the Barberigo family, who was his friend,
and this was considered very beautiful, the coloring 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; 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 facade 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 as 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 1507, 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 facade, and that
Titian was doing it (nay, had already given that part over the
Merceria to public view), met the former, and began as friends to
rejoice with him, declaring that he was acquitting himself better on
the side of the Merceria