DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.52800#0136
116' ORLEANS COLLECTION.
In the above rich collection of the works of
Titian, examples will be found of all his different
manners of painting,—one of these has been
termed his golden, another his silvery manner;
for like Raphael and other masters who rose pro-
gressively to great perfection in the art, he altered
his style at different periods of his life. The first
manner of Titian partook of the dry outline of
Bellini, but he quitted that style when he had
seen the admirable colouring of Giorgione, and
he then adopted what has been called his golden
manner. At this period he executed many capital
works, among others his celebrated picture of
Bacchus and Ariadne, so justly commended by
Sir Joshua Reynolds in his Discourses, which he
painted for his first great patron, Alfonso, Grand
Duke of Ferrara : and which Vasari says raised his
reputation to the highest point, having attracted
the notice of all the cognoscenti of Italy. This
magnificent picture was purchased at Rome, for
Mr. Buchanan, in the year 1806, for the sum of
£ 2000 sterling, besides commission and other ex-
penses. In securing this picture for England with
some others of a high class, which happened at
the most perilous time of the war, and when all
the Italian ports were hermetically sealed up by
our own blockading squadrons, the author of this
narrative ran the greatest risk of losing the whole
In the above rich collection of the works of
Titian, examples will be found of all his different
manners of painting,—one of these has been
termed his golden, another his silvery manner;
for like Raphael and other masters who rose pro-
gressively to great perfection in the art, he altered
his style at different periods of his life. The first
manner of Titian partook of the dry outline of
Bellini, but he quitted that style when he had
seen the admirable colouring of Giorgione, and
he then adopted what has been called his golden
manner. At this period he executed many capital
works, among others his celebrated picture of
Bacchus and Ariadne, so justly commended by
Sir Joshua Reynolds in his Discourses, which he
painted for his first great patron, Alfonso, Grand
Duke of Ferrara : and which Vasari says raised his
reputation to the highest point, having attracted
the notice of all the cognoscenti of Italy. This
magnificent picture was purchased at Rome, for
Mr. Buchanan, in the year 1806, for the sum of
£ 2000 sterling, besides commission and other ex-
penses. In securing this picture for England with
some others of a high class, which happened at
the most perilous time of the war, and when all
the Italian ports were hermetically sealed up by
our own blockading squadrons, the author of this
narrative ran the greatest risk of losing the whole