f their city, on condition that from time to time he
shall take the portrait of their doge, or prince when such shall be
created, at the price of eight crowns, which the doge himself pays,
the portrait being then preserved in the Palace of San Marco, as a
memorial of that doge.

After the completion of these works, our artist painted, for the
Church of San Rocco, a figure of Christ bearing his cross; the Saviour
has a rope round his neck, and is dragged forward by a Jew; many have
thought this a work of Giorgione. It has become an object of the
utmost devotion in Venice, and has received more crowns as offerings
than have been earned by Titian and Giorgione both, through the whole
course of their lives. Now, Titian had taken the portrait of Bembo,
then secretary to Pope Leo X., and was by him invited to Rome, that he
might see the city, with Raffaello da Urbino and other distinguished
persons; but the artist having delayed his journey until 1520, when
the pope and Raffaello were both dead, put it off for that time
altogether. For the Church of Santa Maria Maggiore he painted a
picture of "St. John the Baptist in the wilderness;" there is an angel
beside him that appears to be living; and a distant landscape, with
trees on the bank of a river, which are very graceful. He took
portraits of the Prince Grimani and Loredano, which were considered
admirable; and not long afterward he painted the portrait of King
Francis, who was then leaving Italy to return to France.

[Illustration: A Fete at the House of Titian.]

In 1530, when the Emperor Charles V. was in Bologna, Titian, by the
intervention of Pietro Aretino, was invited to that city by the
Cardinal Ippolito de' Medici, and there he made a magnificent portrait
of his majesty in full armor. This gave so much satisfaction that the
artist received a present of a thousand crowns for the same. Out of
these he had subsequently to give the half to Alfonso Lombardi, the
sculptor, who had made a model of that monarch to be executed in
marble.

Having returned to Venice, Titian there found that many gentlemen had
begun to favor Pordenone, commending exceedingly the works executed by
that artist in the ceiling of the Hall of the Pregai, and elsewhere.
They had also procured him the commission for a small picture in the
Church of San Giovanni Elemosynario, which they intended him to paint
in competition with one representing that saint in his episcopal
habits, which had previou