t to the goddess, but to the fairest of women. The rich
mantle of Venetian fashion, the jewels, the coiffure, all show that an
idealised portrait of some lovely Cytherean of Venice, and no true
mythological piece, has been intended.

At this date, or thereabouts, is very generally placed, with the _Rape
of Europa_ presently to be discussed, the _Jupiter and Antiope_ of the
Louvre, more popularly known as the _Venere del Pardo_.[53] Seeing that
the picture is included in the list[54] sent by Titian to Antonio Perez
in 1574, setting forth the titles of canvases delivered during the last
twenty-five years, and then still unpaid for, it may well have been
completed somewhere about the time at which we have arrived. To the
writer it appears nevertheless that it is in essentials the work of an
earlier period, taken up and finished thus late in the day for the
delectation of the Spanish king. Seeing that the _Venere del Pardo_ has
gone through two fires--those of the Pardo and the Louvre--besides
cleanings, restorations, and repaintings, even more disfiguring, it
would be very unsafe to lay undue stress on technique alone. Yet compare
the close, sculptural modelling in the figure of Antiope with the
broader, looser handling in the figure of Europa; compare the two
landscapes, which are even more divergent in style. The glorious sylvan
prospect, which adds so much freshness and beauty to the _Venere del
Pardo_, is conspicuously earlier in manner than, for instance, the
backgrounds to the _Diana and Actaeon_ and _Diana and Calisto_ of
Bridgewater House. The captivating work is not without its faults, chief
among which is the curious awkwardness of design which makes of the
composition, cut in two by a central tree, two pictures instead of one.
Undeniably, too, there is a certain meanness and triviality in the
little nymph or mortal of the foreground, which may, however, be due to
the intervention of an assistant. But then, with an elasticity truly
astounding in a man of his great age, the master has momentarily
regained the poetry of his youthful prime, and with it a measure of that
Giorgionesque fragrance which was evaporating already at the close of
the early time, when the _Bacchanals_ were brought forth. The Antiope
herself far transcends in the sovereign charm of her beauty--divine in
the truer sense of the word--all Titian's Venuses, save the one in the
_Sacred and Profane Love_. The figure comes in some ways nearer even in