The Portfolio : the Earlier Work of Titian. By Claude
Phillips. (Seeley and Co.)—This is a moat excellent piece of work. Mr. Phillips has avoided the fault of so many recent biographers of
the great Italian painters,—the fault of neglecting the painter's. work for the illusory attempt to reconstruct the artist's person- ality. In this book, instead, we are given a full and systematic account of Titian's earlier pictures. By help of the large number of really admirable reproductions we are able to follow the in- fluence which Giorgone exercised on Titian. The rise and decline of this influence Mr. Phillips traces in a highly interesting way. We are given a curious explanation by Herr Wickhoff of the " Sacred and Profane Love." According to this authority the great picture really represents Venus tempting Medea to love Jason. We shall look forward to the second part of this work, which will deal with the painter's later years.
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