Memoirs of the early Italian painters / by Anna Jameson; thoroughly revised and in part rewritten by Estelle M. Hurll.
- Anna Brownell Jameson
- Date:
- 1899
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Memoirs of the early Italian painters / by Anna Jameson; thoroughly revised and in part rewritten by Estelle M. Hurll. Source: Wellcome Collection.
298/335 page 252
![Unfortunately it was not his custom to inscribe on the canvas the names of those who sat to him: many of the most glorious heads he ever painted remain to this hour unknown. Amid all their reality (and nothing in painting ever so conveyed the idea of a presence) they have a particular dignity which strikes us with respect; we would fain interrogate them, while they look at us lifelike, grandly, calmly, like beings of another world; they seem to recognize us, but we can never recognize them : only we feel the certainty that just as they now look, so they lived and looked in long past times. Such a portrait is that in Hampton Court Gallery ; that grave dark man, —in figure and attitude so tranquil, so contemplative, but in his eyes and on his lips a revelation of feeling and eloquence. But leaving these, I will subjoin here a short list of those great and celebrated personages who are known to have sat to Titian, and whose portraits remain to us, a precious legacy, and forming the truest commentary on their lives, deeds, and works.1 Charles V. Titian painted this emperor several times : the first time in [1532-33], in a full suit of armor, when he was a young man full of health and conscious of power;2 the last time in [1548], when he was a broken-down and feeble old man, seated in an armchair in a velvet dressing - gown. [Munich Gallery.] He has always a grave, even melancholy, expression, very short hair and beard, a large square brow, and the full lips and projecting under-jaw which became a deform- ity in his descendants. His wife, the Empress Isabella, holding flowers in her hand. Philip II. : like his father, but uglier, more melancholy, less intellectual. The Duke of Devonshire has a fine full length in rich armor. There is a very good one at Florence, in the Pitti Palace, and another at Madrid. [According to Morelli, undoubtedly u one of the most splendid portraits in 1 [The following names are omitted from the original list, no trace of the portraits mentioned being found in Crowe and Cavalcaselle: The Lmperor Rudolph II., Paul IV., Ferdinand Leyva, Alphonso d’Avalos, Tasso, ( ordinal Castiglione. The famous portrait called the “ Bella di Tiziano ” (Sciarra l’alace) is now known to be the work of Palma.] 2 [For the history of this portrait, which was sold in 1856, see Crowe and Cavalcaselle, Titian, vol. i. p. 307.]](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b24877888_0298.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
