hat this catastrophe of the end
must have come suddenly upon the venerable master like a hideous dream,
appearing to him, as death often does to those upon whom it descends,
less significant than it does to us who read. Instead of remaining fixed
in sad contemplation of this short final moment when the radiant orb
goes suddenly down below the horizon in storm and cloud, let us keep
steadily in view the light as, serene in its far-reaching radiance, it
illuminated the world for eighty splendid years. Let us think of Titian
as the greatest painter, if not the greatest genius in art, that the
world has produced; as, what Vasari with such conviction described him
to be, "the man as highly favoured by fortune as any of his kind had
ever been before him."[63]

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 1: "The Earlier Work of Titian," _Portfolio_, October 1897.]

[Footnote 2: According to the catalogue of 1892, this picture was
formerly in the sacristy of the Escorial in Spain. It can only be by an
oversight that it is therein described as "possibly painted there,"
since Titian never was in Spain.]

[Footnote 3: It is especially to be noted that there is not a trace of
red in the picture, save for the modest crimson waistband of the St.
Catherine. Contrary to almost universal usage, it might almost be said
to orthodoxy, the entire draperies of the Virgin are of one intense
blue. Her veil-like head-gear is of a brownish gray, while the St.
Catherine wears a golden-brown scarf, continuing the glories of her
elaborately dressed hair. The audacity of the colour-scheme is only
equalled by its success; no calculated effort at anything unusual being
apparent. The beautiful naked _putto_ who appears in the sky, arresting
the progress of the shepherds, is too trivial in conception for the
occasion. A similar incident is depicted in the background of the much
earlier _Holy Family_, No. 4. at the National Gallery, but there the
messenger angel is more appropriately and more reverently depicted as
full-grown and in flowing garments.]

[Footnote 4: Crowe and Cavalcaselle, vol. i. pp. 396, 397; _Tizian_, von
H. Knackfuss, p. 55.]

[Footnote 5: Crowe and Cavalcaselle, Appendix to vol. i. p. 448.]

[Footnote 6: No. 1288 in the Long Gallery of the Louvre.]

[Footnote 7: See the canvas No. 163 in the Imperial Gallery of Vienna.
The want of life and of a definite personal character makes it almost
repellent, notwithstanding the breadth and easy mastery o