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 flag which she holds, was only used in Venice by
newly betrothed ladies; and this fixes the time of the portrait as 1555,
the date of the marriage contract. The execution is beyond all
comparison finer here, the colour more transparent in its warmth, than
in the more celebrated Berlin piece. Quite eight or ten years later than
this must date the _Salome_ of the Prado Gallery, which is in general
design a variation of the _Lavinia_ of Berlin. The figure holding up--a
grim substitute for the salver of fruit--the head of St. John on a