Phillipps, Evelyn March; Tintoretto: Tintoretto: with 61 plates (London: Methuen & Co., 1911)

conduct down to jealousy on Titian’s part. ‘Titian perceived
from these beginnings that he might become a great painter and
deprive him of the mastery in art,’ and this superficial judgment,
repeated in the eighteenth century by Zanetti, has been handed
down, even reappearing in biographies of the present day. It
is an incredible one, and would not be worth combating, if it had
not been advanced again even in recent years. Titian was not
one of those masters who objected to a following ; on the contrary,
he expected to be followed and copied, and saw in all excellences
of his pupils a respectful testimony to his own genius. It is
absurd to suppose that the master of assured standing could have
felt any jealous fear of the raw student just trying his wings, but
Titian had at this time created a school—well established and
verging slightly on the academic — which produced canvases
peopled by a great range of beautiful and stately persons, finely
composed and full of splendid decorum, and we can imagine that
Tintoretto’s style would have given him a disagreeable shock.
Here was a presumptuous youth, who, instead of submissively
preparing to follow the master, was giving rein to wild and
dangerous innovations, and who would be likely to demoralize
that serene and balanced world which addressed itself to attaining
the perfection of cultured art.
We have had examples in our own day of the want of
sympathy with and understanding of new methods on the part of
painters of an old-established style. A Whistler in the studio of
a Ruskin would have met with scant encouragement, and Tinto-
retto’s style is quite enough to account for the drastic treatment
he received, and also for Titian’s grudging attitude towards him
in after years.
But being shut out from the famous workshop, being spoken
of as one who had been expelled therefrom, must have been a
terrible blow to the dawning hopes and ambitions of an enthusi-
astic boy. ‘ Every one may conceive,’ says Ridolfi, ‘ what disgust
he had in his mind.’ We have to imagine his feelings, perhaps
to decide that it was a blessing in disguise, and that too close a
devotion to Titian might have hindered his development. At
least we soon become aware that the impetuous young artist
was not discouraged for any length of time. ‘ Such affronts,’
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