arches above.

The patronage of courts had by this time altered the tenor of Titian's
life. In 1516 Duke Alfonso d'Este had invited him to Ferrara, where he
had finished Bellini's "Bacchanals." It bears the marks of Titian's
hand, and he has introduced a well-known point of view at Cadore into
the background. In 1518 Alfonso writes to propose another painting, and
Titian's acceptance is contained in a very courtier-like letter, in
which we divine a touch of irony. "The more I thought of it," he ends,
"the more I became convinced that the greatness of art among the
ancients was due to the assistance they received from great princes, who
were content to leave to the painter the credit and renown derived from
their own ingenuity in bespeaking pictures." Alfonso's requirements for
his new castle were frankly pagan. Mythological scenes were already
popular. Mantegna had adorned Isabela d'Este's "Paradiso" with revels
of the gods, Botticelli had given his conception of classic myth in the
Medici villa, already Bellini had essayed a Bacchanal, and Titian was to
make designs for similar scenes to complete the decorations of the halls
of Este. The same exuberant feeling he shows in the "Assumption" finds
utterance in the "Garden of Loves" and the "Bacchanals," both painted
for Alfonso of Ferrara. The children in the former may be compared with
the angels in the "Assumption." Their blue wings match the heavenly blue
sky, and they are painted with the most delicate finish.

We can imagine the beauty of the great hall at Ferrara when hung with
this brilliant series, which was completed in 1523 by the "Bacchus and
Ariadne" of the National Gallery. The whole company of bacchanals is
given up to wanton merrymaking. Above them broods the deep blue sky and
great white clouds of a summer day. The deep greens of the foliage throw
the creamy-white and burning colour of the draperies and the fair forms
of the nymphs into glowing relief, while by a convention the satyrs
are of a deep, tawny complexion. On a roll of music is stamped the
rollicking device, "_Chi boit et ne reboit, ne sceais que boir soit_."
The purple fruit hangs ripened from the vines, its crimson juice