Titian; a collection of fifteen pictures and a portrait of the painter Part 7

The time seems to have come when he is just awakening to the possibilities of life. He faces the future seriously, but with no shrinking. One recalls the words of Gareth, in Tennyson's Idyll:

"Man am I grown, a man's work must I do.

Live pure, speak true, right wrong, follow the king-- Else wherefore born?"[20]

The lofty ideals of the knights of King Arthur's Round Table are such as we feel sure this gentle spirit would make his own:--

"To reverence the king as if he were Their conscience, and their conscience as their king, To break the heathen and uphold the Christ, To ride abroad redressing human wrongs, To speak no slander, no nor listen to it, To lead sweet lives in purest chast.i.ty, To love one maiden only, cleave to her, And wors.h.i.+p her by years of n.o.ble deeds Until they won her."[21]

It may be of these "n.o.ble deeds" of chivalry that our young man is dreaming, or it may be of that "one maiden" for whose sake they are to be done. Certainly these candid eyes see visions which we should be glad to see, and show us the depths of a knightly soul.

XII

THE a.s.sUMPTION OF THE VIRGIN

(_Detail_)

The Virgin Mary, mother of Jesus, has for over nineteen centuries represented to Christendom all the ideal qualities of womanhood. In her character, as revealed in St. Luke's gospel, we read of her n.o.ble, trustful humility in accepting the message of the Annunciation; of her decision and prudence shown in her visit to Elizabeth; of her intellectual power as manifested in the song of the Magnificat; of the contemplative nature with which she watched the growth of Jesus; of her maternal devotion throughout her son's ministry,--and of her sublime fort.i.tude and faith at his crucifixion.[22] Such was the woman so highly favored of G.o.d, she whom the angel called "blessed among women."

Art has pictured for us many imaginary scenes from the life of Mary. The most familiar and best loved subject is that of her motherhood, where she is seen with her babe in her arms. There are other subjects, less common, showing her as a glorified figure in mid-air as in a vision. One such is that called the Immaculate Conception, which the Spanish painter Murillo so frequently repeated.[23] Another is the a.s.sumption, representing her at her death as borne by angels to heaven.

The "Golden Legend" relates how "the right fair among the daughters of Jerusalem ... full of charity and dilection" was "joyously received"

into glory. "The angels were glad, the archangels enjoyed, the thrones sang, the dominations made melody, the princ.i.p.alities harmonized, the potestates harped, cherubim and seraphim sang laudings and praisings."

Also, "the angels were with the apostles singing, and replenished all the land with marvelous sweetness."[24]

The a.s.sumption of the Virgin is the subject of a n.o.ble painting by t.i.tian, one of the most celebrated pictures in the world. A group of apostles stand on the earth gazing after the receding figure of the Virgin as she soars into the air on a wreath of cloud-borne angels. From the upper air the Heavenly Father floats downward with his angels to receive her. As the canvas is very large, over twenty-two feet in height, a small reproduction of the entire picture is unsatisfactory, and our ill.u.s.tration gives us the heart of the composition for careful study.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Picture from Carbon Print by Braun, Clement & Co.

John Andrew & Son. Sc.

THE a.s.sUMPTION OF THE VIRGIN (DETAIL)

_Venice Academy_]

The Virgin rises buoyantly through the air, and the figure is so full of life and motion that it seems as if it would presently soar beyond our sight. The heavy folds of the skirt swirl about the body in the swiftness of the ascent. The rus.h.i.+ng air fills the mantle like the sail of a s.h.i.+p. Yet the source of motion is not within the figure itself, for we see the feet resting firmly on the cloud. It is as if she were borne aloft in a celestial chariot composed of an angelic host.

The face is lifted with a look of rapture; the arms are extended in a gesture of exultation. The pose of the head displays the beautiful throat, strong and full like that of a singer. The features are cast in a large, majestic mould. The hands, turned palm outward, are large and flexible, but with delicate, tapering fingers.

We have already seen in other pictures what was t.i.tian's conception of the Virgin in her girlhood and motherhood. We find little of the ethereal and spiritual in his ideal, and nothing that would in any way suggest that true piety is morbid or sentimental. Other painters have erred in this direction, but not t.i.tian. To him the Virgin was no angel in disguise, but a strong, happy, healthy woman, rejoicing in life. But though a woman, she was in the poet's phrase "a woman above all women glorified." She possessed in perfection all the good gifts of human nature. t.i.tian's ideal coincided with the old Greek formula, "A sound mind in a sound body." The Virgin of the a.s.sumption is in fact not unlike a Greek G.o.ddess in her magnificently developed physique and glorious beauty.

Our ill.u.s.tration includes a few of the baby angels from the wreath supporting the Madonna. They are packed so closely together in the picture that their little limbs interlace like interwoven stems in a garland of flowers. Yet the figures are cunningly arranged to bring into prominence a series of radiating lines which flow towards a centre in the Madonna's face. We see in the corner of our print a little arm pointing to the Virgin, and above it is a cherub's wing drawn in the same oblique line.

Frolicsome as is this whole company of angels, they are of an almost unearthly beauty. A poetic critic has told of standing before the picture contemplating these lovely spirits one after another, until, as she expresses it, "A thrill came over me like that which I felt when Mendelssohn played the organ and I became music while I listened." She sums up the effect of the picture as "mind and music and love, kneaded, as it were, into form and color."[25]

When we a.n.a.lyze the drawing of the Madonna's figure we see that it is drawn in an outline of long, beautiful curves. The principle of repet.i.tion is skilfully worked into the composition. The outer sleeve falls away from the right arm in an oval which exactly duplicates that made by the lower portion of the mantle sweeping out at one side. By tracing the main lines of the drapery one will find them running in parallels.

XIII

FLORA

Besides the portraits intended as actual likenesses of the sitters, t.i.tian was fond of painting what may be called ideal portraits, or fancy pictures. While real persons furnished the original models for these, the painter let his imagination have free play in modifying and perfecting form and feature. We have seen an ill.u.s.tration of this process in the picture called the Bella, an idealized portrait of Eleanora Gonzaga. The Flora is another example.

We do not know the name of the original, but we may be sure that it represents an actual person. There is a tradition that she was the daughter of one of t.i.tian's fellow-painters, Palma, with whom he was in love. As a matter of fact, Palma had no daughter, and the young woman was doubtless only a favorite Venetian model whom both painters employed. Apparently it was she who posed for both figures in the picture of Medea and Venus which we have studied.[26]

Flora's hair is of that auburn tint which the Venetians loved, and which, it is believed, was artificially produced. It is looped into soft, waving puffs over the ears, and gathered back by a silken cord, below which it falls like a delicate veil thinly spread over the shoulders. The skin is exquisitely white and soft, and the thin garment has been allowed to slip from one shoulder so that we may see the full, beautiful neck.

We notice with what art the painter has arranged the draperies. From the right shoulder the garment falls in delicate, radiating folds across the figure. Over the garment is thrown a stiff, rose-colored brocade mantle, contrasting pleasantly with the former both in color and texture. A glimpse of this mantle is seen at the right side and above the left shoulder and arm, over which the hand gathers it up to prevent it from slipping. This action of the left hand introduces a new set of lines into the picture, breaking the folds of the drapery into eddying circles which offset the more sweeping lines of the composition.[27]

The drawing here is well worth studying, and we may give it more attention since we must lose the lovely color of the painting in the reproduction. The main lines flow in diagonals in two opposite directions. There is the long line of the right arm and shoulder drawn in a fine, strong curve across the canvas. Parallel with it is the edge of the brocade mantle as it is held in the left hand. The counter lines are the curve of the neck and left shoulder, with which the upper edge of the undergarment runs parallel. The wide s.p.a.ces between these enclosing lines are broken by sprays of radiating lines, one formed by the folds of the undergarment, and the other smaller one by the locks of hair on the left shoulder.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Picture from Carbon Print by Braun, Clement & Co.

John Andrew & Son. Sc.

FLORA

_Uffizi Gallery, Florence_]

The graceful pose of the head, inclined to one side, suggests the soft languor of a southern temperament. It was often adopted by t.i.tian, and we see another instance in the att.i.tude of the Venus. We fancy that the painters liked particularly the long curve thus obtained along the neck and shoulder. The angle made on the other side between head and shoulder is filled in with the falling hair.

The t.i.tle of Flora is given to the picture after the fas.h.i.+on of t.i.tian's time for drawing subjects from mythology. The revival of cla.s.sic learning had opened to Italian art a delightful new field of ill.u.s.tration. We see how t.i.tian took advantage of it in such pictures as Medea and Venus. In England the love of the cla.s.sics was seen in the poetry which took much the same place there that painting held in Italy.

Flora was the ancient G.o.ddess of flowers and is made much of in Elizabethan verse.[28] Some pretty lines by Richard Carlton describe

"When Flora fair the pleasant tidings bringeth Of summer sweet with herbs and flowers adorned."

In our picture the G.o.ddess holds a handful of flowers, roses, jessamine and violets, as a sign of her ident.i.ty. We confess that her type of beauty hardly corresponds to our ideal of Flora. She is a gentle, amiable creature, but not ethereal and poetic enough for the G.o.ddess of flowers. Were we to choose a character for her from mythology it would be Juno, the matronly "ox-eyed" G.o.ddess, who presided over marriage and whose emblem was the productive pomegranate.

As we compare Flora with the other fair women of our collection, we see that her beauty is of a less elegant and aristocratic type than that of the Bella, and less delicate and refined than that of the Empress Isabella. Her face is perhaps too broad to satisfy a connoisseur of beauty, and she is quite plainly of plebeian caste. Like Lavinia her charm is in the healthy vitality which was the special characteristic of the Venetian beauties of the time. The figure glows with warm pulsing life.

XIV

THE PESARO MADONNA

High on a great marble pedestal, between the stately pillars of a temple, sits the mother Mary with her child Jesus, receiving wors.h.i.+ppers. Beyond the pillars is seen the blue sky veiled with fleecy clouds. A tiny cloud has floated within the enclosure, bearing two winged cherubs, who hold a cross between them, hovering over the group below.

The company of wors.h.i.+ppers kneel on the tessellated pavement: we see from their dress that they are wealthy Venetians of the sixteenth century. It is the family group of a certain Jacopo Pesaro, who was at that time bishop of Paphos. He is known by the familiar nickname of "Baffo," and played an important part in Venetian history.