ce, and these last works are executed
with bold strokes and dashed off with a broad and even coarse sweep of
the brush, insomuch that from near little can be seen, but from a
distance they appear perfect. This method has been the reason that
many, wishing to imitate him therein and to play the practised master,
have painted clumsy pictures; and this happens because, although many
believe that they are done without effort, in truth it is not so, and
they deceive themselves, for it is known that they are painted over
and over again, and that he returned to them with his colours so many
times, that the labour may be perceived. And this method, so used, is
judicious, beautiful, and astonishing, because it makes pictures
appear alive and painted with great art, but conceals the labour.

[Illustration: MARY MAGDALENE

(_After the painting by =Tiziano=. Naples: Museo Nazionale_)

_Anderson_]

Tiziano painted recently in a picture three braccia high and four
braccia broad, Jesus Christ as an Infant in the lap of Our Lady and
adored by the Magi, with a good number of figures of one braccio each,
which is a very lovely work, as is also another picture that he
himself copied from that one and gave to the old Cardinal of Ferrara.
Another picture, in which he depicted Christ mocked by the Jews, which
is most beautiful, was placed in a chapel of the Church of S. Maria
delle Grazie, in Milan. For the Queen of Portugal he painted a picture
of a Christ scourged by Jews at the Column, a little less than the
size of life, which is very beautiful. For the high-altar of S.
Domenico, at Ancona, he painted an altar-piece with Christ on the
Cross, and at the foot Our Lady, S. John, and S. Dominic, all most
beautiful, and executed in his later manner with broad strokes, as has
just been described above. And by the same hand, in the Church of the
Crocicchieri at Venice, is the picture that is on the altar of S.
Lorenzo, wherein is the martyrdom of that Saint, with a building full
of figures, and S. Laurence lying half upon the gridiron, in
foreshortening, with a great fire beneath him, and about it some who
are kindling it. And since he counterfeited an effect of night, there
are two servants with torches in their hands, which throw light where
the glare of the fire below the gridiron does not reach, which is
piled high and very fierce. Besides this, he depicted a
lightning-flash, which, darting from Heaven and cleaving the clouds,
overcome