s the light of the fire and that of the torches, shining
over the Saint and the other principal figures, and, in addition to
those three lights, the figures that he painted in the distance at the
windows of the building have the light of lamps and candles that are
near them; and all, in short, is executed with beautiful art,
judgment, and genius. In the Church of S. Sebastiano, on the altar of
S. Niccolo, there is by the hand of the same Tiziano a little
altar-piece of a S. Nicholas who appears as if alive, seated in a
chair painted in the likeness of stone, with an Angel that is holding
his mitre; which work he executed at the commission of Messer Niccolo
Crasso, the advocate. Tiziano afterwards painted, for sending to the
Catholic King, a figure of S. Mary Magdalene from the middle of the
thighs upwards, all dishevelled; that is, with the hair falling over
the shoulders, about the throat, and over the breast, the while that,
raising the head with the eyes fixed on Heaven, she reveals remorse in
the redness of the eyes, and in her tears repentance for her sins.
Wherefore the picture moves mightily all who behold it; and, what is
more, although she is very beautiful, it moves not to lust but to
compassion. This picture, when it was finished, so pleased ... Silvio,
a Venetian gentleman, that in order to have it, being one who takes
supreme delight in painting, he gave Tiziano a hundred crowns:
wherefore Tiziano was forced to paint another, which was not less
beautiful, for sending to the above-named Catholic King.

There are also to be seen portraits from life by Tiziano of a Venetian
citizen called Sinistri, who was much his friend, and of another named
M. Paolo da Ponte, for whom he likewise portrayed a daughter that he
had at that time, a most beautiful young woman called Signora Giulia
da Ponte, a dear friend of Tiziano; and in like manner Signora Irene,
a very lovely maiden, skilled in letters and music and a student of
design, who, dying about seven years ago, was celebrated by the pens
of almost all the writers of Italy. He portrayed M. Francesco Filetto,
an orator of happy memory, and in the same picture, before him, his
son, who seems as if alive; which portrait is in the house of Messer
Matteo Giustiniani, a lover of these arts, who has also had a picture
painted for himself by the painter Jacopo da Bassano, which is very
beautiful, as also are many other works by that Bassano which are
dispersed throughout Ven