FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   89   90   91   92  
93   94   95   96   97   >>  
design, and infinitely nearer in feeling, to Giorgione's _Venus_ at Dresden than does the _Venus of Urbino_ in the Tribuna, which was closely modelled upon it. And the aged Titian had gone back even a step farther than Giorgione; the group of Antiope with Jupiter in the guise of a Satyr is clearly a reminiscence of a _Nymph surprised by a Satyr_--one of the engravings in the _Hypnerotomachia Poliphili_ first published in 1499, but republished with the same illustrations in 1545.[55] [Illustration: _The Rape of Europa. From the Engraving by J.Z. Delignon_.] According to the correspondence published by Crowe and Cavalcaselle there were completed for the Spanish King in April 1562 the _Poesy of Europa carried by the Bull_, and the _Christ praying in the Garden_, while a _Virgin and Child_ was announced as in progress. These paintings, widely divergent as they are in subject, answer very well to each other in technical execution, while in both they differ very materially from the _Venere del Pardo_. The _Rape of Europa_, which has retained very much of its blond brilliancy and charm of colour, affords convincing proof of the unrivalled power with which Titian still wielded the brush at this stage which precedes that of his very last and most impressionistic style. For decorative effect, for "go," for frankness and breadth of execution, it could not be surpassed. Yet hardly elsewhere has the great master approached so near to positive vulgarity as here in the conception of the fair Europa as a strapping wench who, with ample limbs outstretched, complacently allows herself to be carried off by the Bull, making her appeal for succour merely _pour la forme_. What gulfs divide this conception from that of the Antiope, from Titian's earlier renderings of female loveliness, from Giorgione's supreme Venus![56] [Illustration: _Portrait of Titian, by himself. Gallery of the Prado, Madrid. From a Photograph by Braun, Clement, & Cie_.] The _Agony in the Garden_, which is still to be found in one of the halls of the Escorial, even now in its faded state serves to evidence the intensity of religious fervour which possessed Titian when, so late in life, he successfully strove to renew the sacred subjects. If the composition--as Crowe and Cavalcaselle assert--does more or less resemble that of the famous _Agony_ by Correggio now at Apsley House, nothing could differ more absolutely from the Parmese master's amiable virtuosity
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   89   90   91   92  
93   94   95   96   97   >>  



Top keywords:
Titian
 

Europa

 

Giorgione

 
carried
 
published
 
Cavalcaselle
 

Illustration

 

master

 

conception

 

execution


differ
 
Garden
 

Antiope

 

succour

 

appeal

 

making

 

divide

 

renderings

 

female

 

supreme


loveliness
 

earlier

 

approached

 
Dresden
 

surpassed

 
positive
 
vulgarity
 

Portrait

 

outstretched

 

strapping


feeling

 

complacently

 
composition
 
assert
 

design

 
subjects
 

sacred

 

successfully

 

strove

 

absolutely


Parmese

 

amiable

 
virtuosity
 

resemble

 
famous
 
Correggio
 

Apsley

 

nearer

 
Clement
 

Gallery