The Later Works of Titian by Claude Phillips
page 23 of 122 (18%)
page 23 of 122 (18%)
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The colour is appropriately sober, yet a general tone is produced of great strength and astonishing effectiveness. The illumination is that of the open air, tempered and modified by an overhanging canopy of green; the great effect is obtained by the brilliant grayish white of the saint's alb, dominating and keeping in due balance the red of the rochet and the under-robes, the cloud-veiled sky, the marble throne or podium, the dark green hanging. This picture must have had in the years to follow a strong and lasting influence on Paolo Veronese, the keynote to whose audaciously brilliant yet never over-dazzling colour is this use of white and gray in large dominating masses. The noble figure of S. Giovanni gave him a prototype for many of his imposing figures of bearded old men. There is a strong reminiscence, too, of the saint's attitude in one of the most wonderful of extant Veroneses--that sumptuous altar-piece _SS. Anthony, Cornelius, and Cyprian with a Page_, in the Brera, for which he invented a harmony as delicious as it is daring, composed wholly of violet-purple, green, and gold. CHAPTER II _Francesco Maria della Rovere--Titian and Eleonora Gonzaga--The "Venus with the Shell"--Titian's later ideals--The "Venus of Urbino"--The "Bella di Tiziano"--The "Twelve Cæsars"--Titian and Pordenone--The "Battle of Cadore"--Portraits of the Master by himself--The "Presentation in the Temple"--The "Allocation" of Madrid--The Ceiling Pictures of Santo Spirito--First Meeting with Pope Paul III.--The "Ecce Homo" of Vienna--"Christ with the Pilgrims at Emmaus_." |
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