Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 5.djvu/414

402 in Venice; for, to say nothing of his excellence in art, he has always distinguished himself by courtesy, goodness, and rectitude.

Titian has had some rivals in Venice, but not of any great ability, wherefore he has easily overcome them by the superiority of his art; while he has also rendered himself acceptable to the gentlemen of the city. He has gained a fair amount of wealth, his labours having always been well paid; and it would have been well if he had worked for his amusement alone during these latter years, that he might not have diminished the reputation gained in his best days by works of inferior merit, performed at a period of life when nature tends inevitably to decline, and consequent imperfection.

In the year 1566, when Vasari, the writer of the present History, was at Venice, he went to visit Titian, as one who was his friend, and found him, although then very old, still with the pencils in his hand and painting busily. Grreat pleasure had Vasari in beholding his works and in conversing with the master. Titian then made known to Giorgio, Messer Gian Maria Verdezzotti, a young Venetian gentleman of great ability, the friend of Titian, and a man well versed in design as well as a tolerable colourist, which he has proved by some very beautiful Landscapes from his own hand. This youth, by whom Titian is loved and revered as a father, has two figures painted in oil within two niches by that artist, an Apollo and a Diana that is to say.

It may be affirmed then, that Titian, having adorned Venice, or rather all Italy, and other parts of the world, with excellent paintings, well merits to be loved and respected by artists, and in many things to be admire’d and imitated also, as one who has produced, and is producing, works of infinite merit; nay, such as must endure while the memory of illustrious men shall remain.

Many young men have been with Titian for the purposes of learning; yet the number of those who may truly call themselves his disciples is not great, seeing that he has never given much instruction; yet all may learn more or less from the works of a master, once they have acquired the power of comprehending them. Among those about Titian meanwhile was a certain Giovanni, a Fleming, who became a