s old he was
sent to an uncle in Venice to be taught some trade. He had always been
fond of painting, and it is said that when he was a very little boy he
was found trying to paint a picture with the juices of flowers. His
uncle, seeing that the boy had some talent, placed him in the studio of
Giovanni Bellini.

But though Titian learned much from Bellini, it was not until he first
saw Giorgione's work that he dreamed of what it was possible to do with
colour. Thenceforward he began to paint with that marvellous richness
of colouring which has made his name famous all over the world.

At first young Titian worked with Giorgione, and together they began to
fresco the walls of the Exchange above the Rialto bridge. But by and by
Giorgione grew jealous. Titian's work was praised too highly; it was
even thought to be the better of the two. So they parted company, for
Giorgione would work with him no more.

Venice soon began to awake to the fact that in Titian she had another
great painter who was likely to bring fame and honour to the fair city.
He was invited to finish the frescoes in the Grand Council-chamber
which Bellini had begun, and to paint the portraits of the Doges, her
rulers.

These portraits which Titian painted were so much admired that all the
great princes and nobles desired to have themselves painted by the
Venetian artist. The Emperor Charles V. himself when he stopped at
Bologna sent to Venice to fetch Titian, and so delighted was he with
his work that he made the painter a knight with a pension of two
hundred crowns.

Fame and wealth awaited Titian wherever he went, and before long he was
invited to Rome that he might paint the portrait of the Pope. There it
was that he met Michelangelo, and that great master looked with much
interest at the work of the Venetian artist and praised it highly, for
the colouring was such as he had never seen equalled before.

'It is most beautiful,' he said afterwards to a friend; 'but it is a
pity that in Venice they do not teach men how to draw as well as how to
colour. If this Titian drew as well as he painted, it would be
impossible to surpass him.'

But ordinary eyes can find little fault with Titian's drawing, and his
portraits are thought to be the most wonderful that ever were painted.
The golden glow of Venice is cast like a magic spell over his pictures,
and in him the great Venetian school of colouring reaches its height.

Besides painting portraits, Tit