to listen to the love-suit of Jason; but
the subject is not forced upon us, and we are more occupied with the
contrast between the two beautiful personalities, so harmoniously
related to each other, yet so opposed in type. The gracious,
self-absorbed lady, with her softly dressed hair, her loose glove, her
silvery satin dress, is a contrast in look and spirit to the goddess
whose free, simple attitude and outward gaze embody the nobler ideal.
The sinuous and enchanting line of Venus's figure against the crimson
cloak has, I think, been the outcome of admiration for Giorgione's
"Sleeping Venus," and has the same soft, unhurried curves. Titian's two
figures are perfectly spaced in a setting which breathes the very aroma
of the early Renaissance. A bas-relief on the marble fountain represents
nymphs whipping a sleeping Love to life, while a cupid teases the chaste
unicorn. A delicious baby Love splashes in the water, fallen rose-leaves
strew the mellow marble rim, around and away stretches a sunny country
scene, in which people are placidly pursuing a life of ease and
pleasure. What a revelation to Venice these pictures were which began
with Giorgione's conversaziones! How little occupied the women are with
the story. Venus does not argue, or check off reasons on her fingers,
like S. Ursula. Medea is listening to her own thoughts, but the whole
scene is bathed in the suggestion of the joy and happiness of love. The
little censer burning away in the blue and breathless air might be a
philtre diffusing sensuous dreams, and when the rays of the evening sun
strike the picture, where it now hangs, and bring out each touch of its
glowing radiance, it seems to palpitate with the joy of life and to
thrill with the magic of summer in the days when the world was young.

With the influence still lingering of Giorgione's "Knight of Malta,"
Titian produced some of his finest portraits in the decade that led to
the middle of his life. The "Dr. Parma" at Vienna, the noble "Man in
Black" and "Man with a Glove" of the Louvre, the "Young Englishman" of
the Pitti, with his keen blue eyes, the portrait at Temple Newsam,
which, with some critics, still passes as a Giorgione, are all examples
in which he keeps the half-length, invented by Bellini and followed by
Giorgione.

After the visit to Padua he shows less preference for costume, and his
women are generally clothed in a loose white chemise, rather than the
square-cut bodice.

We do not