for his yearly visit to Cadore, and he
declined the honorable invitation, and returned to Venice. In 1530
Titian's wife died, leaving him with two sons, Pomponio and Orazio, and
his daughter, Lavinia. In this same sad year the Emperor Charles V. and
Pope Clement VII. met at Bologna. All the most brilliant men of Germany
and Italy were also there, and Titian was summoned to paint portraits of
the two great heads of Church and State, and of many of the notable men
among their followers.

[Illustration: FIG. 46.--PORTRAIT OF LAVINIA. _By Titian._]

When the painter returned to Venice he was loaded with honors and riches.
He bought a new house at Berigrande, opposite the island of Murano; it
commanded fine views and its garden was beautiful. The landscapes of his
pictures soon grew better than they had been, and no wonder, when he could
always see the Friuli Alps in the distance with their snow-capped peaks
rising to the clouds; nearer him was the Murano, like another city with
its towers and domes, and then the canals, which at night were gay with
lighted gondolas bearing fair ladies hither and thither. Here Titian
entertained many people, and some of them were exalted in station. The
house was called "Casa Grande," and on one occasion, when a cardinal and
others invited themselves to dine with him, Titian flung a purse to his
steward, saying, "Now prepare a feast, since all the world dines with me."

While living at "Casa Grande," the artist saw the most glorious years of
his life. It seemed that every person of note in all Europe, both men and
women, desired their portraits at his hand. One only, Cosmo I., Grand Duke
of Florence, refused to sit to him. If these pictures could be collected
together, most of the famous persons of his time would be represented in
them.

After he was sixty years old Titian made a second journey to Ferrara,
Urbino, and Bologna. This time he painted a portrait of Charles V., with a
favorite dog by his side. After this, in 1545, at an invitation from Pope
Paul III., the great master went to Rome; while there he painted many
wonderful pictures--among them, one of the pope with his two grandsons was
very remarkable; it is now in the Museum of Naples. He left Rome when he
was sixty-nine years old.

In 1548 Charles V. summoned Titian to Augsburg, and while there made him a
count, and gave him a yearly pension of two hundred gold ducats. The
emperor was very fond of Titian, and spent a good dea