90 



Monthly Review of Literature, 



[JAN. 



his recal. He came home accordingly, 

 and a peerage and a pension we r e grudg- 

 ingly given him. He had the year 

 before captured the island of Eustatius, 

 the spoils of Avhich amounted to two 

 millions, but which appears to have be- 

 nefited him but little. He lived till 1702, 

 and died poor. Rodney went heart and 

 soul into the American Avar. Pirates 

 and rebels are perpetually at his pen's 

 end : just as Nelson detested the very 

 name, sight, and visage of a Frenchman. 

 He had spent much of his time in the 

 AVest Indies, but never saw any thing 

 but kindness on the part of the planters, 

 and apparently believed there really 

 Avas nothing, e'ven then, but kindness ; 

 of course, in his situation, he saw no- 

 thing of the interior. 



Life of Titian, by James Nortlicote^ 

 Esq., R.A. 2 vote. 8 wo Mr. North- 

 cote's Life of Titian is but a dull per- 

 formance, though no doubt presenting as 

 full an account as can now be recovered 

 of the artist. As a narrative, it is not 

 sufficiently, scarcely at all, concentrat- 

 edthe interest is broken in upon not 

 only by sketches of cotemporary artists, 

 which can be borne with, but even with 

 the story of his sitters, which cannot. 

 A A r ery considerable portion of the vo- 

 lumes is occupied Avith the letters of 

 Aretino, his friend, and those of Vasari, 

 his biographer not often upon matters 

 of close connection Avith Titian, and still 

 less on subjects of any general^ value. 

 Some seventy pages are filled with let- 

 ters and papers relative to Michael An- 

 gelo ; but Avhat have they to do Avith 

 Titian? and finally, Avhen the life is 

 got through, it begins again, under the 

 head of " Illustrations from Ridolfi, Ti- 

 cozzi, and others" all which should of 

 course have been worked into the gene- ( 

 ral narrative in point of fact, much of 

 it is, and Avith that the compiler might 

 have been content. This, however, re- 

 fers to the construction of the book, and 

 certainly does no great credit to his 

 grand adviser our friend Hazlitt. But 

 though as a composition as a piece of 

 elaborate biography, it is but an unat- 

 tractive concern, all that is to be learnt 

 of Titian's external history may be 

 found in it, and, moreover, we have a 

 very competent estimate of his Avorks 

 a general, and that a sound judgment, 

 but yet more defective, that is, less on 

 each" picture than we naturally looked 

 for from so accomplished an artist, and 

 a gentleman, too, not backward in ex- 

 pressing his sentiments, though they 

 should chance to conflict with those of 

 others. On the Avhole, we are disap- 

 pointed, though generally concurring 

 heartily with his opinions wherever he 

 has developed them. 



Titian's was a life of unusual extent 



born, it should seem, not later than 

 1480, he lived till 1576, and then died 

 of the plague. He was a native of a 

 village near Friuli, Avithin the bounda- 

 ries of Venice, and spent by far the 

 greatest part of his days in Venice it 

 was always his home. Though within 

 so short a distance of Rome, he never 

 visited that capital till 1545, and then 

 only upon a professional invitation by 

 Cardinal Farnese. Fifteen years before 

 he had, through his friend Aretino, got 

 himself introduced to Charles V. when 

 at Bologna; and soon after his return 

 from Rome, he Avas summoned into Ger- 

 many by the Emperor, and subsequently 

 went into Spain. By Charles he was 

 always treated Avith the highest distinc- 

 tion, and finally made a count of the 

 empire. At the conclusion of a sitting 

 he had been painted twice before by 

 Titian " This," said Charles, u is the 

 third time I have triumphed over 

 death ;" and every body has heard of 

 his rebuff to the courtiers, Avho grudged 

 his attentions to Titian" I can make 

 a hundred lords, but not one Titian." 

 Even Philip Avas courteous to the art- 

 ist ; and both Charles and his son it 

 seems handled the pencil with some fa- 

 cility. Titian painted to the last leav- 

 ing several pictures unfinished, and pro- 

 bably painted a greater number, to say 

 nothing of their merit, than any painter 

 on record. His pictures in Spain form, 

 alone, a large and magnificent collection. 

 Titian's jealousy of his brother artists, 

 the existence of which can scarcely be 

 disputed, began very early, and seems, 

 amidst' all his celebrity, never to have 

 left him. He soon gave up his school 

 he could not bear the advances of his 

 pupils. Tintoret so far outstripped his 

 fellow-disciples, that Titian grew alarm- 

 ed, and actually expelled him. Any rival 

 painter who got a job in A r enice was 

 sure to incur his enmity ; and he 

 would even resort to intrigue to sup- 

 plant him, or get him dismissed. Por- 

 denone Avas obliged or affected to be^ 

 so to guard against the violence of 

 Titian, and paint his frescoes in the 

 cloisters of St. Stephen, with his sword 

 drawn by his side. " Such," observes 

 Nortlicote, " Avas not the character of 

 Raphael or of Michael Angelo; and it 

 Avas to this difference of character that 

 we probably owe the superior grandeur 

 and refinement of their ideal concep- 

 tions. Every man's yenius pays a tax to 

 his vices." 



Titian had rubbed on in his youth 

 a good deal without instruction, and the 

 little he obtained he soon laboured to 

 get rid of. He was consequently some- 

 what defective in point of drawing ; but 

 though he might have superiors in that 

 respect, he Avas not, as all must see who 

 look at his pictures with an eye of iutclli- 



