vegetation of the Friulan mountains in their lower slopes, or of the
beautiful hills bordering upon the overflowing richness of the Venetian
plain. Here the painter found greater variety, greater softness in the
play of light, and a richness more suitable to the character of Venetian
art. All these tracts of country, as well as the more grandiose scenery
of his native Cadore itself, he had the amplest opportunities for
studying in the course of his many journeyings from Venice to Pieve and
back, as well as in his shorter expeditions on the Venetian mainland.
How far Titian's Alpine origin, and his early bringing-up among needy
mountaineers, may be taken to account for his excessive eagerness to
reap all the material advantages of his artistic pre-eminence, for his
unresting energy when any post was to be obtained or any payment to be
got in, must be a matter for individual appreciation. Josiah
Gilbert--quoted by Crowe and Cavalcaselle[4]--pertinently asks, "Might
this mountain man have been something of a 'canny Scot' or a shrewd
Swiss?" In the getting, Titian was certainly all this, but in the
spending he was large and liberal, inclined to splendour and
voluptuousness, even more in the second than in the first half of his
career. Vasari relates that Titian was lodged at Venice with his uncle,
an "honourable citizen," who, seeing his great inclination for painting,
placed him under Giovanni Bellini, in whose style he soon became a
proficient. Dolce, apparently better instructed, gives, in his _Dialogo
della Pittura_, Zuccato, best known as a mosaic worker, as his first
master; next makes him pass into the studio of Gentile Bellini, and
thence into that of the _caposcuola_ Giovanni Bellini; to take, however,
the last and by far the most important step of his early career when he
becomes the pupil and partner, or assistant, of Giorgione. Morelli[5]
would prefer to leave Giovanni Bellini altogether out of Titian's
artistic descent. However this may be, certain traces of Gentile's
influence may be observed in the art of the Cadorine painter, especially