le
grasp of the purely intellectual, and the religious was something he
dealt with in no strong devotional way. The fete, the concert, the
fable, the legend, with a landscape setting, made a stronger appeal to
him. More of a recorder than a thinker he was not the less a leader
showing the way into that new Arcadian grove of pleasure whose
inhabitants thought not of creeds and faiths and histories and
literatures, but were content to lead the life that was sweet in its
glow and warmth of color, its light, its shadows, its bending trees,
and arching skies. A strong full-blooded race, sober-minded,
dignified, rationally happy with their lot, Giorgione portrayed them
with an art infinite in variety and consummate in skill. Their least
features under his brush seemed to glow like jewels. The sheen of
armor and rich robe, a bare forearm, a nude back, or loosened
hair--mere morsels of color and light--all took on a new beauty. Even
landscape with him became more significant. His master, Bellini, had
been realistic enough in the details of trees and hills, but Giorgione
grasped the meaning of landscape as an entirety, and rendered it with
poetic breadth.

Technically he adopted the oil medium brought to Venice by Antonello
da Messina, introducing scumbling and glazing to obtain brilliancy and
depth of color. Of light-and-shade he was a master, and in atmosphere
excellent. He, in common with all the Venetians, is sometimes said to
be lacking in drawing, but that is the result of a misunderstanding.
The Venetians never cared to accent line, choosing rather to model in
masses of light and shadow and color. Giorgione was a superior man
with the brush, but not quite up to his contemporary Titian.

[Illustration: FIG. 48.--TITIAN. VENUS EQUIPPING CUPID. BORGHESE PAL.,
ROME.]

That is not surprising, for Titian (1477-1576) was the painter easily
first in the whole range of Italian art. He was the first man in the
history of painting to handle a brush with freedom, vigor, and gusto.
And Titian's brush-work was probably the least part of his genius.
Calm in mood, dignified, and often majestic in conception, learned
beyond all others in his craft, he mingled thought, feeling, color,
brush-work into one grand and glowing whole. He emphasized nothing,
yet elevated everything. In pure intellectual thought he was not so
strong as Raphael. He never sought to make painting a vehicle for
theological, literary, or classical ideas. His tale w