On the one
hand, he speaks as an eye-witness of Titian's old age, and is careful to
record the exact year he visited Venice and the age of the painter; on
the other hand, he makes a bald statement which he certainly cannot have
verified, and which is inconsistent with his own experience! In any
case, in Vasari's text the evidence is two to one in favour of 1489-90
as the right date, and thus we come to the agreeable conclusion that our
two oldest authorities, Dolce and Vasari, are at one in fixing Titian's
birth between 1488 and 1490--in other words, about 1489.
So far, then, all is clear, and as we know from later and indisputable
evidence that Titian died in 1576, it follows that he only attained the
age of eighty-seven and not ninety-nine. Whence, then, comes the story
of the ninety-nine years? From none other than Titian himself, and to
this piece of evidence we must next turn, following out a strict
chronological order.
In 1571--that is, three years after Vasari's second edition was
published--Titian addresses a letter to Philip the Second of Spain in
these terms:[158]
"Most potent and invincible King,--I think your Majesty will have
received by this the picture of 'Lucretia and Tarquin' which was to
have been presented by the Venetian Ambassador. I now come with
these lines to ask your Majesty to deign to command that I should
be informed as to what pleasure it has given.
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