design, and infinitely nearer in feeling, to Giorgione's _Venus_ at
Dresden than does the _Venus of Urbino_ in the Tribuna, which was
closely modelled upon it. And the aged Titian had gone back even a step
farther than Giorgione; the group of Antiope with Jupiter in the guise
of a Satyr is clearly a reminiscence of a _Nymph surprised by a
Satyr_--one of the engravings in the _Hypnerotomachia Poliphili_ first
published in 1499, but republished with the same illustrations in
1545.[55]

[Illustration: _The Rape of Europa. From the Engraving by J.Z.
Delignon_.]

According to the correspondence published by Crowe and Cavalcaselle
there were completed for the Spanish King in April 1562 the _Poesy of
Europa carried by the Bull_, and the _Christ praying in the Garden_,
while a _Virgin and Child_ was announced as in progress.

These paintings, widely divergent as they are in subject, answer very
well to each other in technical execution, while in both they differ
very materially from the _Venere del Pardo_. The _Rape of Europa_, which
has retained very much of its blond brilliancy and charm of colour,
affords convincing proof of the unrivalled power with which Titian still
wielded the brush at this stage which precedes that of his very last and
most impressionistic style. For decorative effect, for "go," for
frankness and breadth of execution, it could not be surpassed. Yet
hardly elsewhere has the great master approached so near to positive
vulgarity as here in the conception of the fair Europa as a strapping
wench who, with ample limbs outstretched, complacently allows herself to
be carried off by the Bull, making her appeal for succour merely _pour
la forme_. What gulfs divide this conception from that of the Antiope,
from Titian's earlier renderings of female loveliness, from Giorgione's
supreme Venus![56]

[Illustration: _Portrait of Titian, by himself. Gallery of the Prado,
Madrid. From a Photograph by Braun, Clement, & Cie_.]

The _Agony in the Garden_, which is still to be found in one of the
halls of the Escorial, even now in its faded state serves to evidence
the intensity of religious fervour which possessed Titian when, so late
in life, he successfully strove to renew the sacred subjects. If the
composition--as Crowe and Cavalcaselle assert--does more or less
resemble that of the famous _Agony_ by Correggio now at Apsley House,
nothing could differ more absolutely from the Parmese master's amiable
virtuosity