[30] An ingenious suggestion was made, when the _Ariosto_ was last publicly exhibited, that it might be that _Portrait of a Gentleman of the House of Barbarigo_ which, according to Vasari, Titian painted with wonderful skill at the age of eighteen. The broad, masterly technique of the Cobham Hall picture in no way accords, however, with Vasari's description, and marks a degree of accomplishment such as no boy of eighteen, not even Titian, could have attained. And then Vasari's "giubbone di raso inargentato" is not the superbly luminous steel-grey sleeve of this _Ariosto_, but surely a vest of satin embroidered with silver. The late form of signature, "Titianus F.," on the stone balustrade, which is one of the most Giorgionesque elements of the portrait, is disquieting, and most probably a later addition. It seems likely that the balustrade bore originally only the "V" repeated, which curiously enough occurs also on the similar balustrade of the beautiful _Portrait of a young Venetian_, by Giorgione, first cited as such by Morelli, and now in the Berlin Gallery, into which it passed from the collection of its discoverer, Dr. J.P. Richter. The signature "Ticianus" occurs, as a rule, on pictures belonging to the latter half of the first period. The works in the earlier half of this first period do not appear to have been signed, the "Titiano F." of the _Baffo_ inscription being admittedly of later date. Thus that the _Cristo della Moneta_ bears the "Ticianus F." on the collar of the Pharisee's shirt is an additional argument in favour of maintaining its date as originally given by Vasari (1514), instead of putting it back to 1508 or thereabouts. Among a good many other paintings with this last signature may be mentioned the _Jeune Homme au Gant_ and _Vierge au Lapin_ of the Louvre; the _Madonna with St. Anthony Abbot_ of the Uffizi; the _Bacchus and Ariadne_, the _Assunta_, the _St. Sebastian_ of Brescia (dated 1522). The _Virgin and Child with St. Catherine_ of the National Gallery, and the _Christ with the Pilgrims at Emmaus_ of the Louvre--neither of them early works--are signed "Tician." The usual signature of the later time is "Titianus F.," among the first works to show it being the Ancona altar-piece and the great _Madonna di San Niccolò_ now in the Pinacoteca of the Vatican. It has been incorrectly stated that the late _St. Jerome_ of the Brera bears the earlier signature, "Ticianus F." This is not the case. The signature is most distinctly "Titianus," though in a somewhat unusual character. [31] Crowe and Cavalcaselle describe it as a "picture which has not its equal in any period of Giorgione's practice" (_History of Painting in North Italy_, vol. ii.).