Heldengedichten" (_Jahrbuch der Koeniglich Preussischen
Kunstsammlungen_: Sechzehnter Band, I. Heft) has most ingeniously, and
upon what may be deemed solid grounds, renamed this most Giorgionesque
of all Giorgiones after an incident in the _Thebaid_ of Statius,
_Adrastus and Hypsipyle_. He gives reasons which may be accepted as
convincing for entitling the _Three Philosophers_, after a familiar
incident in Book viii. of the _Aeneid_, "Aeneas, Evander, and Pallas
contemplating the Rock of the Capitol." His not less ingenious
explanation of Titian's _Sacred and Profane Love_ will be dealt with a
little later on. These identifications are all-important, not only in
connection with the works themselves thus renamed, and for the first
time satisfactorily explained, but as compelling the students of
Giorgione partly to reconsider their view of his art, and, indeed, of
the Venetian idyll generally.

[2] For many highly ingenious interpretations of Lotto's portraits and a
sustained analysis of his art generally, Mr. Bernard Berenson's _Lorenzo
Lotto_ should be consulted. See also M. Emile Michel's article, "Les
Portraits de Lorenzo Lotto," in the _Gazette des Beaux Arts_, 1896, vol.
i.

[3] For these and other particulars of the childhood of Titian, see
Crowe and Cavalcaselle's elaborate _Life and Times of Titian_ (second
edition, 1881), in which are carefully summarised all the general and
local authorities on the subject.

[4] _Life and Times of Titian_, vol. i. p. 29.

[5] _Die Galerien zu Muenchen und Dresden_, p. 75.

[6] Carlo Ridolfi (better known as a historian of the Venetian school of
art than as a Venetian painter of the late time) expressly states that
Palma came young to Venice and learnt much from Titan: "_C' egli apprese
certa dolcezza di colorire che si avvicina alle opere prime dello stesso
Tiziano_" (Lermolieff: _Die Galerien zu Muenchen und Dresden_).

[7] Vasari, _Le Vite: Giorgione da Castelfranco_.

[8] One of these is a description of wedding festivities presided over
by the Queen at Asolo, to which came, among many other guests from the
capital by the Lagunes, three Venetian gentlemen and three ladies. This
gentle company, in a series of conversations, dwell upon, and embroider
in many variations, that inexhaustible theme, the love of man for woman.
A subject this which, transposed into an atmosphere at once more frankly
sensuous and of a higher spirituality, might well have served as the
basis