both of them full-length figures, are placed on a
low plinth, to the left, and from this point of vantage the Spanish
leader addresses a company of foot-soldiers who with fine effect raise
their halberds high into the air.[29] Among these last tradition places
a portrait of Aretino, which is not now to be recognised with any
certainty. Were the pedigree of the canvas a less well-authenticated
one, one might be tempted to deny Titian's authorship altogether, so
extraordinary are, apart from other considerations, the disproportions
in the figure of the youth Francesco. Restoration must in this instance
have amounted to entire repainting. Del Vasto appears more robust, more
martial, and slightly younger than the armed leader in the _Allegory_ of
the Louvre. If this last picture is to be accepted as a semi-idealised
presentment of the Spanish captain, it must, as has already been pointed
out, have been painted nearer to the time of his death, which took place
in 1546. The often-cited biographers of our master are clearly in error
in their conclusion that the painting described in the collection of
Charles I. as "done by Titian, the picture of the Marquis Guasto,
containing five half-figures so big as the life, which the king bought
out of an Almonedo," is identical with the large sketch made by Titian
as a preparation for the _Allocution_ of Madrid. This description, on
the contrary, applies perfectly to the _Allegory_ of the Louvre, which
was, as we know, included in the collection of Charles, and subsequently
found its way into that of Louis Quatorze.

[Illustration: _The Magdalen. Pitti Palace, Florence. From a Photograph
by Anderson._]

It was in 1542 that Vasari, summoned to Venice at the suggestion of
Aretino, paid his first visit to the city of the Lagoons in order to
paint the scenery and _apparato_ in connection with a carnival
performance, which included the representation of his fellow-townsman's
_Talanta.[30]_ It was on this occasion, no doubt, that Sansovino, in
agreement with Titian, obtained for the Florentine the commission to
paint the ceilings of Santo Spirito in Isola--a commission which was
afterwards, as a consequence of his departure, undertaken and performed
by Titian himself, with whose grandiose canvases we shall have to deal a
little later on. In weighing the value of Vasari's testimony with
reference to the works of Vecellio and other Venetian painters more or
less of his own time, it should be