14 AUGUST 1830, Page 17

TITIAN.*

This work, although a compilation only, has the high merit of accuracy and usefulness. The author, doubtless, felt that the best account of TITIAN would be furnished by a description of his works ; and he has therefore confined himself strictly to recount- ing the most prominent incidents of his professional life, and an enumeration of his labours, discriminating his different styles and the most successful triumphs of his art, by referring more parti- cularly to his most remarkable productions. in addition to the descriptive catalogue of his paintings, this volume contain., a list of the persons whom TITIAN painted—the places where his principal works now are—an account of the portraits of TITIAN—of his mode ofpainting—his patrons and friends—his scholars, and a voluminous descriptive catalogue of engravings from his pictures, classed and arranged. Such are the contents of this valuable and unassuming production; the labour of which—the taste, discrimination, and accuracy, it is difficult to appreciate as they deserve. We lately took occasion to notice, with the praise due to it, a Catalogue of the Works of the Flemish and Dutch Painters, compiled by Mr. SMITH, the picture-dealer; the present work is of a similar kind, and is the result of the learning and research of an enlightened connoisseur and veteran dilettante, whose admiration of TITIAN is as enthusiastic as his understanding of his merits is profound. The modesty with which the author has embodied his own excel- lent remarks with dry details and appropriate extracts, shows the sense that he entertains of the importance of his subject ; and this, together with the voluntary nature of the labour, forms the best guarantee for the faithful execution of his task.

• Notices of the Life and Works of Titian. By Sir Abraham Hume. London, 1830.