and one, too, in which the master of Cadore rose superior to all influences, even to that of Giorgione--could have been painted in 1508, that is some two years before Bellini's _Baptism of Christ_ in S. Corona, and in all probability before the _Three Philosophers_ of Giorgione himself. The one of Titian's own early pictures with which it appears to the writer to have most in common--not so much in technique, indeed, as in general style--is the _St. Mark_ of the Salute, and than this it is very much less Giorgionesque. To praise the _Cristo della Moneta_ anew after it has been so incomparably well praised seems almost an impertinence. The soft radiance of the colour so well matches the tempered majesty, the infinite mansuetude of the conception; the spirituality, which is of the essence of the august subject, is so happily expressed, without any sensible diminution of the splendour of Renaissance art approaching its highest. And yet nothing could well be simpler than the scheme of colour as compared with the complex harmonies which Venetian art in a somewhat later phase affected. Frank contrasts are established between the tender, glowing flesh of the Christ, seen in all the glory of achieved manhood, and the coarse, brown skin of the son of the people who appears as the Pharisee; between the bright yet tempered red of His robe and the deep blue of His mantle. But the golden glow, which is Titian's own, envelops the contrasting figures and the contrasting hues in its harmonising atmosphere, and gives unity to the whole.[28] [Illustration: _The "Cristo della Moneta." Dresden Gallery. From a Photograph by Hanfstängl._]