tate his works so well, that his pictures
at times were mistaken for works by Giorgione, as will be related
below. Then, having grown in age, practice, and judgment, Tiziano
executed many works in fresco, which cannot be enumerated in order,
being dispersed over various places; let it suffice that they were
such, that the opinion was formed by many experienced judges that he
would become, as he afterwards did, a most excellent painter. At the
time when he first began to follow the manner of Giorgione, not being
more than eighteen years of age, he made the portrait of a gentleman
of the Barberigo family, his friend, which was held to be very
beautiful, the likeness of the flesh-colouring being true and
natural, and all the hairs so well distinguished one from another,
that they might have been counted, as also might have been the
stitches in a doublet of silvered satin that he painted in that work.
In short, it was held to be so well done, and with such diligence,
that if Tiziano had not written his name on a dark ground, it would
have been taken for the work of Giorgione.

Meanwhile Giorgione himself had executed the principal facade of the
Fondaco de' Tedeschi, and by means of Barberigo there were allotted to
Tiziano certain scenes on the same building, above the Merceria. After
which work he painted a large picture with figures of the size of
life, which is now in the hall of M. Andrea Loredano, who dwells near
S. Marcuola. In that picture is painted Our Lady going into Egypt, in
the midst of a great forest and certain landscapes that are very well
done, because Tiziano had given his attention for many months to such
things, and had kept in his house for that purpose some Germans who
were excellent painters of landscapes and verdure. In the wood in that
picture, likewise, he painted many animals, which he portrayed from
the life; and they are truly natural, and almost alive. Next, in the
house of M. Giovanni D'Anna, a Flemish gentleman and merchant, his
gossip, he made his portrait, which has all the appearance of life,
and also an "Ecce Homo" with many figures, which is held by Tiziano
himself and by others to be a very beautiful work. The same master
painted a picture of Our Lady with other figures the size of life, of
men and children, all portrayed from the life and from persons of that
house. Then in the year 1507, while the Emperor Maximilian was making
war on the Venetians, Tiziano, according to his own account