Page:St. Nicholas (serial) (IA stnicholasserial321dodg).pdf/319

portrait is not only in the expression of the face and in the wonderful eyes, but also in the actual balance of light and dark in the composition. Then, taking the face as the source and starting-point of the impression which the picture makes,we note how the slit of the open doublet and the extended right forefinger echo the piercing directness of the gaze; while the left hand has an ease and elegance of expression which correspond with the grand and gracious poise of the whole picture.

Grand and gracious poise! Quite suggestive, indeed, of Titian himself. At once a genius and a favorite of fortune, he moved through his long life of pomp and splendor serene and self-contained. He was of old and noble family, born at Pieve in the mountain district of Cadore. By the time that he was eleven years old his father, Gregorio di Conte Vecelli, recognized that he was destined to be a painter and sent him to Venice, where he became the pupil first of Bellini, and then of the great artist Giorgione; from the first, indeed, he enjoyed every privilege that an artist of his time could need. The Doge