CRIVELLI TO VERONESE 



unreliable later tradition, was one of those to whom 

 classical literature was an inspiration. Even Vasari 

 was quite unable to understand some of his allegorical 

 or derivative frescoes. It is not wonderful, therefore, if 

 to-day their interpretation is a matter of some doubt. A 

 small panel in the National Gallery, officially put down 

 to his school, but quite possibly an early essay by the 

 master himself, is of this character. Perhaps it is admis- 

 sible to call it a picture of the Golden Age ; a young 

 man's dream in which knowledge, the arts, and warring 

 nature itself are reconciled into a harmony. In it a 

 leopard (not the hunting leopard) is seen, two deer, a 

 peacock on a perilously slender branch, and three 

 other birds, including an owl. In the National Gallery 

 also is his only extant Adoration. There are here two 

 powerful horses in addition to the ox and ass. 



Titian (Tiziano Vecellio) takes from Catullus his sub- Titian, 

 ject of the Meetmg of Bacchus with Ariadne (National 

 Gallery). The light falls beautifully on the sleek lithe 

 bodies of the cheetahs, who look at one another as much 

 as to say, " Rather a sudden stop ! Who's his friend, 

 I wonder ? " They are wearing collars decorated 

 with hawk-bells. The serpents entwining the brown 

 limbs of the " Ophiucus " seem to be the common 

 grass-snake, made large enough to show effectively.^ 



^ The grass snake has been known to reach a length of six feet. 



89 



