postponing the grant to Titian of Bellini's patent; notwithstanding
which, there is conclusive evidence of a later date to show that he is
allowed the full enjoyment of his "Senseria in Fontego di Tedeschi"
(_sic_), with all its privileges and immunities, before the close of
this same year, 1516.

[Illustration: _Portrait of a Man. Alte Pinakothek, Munich. From a
Photograph by Hanfstängl_.]

It is in this year that Titian paid his first visit to Ferrara, and
entered into relations with Alfonso I., which were to become more
intimate as the position of the master became greater and more
universally recognised in Italy. It was here, as we may safely assume,
that he completed, or, it may be, repaired, Giovanni Bellini's last
picture, the great _Bacchanal_ or _Feast of the Gods on Earth_, now at
Alnwick Castle. It is there that he obtained the commission for two
famous works, the _Worship of Venus_ and the _Bacchanal_, designed, in
continuation of the series commenced with Bellini's _Feast of the Gods_,
to adorn a favourite apartment in Alfonso's castle of Ferrara; the
series being completed a little later on by that crown and climax of the
whole set, the _Bacchus and Ariadne_ of the National Gallery.

Bellini appears in an unfamiliar phase in this final production of his
magnificent old age, on which the signature, together with the date,
1514, so carefully noted by Vasari, is still most distinctly to be read.
Much less Giorgionesque--if the term be in this case permissible--and
more Quattrocentist in style than in the immediately preceding
altar-piece of S. Giovanni Crisostomo, he is here hardly less
interesting. All admirers of his art are familiar with the four
beautiful _Allegories_ of the Accademia delle Belle Arti at Venice,