THE GARDENS OF VENICE 



wards, young Giorgio Vasari came from Florence and 

 found the old master of eighty-nine, brush and palette 

 in hand, still painting pictures "worthy of immor- 

 tality." The delightful situation of the house, the 

 beauty of the garden along the edge of the lagoon, 

 have been praised by many of his contemporaries, but 

 in Titian's eyes its greatest charm was the prospect 

 which it commanded over the mountains of Cadore. 

 From his window the great master could look across 

 the open lagoon to the blue hills of Ceneda, and on 

 clear days could see the sharp peak of Antelao rising 

 above his native home. Here, on summer evenings, 

 he loved to entertain a few chosen friends Sansovino, 

 the great Tuscan architect, who had fled to Venice 

 after the sack of Rome to become the master-builder 

 of the Republic ; the Veronese master, Sanmichele ; the 

 printer, Marcolini; the wonderful gem-cutter, Lodovico 

 Anichino, and the witty and unscrupulous Pietro 

 Aretino at supper-parties, which lasted far on into 

 the night. The Roman grammarian, Priscianese, has 

 left us a graphic picture of one of these lively enter- 

 tainments, at which he was a guest : 



," On the first of August, the feast of Augustus, now 

 known as the festival of the Chains of S. Peter," he 

 writes, " I was invited to supper in a most beautiful 

 garden, belonging to Messer Tiziano, an excellent 

 painter, as all the world knows, and a person whose 



ill 



