Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 5.djvu/396

384 he took the portrait of a gentleman of the Barberigo family who was his friend, and this was considered very beautiful, the colouring being true and natural, and the hair so distinctly painted that each one could be counted, as might also the stitches in a satin doublet, painted in the same work; at a word, it was so well and carefully done, that it would have been taken for a picture by Giorgione, if Titian had not written his name on the dark ground.

Giorgione meanwhile had executed the fa9ade of the German Exchange, when, by the intervention of Barberigo, Titian was appointed to paint certain stories in the same building, and over the Merceria. After which he executed a picture with figures the size of life, which is now in the Hall of Messer Andrea Loredano, who dwells near San Marcuola: this work represents Our Lady in her flight into Egypt, she is in the midst of a great wood, and the landscape of this picture is well done; Titian having practised that branch of art, and keeping certain Germans who were excellent masters therein for several months together in his own house: within the wood he depicted various animals, all painted from the life, and so natural as to seem almost alive. In the house of Messer Giovanni Danna, a Flemish gentleman and merchant, who was his gossip, he painted a portrait which appears to breathe, with an Ecce Homo, comprising numerous figures which, by Titian himself, as well others, is considered to be a very good work. The same artist executed a picture of Our Lady, with other figures the size of life, men and children, being all taken from nature, and portraits of persons belonging to the Danna family.

In the year 1567, when the Emperor Maximilian was making war on the Venetians, Titian, as he relates himself, painted the Angel Raphael, with Tobit and a Dog, in the Church of San Marziliano. There is a distant landscape in this picture, wherein San Giovanni Battista is seen at prayer in a wood; he is looking up to Heaven and his face is illumined by a light descending thence; some believe this picture to have been done before that on the Exchange of the Germans, mentioned above, was commenced. Now it chanced that certain gentlemen, not knowing that Giorgione no longer worked at this fa9ade, and that Titian was doing it (nay, had already given that part over the Merceria to