Memoirs of the early Italian painters / by Anna Jameson; thoroughly revised and in part rewritten by Estelle M. Hurll.

Jameson, Mrs. (Anna), 1794-1860.

Date:: 1899

Credit: Memoirs of the early Italian painters / by Anna Jameson; thoroughly revised and in part rewritten by Estelle M. Hurll. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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$204 The elder Palma is also considered as a scholar of Titian though deriving as little from his personal instruction as did Tintoretto, Bordone, and others of the school. The date of his birth has been rendered uncertain by the mistakes of vari- ous authors, who confounded the elder and the younger Palma; but it appears that he was born between 1473 and 1480, — that he was, in fact, about the same age as Titian.1 In some pictures he has shown the dignity of Titian, in others a touch of the melancholy sentiment of Giorgione. Hot half the pictures attributed to Palma Vecchio are by him. We have [but] one in our National Gallery [a portrait long at- tributed to Titian]. On the whole he was a most charming painter, and his religious subjects in that pastoral style which belonged to the Venetian school are beyond expression lovely — one in the Louvre [Adoration of Shepherds] and one at Dresden [Holy Family] are examples. [Early writers tell us that] this painter had three daughters of remarkable beauty. Violante, the eldest and most beautiful, is said to have been loved by Titian. She was frequently painted by her father, and it is a tradition that she was the model of his St. Barbara, in the S. Maria Formosa at Venice; his masterpiece — and one of the finest pictures in the world. We have the three [so- called] daughters of Palma, painted by himself, in the Vienna Gallery; one, a most lovely creature, with long light brown hair, and a violet in her bosom, is without doubt Titian’s Vio- lante. In the Dresden Gallery are the same three beautiful girls in one picture, the head in the centre being the Violante.2 [The Munich Gallery contains a very interesting portrait long attributed to Giorgione, but now catalogued as a portrait of Palma by himself.3] It remains to give some account of two remarkable Venetian painters who were contemporaries of Titian, but could hardly be called his rivals, his equals, or his imitators. They were both inferior to him, but original men in their different styles. The first was Tintoretto, born in [1518]; his real name 1 [Palma died in 1528.] 2 [Sir Henry Lavard states that it is now known that Palma had no daughter and that Violante was probably a favorite model.] 3 [Morelli challenges both the subject and the authorship of this portrait, which he attributes to Carinni. It is, however, still widely accepted as Palma’s portrait, being undoubtedly the picture described as such by '\ asari.]$