The best proof we have that Titian's artistic power was in many respects
at its highest in 1566, is afforded by the magnificent portrait of the
Mantuan painter and antiquary Jacopo da Strada, now in the Imperial
Gallery at Vienna. It bears, besides the usual late signature of the
master, the description of the personage with all his styles and titles,
and the date MDLXVI. The execution is again _di macchia_, but
magnificent in vitality, as in impressiveness of general effect, swift
but not hasty or superficial. The reserve and dignity of former male
portraits is exchanged for a more febrile vivacity, akin to that which
Lotto had in so many of his finest works displayed. His peculiar style
is further recalled in the rather abrupt inclination of the figure and
the parallel position of the statuette which it holds. But none other
than Titian himself could have painted the superb head, which he himself
has hardly surpassed.

It is curious and instructive to find the artist, in a letter addressed
to Philip on the 2nd of December 1567, announcing the despatch,
together with the just now described altar-piece, _The Martyrdom of St.
Lawrence_, of "una pittura d'una Venere ignuda"--the painting of a nude
Venus. Thus is the peculiar double current of the aged painter's genius
maintained by the demand for both classes of work. He well knows that to
the Most Catholic Majesty very secular pieces indeed will be not less
acceptable than those much-desired sacred works in which now Titian's
power of invention is greatest.

[Illustration: _Religion succoured by Spain. Gallery of the Prado,
Madrid. From a Photograph by Braun, Clément, & Cie_.]

Our master, in his dealings with the Brescians, after the completion of