The famous _Christ bearing the Cross_ in the Chiesa di S. Rocco at
Venice is first, in his Life of the Castelfranco painter, ascribed by
Vasari to Giorgione, and then in the subsequent Life of Titian given to
that master, but to a period very much too late in his career. The
biographer quaintly adds: "This figure, which many have believed to be
from the hand of Giorgione, is to-day the most revered object in Venice,
and has received more charitable offerings in money than Titian and
Giorgione together ever gained in the whole course of their life." This
too great popularity of the work as a wonder-working picture is perhaps
the cause that it is to-day in a state as unsatisfactory as is the _Man
of Sorrows_ in the adjacent Scuola. The picture which presents "Christ
dragged along by the executioner, with two spectators in the
background," resembles most among Giorgione's authentic creations the
_Christ bearing the Cross_ in the Casa Loschi at Vicenza. The
resemblance is not, however, one of colour and technique, since this
last--one of the earliest of Giorgiones--still recalls Giovanni Bellini,
and perhaps even more strongly Cima; it is one of type and conception.
In both renderings of the divine countenance there is--or it may be the
writer fancies that there is--underlying that expression of serenity and
humiliation accepted which is proper to the subject, a sinister,
disquieting look, almost a threat. Crowe and Cavalcaselle have called
attention to a certain disproportion in the size of the head, as
compared with that of the surrounding actors in the scene. A similar
disproportion is to be observed in another early Titian, the _Christ
between St. Andrew and St. Catherine_ in the Church of SS. Ermagora and
Fortunato (commonly called S. Marcuola) at Venice. Here the head of the
infant Christ, who stands on a pedestal holding the Orb, between the two
saints above mentioned, is strangely out of proportion to the rest.
Crowe and Cavalcaselle had refused to accept this picture as a genuine
Titian (vol. ii. p. 432), but Morelli restored it to its rightful place
among the early works.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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