sly been executed there by Titian. But
whatever care and pains Pordenone took, he could not equal nor even
approach the work of the former. Titian was then appointed to paint a
picture of the Annunciation for the Church of Santa Maria degli
Angeli, at Murano; but those who gave the commission for the work, not
wishing to pay so much as five hundred crowns, which Titian required
as its price, he sent it, by the advice of Pietro Aretino, as a gift
to Charles V., who being greatly delighted with the work, made him a
present of two thousand crowns. The place which the picture was to
have occupied at Murano was then filled by one from the hand of
Pordenone.

When the emperor, some time after this, returned with his army from
Hungary, and was again at Bologna, holding a conference with Clement
VII., he desired to have another portrait taken of him by Titian, who,
before he departed from the city, also painted that of the Cardinal
Ippolito de Medici in the Hungarian dress, with another of the same
prelate fully armed, which is somewhat smaller than the first; these
are both now in the Guardaroba of Duke Cosimo. He painted the
portraits of Alfonso, Marquis of Davalos, and of Pietro Aretino, at
the same period, and these things having made him known to Federigo
Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua, he entered the service of the latter, and
accompanied him to his states. At Mantua our artist made a portrait of
the duke, which appears to breathe, and afterward executed that of his
brother, the cardinal. These being finished, he painted twelve
beautiful "Heads of the Twelve Caesars," to decorate one of the rooms
erected by Giulio Romano, and when they were done, Giulio painted a
"Story from the Lives of the Emperors" beneath each head.

The productions, but more especially the portraits, of Titian are so
numerous that it would be almost impossible to make the record of them
all. I will, therefore, speak of the principal only, and that without
order of time, seeing that it does not much signify to tell which was
painted earlier and which later. He took the portrait of Charles V.
several times, as we have said, and was finally invited by that
monarch to his court; there he painted him as he was in those last
years; and so much was that most invincible emperor pleased with the
manner of Titian, that once he had been portrayed by him, he would
never permit himself to be taken by any other person. Each time that
Titian painted the emperor he recei