As an antidote, perhaps, to so sensual a production, Titian sent to Urbino, with his Venus, a picture offering the utmost contrast in sentiment and artistic treatment. It was the first of those Magdalens,[*236] frequently repeated by him with slight variations, of whom not a few school copies may be seen passing for originals. Ridolfi tells us that he caught the idea from an antique sculpture, transforming it into a penitent daughter of sin. Yet he has treated it according to those ideas of female beauty which it was the peculiar province of the Venetian school to develop, and which in Italy have passed into the proverbial phrase of _un bel pezzo di carne_, meaning a buxom dame. To borrow the words of Ticozzi, "he has represented a noble lady, who, while yet in her prime, had abandoned the delights and delicacies of her station. With due regard to her past position, he has lavished upon her the beauties of form and complexion; her repentance he has characterised with the most devoted expression of which art is capable." The ascetic sentiment prevailing in this work is well adapted to the sympathies of the Roman Church, among whose followers it has ever been more a favourite than with Protestant amateurs. [Footnote *236: Pitti Gallery, No. 67. We know nothing of this picture save that it must have been painted about 1530-35, and that Vasari saw it in the Guardaroba of the Palace of Urbino.] [Illustration: PORTRAIT OF HIS WIFE, BY LUCAS CRANACH _From the picture in the Roscoe Collection, Liverpool. Possibly modelled on the Venus of Urbino_] Our notice of Titian in connection with the court of Urbino, may be closed by a letter, which, in the servile phrase of this century, ventures thus to dun Guidobaldo for payment of a picture sent him five months before:-- "To the most illustrious and most excellent Lord, the Lord Duke of Urbino. "Most illustrious and most excellent Lord, "Very many days have now passed since your most illustrious Excellency desired that I should be advised how your [servant] Agatone ought to have remunerated me for the picture which I sent to your most illustrious Excellency. Which he not having done, although six months are nearly elapsed since the 10th of March, but having only put me off with words, I have chosen to take the step of informing your illustrious Excellency by these lines, that your boundless liberality may aid my necessity, though I admit that I may thereby appear wanting in modesty. I know that your illustrious Excellency, occupied by important affairs, cannot have your mind distracted by such trifles, yet I consider it my duty respectfully to let you know my difficulty; and beseeching you to retain me in your wonted favour, I humbly kiss your most distinguished hands. From Venice, the 27th of October, 1567. Your most illustrious Excellency's most humble servant, "TITIANO VECELLIO."