Passing over the _Transfiguration_ on the high altar of San Salvatore
at Venice, we come to the _Annunciation_ in the same church with the
signature "Titianus fecit fecit," added by the master, if we are to
credit the legend, in indignation that those who commissioned the canvas
should have shown themselves dissatisfied even to the point of
expressing incredulity as to his share in the performance. Some doubt
has been cast upon this story, which may possibly have been evolved on
the basis of the peculiar signature. It is at variance with Vasari's
statement that Titian held the picture in slight esteem in comparison
with his other works. It is not to be contested that for all the fine
passages of colour and execution, the general tone is paler in its
silveriness, less vibrant and effective on the whole, than in many of
the masterpieces which have been mentioned in their turn. But the
conception is a novel and magnificent one, contrasting instructively in
its weightiness and majesty with the more naïve and pathetic renderings
of an earlier time.

The _Education of Cupid_, popularly but erroneously known as _The Three
Graces_[59] is one of the pearls of the Borghese Gallery. It is clearly
built in essentials on the master's own _d'Avalos Allegory_, painted
many years before. This later allegory shows Venus binding the eyes of
Love ere he sallies forth into the world, while his bow and his quiver
well-stocked with arrows are brought forward by two of the Graces. In
its conception there is no great freshness or buoyancy, no pretence at
invention. The aged magician of the brush has interested himself more in
the execution than in the imagining of his picture. It is a fine and
typical specimen of the painting _di macchia_, which Vasari has praised
in a passage already quoted. A work such as this bears in technique much
the same relation to the productions of Titian's first period that the