DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.51585#0234
230
EARLY ITALIAN PAINTERS.
of Venus. There are here upwards of sixty figures
in every variety of attitude, some fluttering in the
air, some climbing the fruit-trees, some shooting
arrows, or embracing each other. This picture
is known as the Sacrifice to the Goddess of Fer-
tility : while it remained in Italy it was a study
for the first painters, for Poussin, the Carracci,
Albano, and Fiamingo the sculptor, so famous for
his models of children.* At Ferrara, Titian also
painted the portrait of the first wife of Alphonso,
the famous and infamous Lucrezia Borgia; and
here also he formed a friendship with the poet
Ariosto, whose portrait he painted.
At this time he was invited to Borne by Leo X.,
for whom Raphael, then in the zenith of his powers,
was executing some of his finest works. It is
curious to speculate what influence these two dis-
tinguished men might have exercised on- each other
had they met; but it was not so decreed. Titian
was strongly attached to his home and his friends
at Venice ; and to his birthplace, the little town of
Cadore, he paid an annual summer visit. His long
absence at Ferrara had wearied him of courts and
princes ; and, instead of going to Rome to swell
the luxurious state of Leo X., he returned to Venice
and remained there stationary for the next few years,
* These two pictures are now at Madrid. A good copy
of the last used to hang in the dark at Hampton Court, and
has been lately removed to Windsor.
EARLY ITALIAN PAINTERS.
of Venus. There are here upwards of sixty figures
in every variety of attitude, some fluttering in the
air, some climbing the fruit-trees, some shooting
arrows, or embracing each other. This picture
is known as the Sacrifice to the Goddess of Fer-
tility : while it remained in Italy it was a study
for the first painters, for Poussin, the Carracci,
Albano, and Fiamingo the sculptor, so famous for
his models of children.* At Ferrara, Titian also
painted the portrait of the first wife of Alphonso,
the famous and infamous Lucrezia Borgia; and
here also he formed a friendship with the poet
Ariosto, whose portrait he painted.
At this time he was invited to Borne by Leo X.,
for whom Raphael, then in the zenith of his powers,
was executing some of his finest works. It is
curious to speculate what influence these two dis-
tinguished men might have exercised on- each other
had they met; but it was not so decreed. Titian
was strongly attached to his home and his friends
at Venice ; and to his birthplace, the little town of
Cadore, he paid an annual summer visit. His long
absence at Ferrara had wearied him of courts and
princes ; and, instead of going to Rome to swell
the luxurious state of Leo X., he returned to Venice
and remained there stationary for the next few years,
* These two pictures are now at Madrid. A good copy
of the last used to hang in the dark at Hampton Court, and
has been lately removed to Windsor.