a series of
pictures designed under ordinary conditions. It can hardly be doubted
that Titian, in attempting these _tours de force_, though not
necessarily or even probably in any other way, was inspired by
Correggio. It would not be easy, indeed, to exaggerate the Venetian
master's achievement from this point of view, even though in two at
least of the groups--the _Cain and Abel_ and the _David and
Goliath_--the modern professor might be justified in criticising with
considerable severity his draughtsmanship and many salient points in his
design. The effect produced is tremendous of its kind. The power
suggested is, however, brutal, unreasoning, not nobly dominating force;
and this not alone in the _Cain and Abel_, where such an impression is
rightly conveyed, but also in the other pieces. It is as if Titian, in
striving to go beyond anything that had hitherto been done of the same
kind, had also gone beyond his own artistic convictions, and thus, while
compassing a remarkable pictorial achievement, lost his true balance.
Tintoretto, creating his own atmosphere, as far outside and above mere
physical realities as that of Michelangelo himself, might have succeeded
in mitigating this impression, which is, on the whole, a painful one.
Take for instance the _Martyrdom of St. Christopher_ of the younger
painter--not a ceiling picture by the way--in the apse of S. Maria del
Orto. Here, too, is depicted, with sweeping and altogether irresistible
power, an act of hideous violence. And yet it is not this element of the
subject which makes upon the spectator the most profound effect, but the
impression of saintly submission, of voluntary self-sacrifice, which is
the dominant note of the whole.

It may be convenient to mention here _The Descent of the Holy Spirit_,
although in its definitive form, as we see it in its place in the Church
of the Salute, it appears markedly more advanced in style than the works
of the period at which we have now arrived, giving, both in manner and
feeling, a distinct suggestion of the methods and standpoint which mark
the later phase of old age. Vasari tells us that the picture, originally
painted in 1541, was seriously damaged and subsequently repainted; Crowe
and Cavalcaselle state that the work now seen at the Salute was painted
to replace an altar-piece which the Brothers of Santo Spirito had
declined to accept. Even as the picture now appears, somewhat faded, and
moreover seen at a disadvantag