DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.51585#0243
TITIAN.
239
ceasingly occupied, had always a great number of
pictures in his house which he presented to his
friends, or to the officers and attendants of the
court, as a means of procuring their favour. There
is extant a letter of Aretino, in which he describes
the scene which took place when the emperor sum-
moned his favourite painter to attend the court at
Augsburgh. “ It was,” he says, “ the most flat-
tering testimony to his excellence to behold, as
soon as it was known that the divine painter was
sent for, the crowds of people running to obtain,
if possible, the productions of his art; and how
they endeavoured to purchase the pictures, great
and small, and everything that was in the house, at
any price; for everybody seems assured that his
august majesty will so treat his Apelles that he
will no longer condescend to exercise his pencil
except to oblige him.”
Years passed on, and seemed to have no power
to quench the ardour of this wonderful old man.
He was eighty-one when he painted the Martyrdom
of St. Laurence, one of his largest and grandest
compositions. The Magdalen, the half-length
figure with uplifted streaming eyes, which he sent
to Philip II., was executed even later: and it was
not till he was approaching his ninetieth year that
he showed in his works symptoms of enfeebled
powers ; and then it seemed as if sorrow rather
than time had reached him and conquered him at
239
ceasingly occupied, had always a great number of
pictures in his house which he presented to his
friends, or to the officers and attendants of the
court, as a means of procuring their favour. There
is extant a letter of Aretino, in which he describes
the scene which took place when the emperor sum-
moned his favourite painter to attend the court at
Augsburgh. “ It was,” he says, “ the most flat-
tering testimony to his excellence to behold, as
soon as it was known that the divine painter was
sent for, the crowds of people running to obtain,
if possible, the productions of his art; and how
they endeavoured to purchase the pictures, great
and small, and everything that was in the house, at
any price; for everybody seems assured that his
august majesty will so treat his Apelles that he
will no longer condescend to exercise his pencil
except to oblige him.”
Years passed on, and seemed to have no power
to quench the ardour of this wonderful old man.
He was eighty-one when he painted the Martyrdom
of St. Laurence, one of his largest and grandest
compositions. The Magdalen, the half-length
figure with uplifted streaming eyes, which he sent
to Philip II., was executed even later: and it was
not till he was approaching his ninetieth year that
he showed in his works symptoms of enfeebled
powers ; and then it seemed as if sorrow rather
than time had reached him and conquered him at