The Later Works of Titian by Claude Phillips
page 79 of 122 (64%)
page 79 of 122 (64%)
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fanciful costume except in the studio. In the strongest contrast to the
conscious allurement of this showpiece is the demure simplicity of mien in the avowed portrait _Lavinia as a Bride_ in the Dresden Gallery. In this last she wears a costume of warm white satin and a splendid necklace and earrings of pearls. Morelli has pointed out that the fan, in the form of a little flag which she holds, was only used in Venice by newly betrothed ladies; and this fixes the time of the portrait as 1555, the date of the marriage contract. The execution is beyond all comparison finer here, the colour more transparent in its warmth, than in the more celebrated Berlin piece. Quite eight or ten years later than this must date the _Salome_ of the Prado Gallery, which is in general design a variation of the _Lavinia_ of Berlin. The figure holding up--a grim substitute for the salver of fruit--the head of St. John on a charger has probably been painted without any fresh reference to the model. The writer is unable to agree with Crowe and Cavalcaselle when they affirm that this _Salome_ is certainly painted by one of the master's followers. The touch is assuredly Titian's own in the very late time, and the canvas, though much slighter and less deliberate in execution than its predecessors, is in some respects more spontaneous, more vibrant in touch. Second to none as a work of art--indeed more striking than any in the naïve and fearless truth of the rendering--is the _Lavinia Sarcinelli as a Matron_ in the Dresden Gallery. Morelli surely exaggerates a little when he describes Lavinia here as a woman of forty. Though the demure, bright-eyed maiden has grown into a self-possessed Venetian dame of portentous dimensions, Sarcinelli's spouse is fresh still, and cannot be more than two-or three-and-thirty. This assumption, if accepted, would fix the time of origin of the picture at about 1565, and, reasoning from analogies of technique, this appears to be a more acceptable date than the year 1570-72, at which Morelli would place it. |
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