Morelli is inclined to disregard the
testimony of Vasari, from whose text it would result that it was painted
in or after the year 1514, and to place it as far back as 1508.
Notwithstanding this weight of authority the writer is strongly
inclined, following Vasari in this instance, and trusting to certain
indications furnished by the picture itself, to return to the date 1514
or thereabouts. There is no valid reason to doubt that the _Christ of
the Tribute-Money_ was painted for Alfonso I. of Ferrara, and the less
so, seeing that it so aptly illustrates the already quoted legend on his
coins: "Quod est Caesaris Caesari, quod est Dei Deo." According to
Vasari, it was painted _nella porta d'un armario_--that is to say, in
the door of a press or wardrobe. But this statement need not be taken in
its most literal sense. If it were to be assumed from this passage that
the picture was painted on the spot, its date must be advanced to 1516,
since Titian did not pay his first visit to Ferrara before that year.
There is no sufficient ground, however, for assuming that he did not
execute his wonderful panel in the usual fashion--that is to say, at
home in Venice. The last finishing touches might, perhaps, have been
given to it _in situ_, as they were to Bellini's _Bacchanal_, done also
for the Duke of Ferrara. The extraordinary finish of the painting, which
is hardly to be paralleled in this respect in the life-work of the
artist, may have been due to his desire to "show his hand" to his new
patron in a subject which touched him so nearly. And then the finish is
not of the Quattrocento type, not such as we find, for instance, in the
_Leonardo Loredano_ of Giovanni Bellini, the finest panels of Cima, or
the early _Christ bearing the Cross_ of Giorgione. In it exquisite
polish of surface and consummate rendering of detail are combined with
the utmost breadth and majesty of composition, with a now perfect
freedom in the casting of the draperies. It is difficult, indeed, to
imagine that this masterpiece--so eminently a work of the Cinquecento,
and one, too, in which the master of Cadore rose superior to all
influences, even to that of Giorgione--could have been painted in 1508,
that is some two years before Bellini's _Baptism of Christ_ in S.
Corona, and in all probability before the _Three Philosophers_ of
Giorgione himself. The one of Titian's own early pictures with which it
appears to the writer to have most in common--not so much i