st 27th, and all Venice mourned for him.

There was a law that no person who died of the plague in Venice should be
buried within the city; but Titian was so much honored and beloved that
exception was made, and he was buried in the Church of Santa Maria
Gloriosa de Frari; or as it is usually called, "the Frari." He had painted
a great picture of the Assumption for this church, which has since been
removed to the Academy of Venice; but another work of his, called the
Pesaro altar-piece, still remains near his grave. His burial-place is
marked by a simple tablet, inscribed thus: "Here lies the great Tiziano di
Vecelli, rival of Zeuxis and Apelles."

A little more than two centuries after his death the citizens of Venice
determined to erect a monument to Titian, and Canova made a design for it;
but political troubles interfered, and prevented the execution of the
plan. In 1852 the Emperor of Austria, Ferdinand I., placed a costly
monument near his grave; it consists of a Corinthian canopy beneath which
is a sitting statue of the painter, while several other allegorical
figures are added to increase its magnificence. This monument was
dedicated with imposing ceremonies, and it is curious to note that not far
away from it the sculptor Canova is buried, and his own monument is made
from the design which he made for that of Titian.

Some writers consider the "Entombment of Christ," in the Manfrini Palace,
as the greatest work of Titian. At all events, it is the best existing
representation of this subject, and is a picture which has had a great
effect upon art; its chief feature is the general expression of sorrow
which pervades the whole work.

Titian gave a new importance to landscape-painting by making backgrounds
to his pictures from natural scenery, and that not as if it was merely for
the sake of a background, but in a manner which showed his love for
Nature, and, in fact, he often rendered it with poetical significance.

The works of Titian are very seldom sold. One subject which he oftentimes
repeated was that of "Danae" with the shower of gold falling about her;
one of these was purchased by the Emperor of Russia for six hundred
thousand francs. One of the most important of his religious pictures was
that of "St. Peter Martyr;" this was burned in the Church of SS. Giovanni
e Paolo in Venice in 1868. An excellent copy of it had been for a long
time in the Museum of Florence, and this was presented to the Venetians