late time. It is further proved by the fact that it still shows traces
of the injury of which Philip complained when he received the picture in
London. A long horizontal furrow is clearly to be seen running right
across the canvas. Apart from the consideration that pupils no doubt had
a hand in the work, it lacks, with all its decorative elegance and
felicity of movement, the charm with which Titian, both much earlier in
his career and later on towards the end, could invest such mythological
subjects.[46] That the aim of the artist was not a very high one, or
this _poesia_ very near to his heart, is demonstrated by the amusingly
material fashion in which he recommends it to his royal patron. He says
that "if in the _Danaë_ the forms were to be seen front-wise, here was
occasion to look at them from a contrary direction--a pleasant variety
for the ornament of a _Camerino_." Our worldly-wise painter evidently
knew that material allurements as well as supreme art were necessary to
captivate Philip. It cannot be alleged, all the same, that this purely
sensuous mode of conception was not perfectly in consonance with his own
temperament, with his own point of view, at this particular stage in his
life and practice.

The new Doge Francesco Venier had, upon his accession in 1554, called
upon Titian to paint, besides his own portrait, the orthodox votive
picture of his predecessor Marcantonio Trevisan, and this official
performance was duly completed in January 1555, and hung in the Sala de'
Pregadi. At the same time Venier determined that thus tardily the memory
of a long--deceased Doge, Antonio Grimani, should be rehabilitated by
the dedication to him of a similar but more dramatic and allusive
composition. The commission for this piece also was given to Titian, who
made good progress with it, yet for reasons unexplained never carried
the important undertaking to completion. It remained in the workshop at
the time of his death, and was completed--with what divergence from the