which stipulates for certain special payments and provisions, is accepted by the Council. Titian, like most other holders of the much-coveted office, shows himself subsequently much more eager to receive its not inconsiderable emoluments than to finish the pictures, the painting of which is the one essential duty attached to the office. Some further bargaining takes place with the Council on the 18th of January 1516, but, a few days after the death of Giovanni Bellini at the end of November in the same year, fresh resolutions are passed postponing the grant to Titian of Bellini's patent; notwithstanding which, there is conclusive evidence of a later date to show that he is allowed the full enjoyment of his "Senseria in Fontego di Tedeschi" (_sic_), with all its privileges and immunities, before the close of this same year, 1516. [Illustration: _Portrait of a Man. Alte Pinakothek, Munich. From a Photograph by Hanfstängl_.] It is in this year that Titian paid his first visit to Ferrara, and entered into relations with Alfonso I., which were to become more intimate as the position of the master became greater and more universally recognised in Italy. It was here, as we may safely assume, that he completed, or, it may be, repaired, Giovanni Bellini's last picture, the great _Bacchanal_ or _Feast of the Gods on Earth_, now at Alnwick Castle. It is there that he obtained the commission for two famous works, the _Worship of Venus_ and the _Bacchanal_, designed, in continuation of the series commenced with Bellini's _Feast of the Gods_, to adorn a favourite apartment in Alfonso's castle of Ferrara; the series being completed a little later on by that crown and climax of the whole set, the _Bacchus and Ariadne_ of the National Gallery.