well to each other in technical execution, while in both they differ
very materially from the _Venere del Pardo_. The _Rape of Europa_, which
has retained very much of its blond brilliancy and charm of colour,
affords convincing proof of the unrivalled power with which Titian still
wielded the brush at this stage which precedes that of his very last and
most impressionistic style. For decorative effect, for "go," for
frankness and breadth of execution, it could not be surpassed. Yet
hardly elsewhere has the great master approached so near to positive
vulgarity as here in the conception of the fair Europa as a strapping
wench who, with ample limbs outstretched, complacently allows herself to
be carried off by the Bull, making her appeal for succour merely _pour
la forme_. What gulfs divide this conception from that of the Antiope,
from Titian's earlier renderings of female loveliness, from Giorgione's
supreme Venus![56]

[Illustration: _Portrait of Titian, by himself. Gallery of the Prado,
Madrid. From a Photograph by Braun, Clément, & Cie_.]

The _Agony in the Garden_, which is still to be found in one of the
halls of the Escorial, even now in its faded state serves to evidence
the intensity of religious fervour which possessed Titian when, so late
in life, he successfully strove to renew the sacred subjects. If the
composition--as Crowe and Cavalcaselle assert--does more or less
resemble that of the famous _Agony_ by Correggio now at Apsley House,
nothing could differ more absolutely from the Parmese master's amiable
virtuosity than the aged Titian's deep conviction.[57]

To the year 1562 belongs the nearly profile portrait of the artist,
painted by himself with a subtler refinement and a truer revelation of
self than is to be found in those earlier canvases of Berlin and the