ntment of exuberant youth and beauty which we
do not find in the more avowedly sensuous _Venus of the Tribuna_. This
last is an avowed act of worship by the artist of the naked human body,
and as such, in its noble frankness, free from all offence, except to
those whose scruples in matters of art we are not here called upon to
consider. From this _Magdalen_ to that much later one of the Hermitage,
which will be described farther on, is a great step upwards, and it is a
step which, in passing from the middle to the last period, we shall more
than once find ourselves taking.

[Illustration: ST. JEROME. PEN DRAWING BY TITIAN (?) _British Museum_.]

It is impossible to give even in outline here an account of Titian's
correspondence and business relations with his noble and royal patrons,
instructive as it is to follow these out, and to see how, under the
influence of Aretino, his natural eagerness to grasp in every direction
at material advantages is sharpened; how he becomes at once more humble
and more pressing, covering with the manner and the tone appropriate to
courts the reiterated demands of the keen and indefatigable man of
business. It is the less necessary to attempt any such account in these
pages--dealing as we are chiefly with the work and not primarily with
the life of Titian--seeing that in Crowe and Cavalcaselle's admirable
biography this side of the subject, among many others, is most patiently
and exhaustively dealt with.

In 1531 we read of a _Boy Baptist_ by Titian sent by Aretino to Maximian
Stampa, an imperialist partisan in command of the castle of Milan. The
donor particularly dwells upon "the beautiful curl of the Baptist's
hair, the fairness of his skin, etc.," a description which recalls to
us, in striking fashion, the little St. John in the _Virgin and Child
with St. Catherine_ of the National Gallery, which belongs, as has been
shown, to the same time.

It was on the occasion of the second visit of the Emperor and his court
to Bologna at the close of 1532 that Titian first came in personal
contact with Charles V., and obtained from that monarch his first
sitting. In the course of an inspection, with Federigo Gonzaga himself
as cicerone, of the art treasures preserved in the palace at Mantua, the
Emperor saw the portrait by Titian of Federigo, and was so much struck
with it, so intent upon obtaining a portrait of himself from the same
brush, that the Marquess wrote off at once pressing our mas