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Giorgione (, , ; born Giorgio Barbarelli da Castelfranco; 1477–78 or 1473–74 – 17 September 1510) was an Italian painter of the Venetian school during the High Renaissance, who died in his thirties. He is known for the elusive poetic quality of his work, though only about six surviving paintings are firmly attributed to him. The uncertainty surrounding the identity and meaning of his work has made Giorgione one of the most mysterious figures in European art. Together with his younger contemporary
Titian Tiziano Vecelli or Vecellio (; 27 August 1576), known in English as Titian ( ), was an Italians, Italian (Republic of Venice, Venetian) painter of the Renaissance, considered the most important member of the 16th-century Venetian school (art), ...
, he founded the Venetian school of Italian Renaissance painting, characterised by its use of colour and mood. The school is traditionally contrasted with Florentine painting, which relied on a more linear disegno-led style.


Life

What little is known of Giorgione's life is given in
Giorgio Vasari Giorgio Vasari (, also , ; 30 July 1511 – 27 June 1574) was an Italian Renaissance Master, who worked as a painter, architect, engineer, writer, and historian, who is best known for his work '' The Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculp ...
's ''
Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects ''The Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects'' ( it, Le vite de' più eccellenti pittori, scultori, e architettori), often simply known as ''The Lives'' ( it, Le Vite), is a series of artist biographies written by 16th-ce ...
''. He came from the small town of Castelfranco Veneto, 40 km inland from Venice. His name sometimes appears as ''Zorzo''; the variant ''Giorgione'' (or ''Zorzon'') may be translated "Big George". It is unclear how early in boyhood he went to Venice, but stylistic evidence supports the statement of
Carlo Ridolfi Carlo Ridolfi (1594–1658) was an Italian art biographer and painter of the Baroque period. Biography Ridolfi was born in Lonigo near Vicenza. He was a pupil of the painter Antonio Vassilacchi (Aliense). He painted a ''Visitation'' for the O ...
that he served his apprenticeship there under
Giovanni Bellini Giovanni Bellini (; c. 1430 – 26 November 1516) was an Italian Renaissance painter, probably the best known of the Bellini family of Venetian painters. He was raised in the household of Jacopo Bellini, formerly thought to have been his fath ...
; there he settled and rose to prominence as a master. Contemporary documents record that his talent was recognized early. In 1500, when he was in his twenties, he was chosen to paint portraits of the Doge
Agostino Barbarigo Agostino Barbarigo (3 June 1419 – 20 September 1501) was Doge of Venice from 1486 until his death in 1501. While he was Doge, the imposing Clock Tower in the Piazza San Marco with its archway through which the street known as the Merceria le ...
and the
condottiere ''Condottieri'' (; singular ''condottiero'' or ''condottiere'') were Italian captains in command of mercenary companies during the Middle Ages and of multinational armies during the early modern period. They notably served popes and other Euro ...
Consalvo Ferrante. In 1504, he was commissioned to paint an altarpiece in memory of another condottiere, Matteo Costanzo, in the cathedral of his native town, Castelfranco. In 1507, he received, at the order of the Council of Ten, partial payment for a picture (subject unknown) in which he was engaged for the Hall of the Audience in the
Doge's Palace The Doge's Palace ( it, Palazzo Ducale; vec, Pałaso Dogal) is a palace built in Venetian Gothic style, and one of the main landmarks of the city of Venice in northern Italy. The palace was the residence of the Doge of Venice, the supreme aut ...
. From 1507 to 1508 he was employed, with other artists of his generation, to decorate with frescoes the exterior of the newly rebuilt
Fondaco dei Tedeschi The Fondaco dei Tedeschi (Venetian: ''Fòntego dei Todeschi'', in literal English, "warehouse of the Germans") is a historic building in Venice, northern Italy, situated on the Grand Canal near the Rialto Bridge. It was the headquarters and res ...
(or German Merchants' Hall) at Venice, having already done similar work on the exterior of the Casa Soranzo, the Casa Grimani alli Servi and other Venetian palaces. Very little of this work now survives. Vasari mentions his meeting with
Leonardo da Vinci Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (15 April 14522 May 1519) was an Italian polymath of the High Renaissance who was active as a painter, draughtsman, engineer, scientist, theorist, sculptor, and architect. While his fame initially rested on ...
on the occasion of the Tuscan master's visit to Venice in 1500. All accounts agree in representing Giorgione as a person of distinguished and romantic charm, a great lover and a musician, given to express in his art the sensuous and imaginative grace, touched with poetic melancholy, of Venetian life of his time. They represent him further as having made in Venetian painting an advance analogous to that made in Tuscan painting by Leonardo more than twenty years before. He was very closely associated with
Titian Tiziano Vecelli or Vecellio (; 27 August 1576), known in English as Titian ( ), was an Italians, Italian (Republic of Venice, Venetian) painter of the Renaissance, considered the most important member of the 16th-century Venetian school (art), ...
; while Vasari says Giorgione was Titian's master, Ridolfi says that they both were pupils of
Giovanni Bellini Giovanni Bellini (; c. 1430 – 26 November 1516) was an Italian Renaissance painter, probably the best known of the Bellini family of Venetian painters. He was raised in the household of Jacopo Bellini, formerly thought to have been his fath ...
, and lived in his house. They worked together on the Fondaco dei Tedeschi frescoes, and Titian finished at least some paintings of Giorgione after his death, although which ones remains very controversial. Giorgione also introduced a new range of subjects. Besides
altarpiece An altarpiece is an artwork such as a painting, sculpture or relief representing a religious subject made for placing at the back of or behind the altar of a Christian church. Though most commonly used for a single work of art such as a painting ...
s and portraits he painted pictures that told no story, whether biblical or classical, or if they professed to tell a story, neglected the action and simply embodied in form and color moods of lyrical or romantic feeling, much as a musician might embody them in sounds. Innovating with the courage and felicity of genius, he had for a time an overwhelming influence on his contemporaries and immediate successors in the Venetian school, including
Titian Tiziano Vecelli or Vecellio (; 27 August 1576), known in English as Titian ( ), was an Italians, Italian (Republic of Venice, Venetian) painter of the Renaissance, considered the most important member of the 16th-century Venetian school (art), ...
, Sebastiano del Piombo,
Palma il Vecchio Palma Vecchio (c. 1480 – 30 July 1528), born Jacopo Palma, also known as Jacopo Negretti, was a Venetian painter of the High Renaissance, Italian High Renaissance. He is called Palma Vecchio in English and Palma il Vecchio in Italian ("Palma ...
, il Cariani,
Giulio Campagnola Giulio Campagnola (; c. 1482 – c. 1515) was an Italian engraver and painter, whose few, rare, prints translated the rich Venetian Renaissance style of oil paintings of Giorgione and the early Titian into the medium of engraving; to further his ...
(and his brother), and even on his already eminent master, Giovanni Bellini. In the Venetian mainland, ''Giorgionismo'' strongly influenced Morto da Feltre,
Domenico Capriolo Domenico Caprioli (1494–1528) was an Italian painter born at Treviso in 1494. He produced portraits in the style of Giorgione. Life Caprioli was the son-in-law and pupil of Pier Maria Pennacchi and arose to prominence in the early 16th Century ...
, and Domenico Mancini. Giorgione died of the
plague Plague or The Plague may refer to: Agriculture, fauna, and medicine *Plague (disease), a disease caused by ''Yersinia pestis'' * An epidemic of infectious disease (medical or agricultural) * A pandemic caused by such a disease * A swarm of pes ...
then raging, on the 17th of September, 1510. He was usually thought to have died and been buried on the island of
Poveglia Poveglia ( ; ) is a small island located between Venice and Lido in the Venetian Lagoon, of northern Italy. A small canal divides the island into two separate parts. The island first appears in the historical record in 421, and was populated u ...
in the Venetian lagoon, but an archival document published for the first time in 2011 places his death on the island of Lazzareto Nuovo; both were used as places of
quarantine A quarantine is a restriction on the movement of people, animals and goods which is intended to prevent the spread of disease or pests. It is often used in connection to disease and illness, preventing the movement of those who may have been ...
in times of plague. October 1510 is also the date of a letter by Isabella d'Este to a Venetian friend; asking him to buy a painting by Giorgione; the letter shows she was aware he was already dead. Significantly, the reply a month later said the painting was not to be had at any price. His name and work continue to exercise a spell on posterity. But to identify and define, among the relics of his age and school, precisely what that work is, and to distinguish it from the similar work of other men whom his influence inspired, is a very difficult matter. Although there are no longer any supporters of the "Pan Giorgionismus" which a century ago claimed for Giorgione nearly every painting of the time that at all resembles his manner, there are still, as then, exclusive critics who reduce to half a dozen the list of extant pictures that they will admit to be by this painter.


Works

For his home town of Castelfranco, Giorgione painted the '' Castelfranco Madonna'', an
altarpiece An altarpiece is an artwork such as a painting, sculpture or relief representing a religious subject made for placing at the back of or behind the altar of a Christian church. Though most commonly used for a single work of art such as a painting ...
in sacra conversazione form—
Madonna Madonna Louise Ciccone (; ; born August 16, 1958) is an American singer-songwriter and actress. Widely dubbed the " Queen of Pop", Madonna has been noted for her continual reinvention and versatility in music production, songwriting, a ...
enthroned, with saints on either side forming an equilateral triangle. This gave the landscape background an importance which marks an innovation in Venetian art, and was quickly followed by his master
Giovanni Bellini Giovanni Bellini (; c. 1430 – 26 November 1516) was an Italian Renaissance painter, probably the best known of the Bellini family of Venetian painters. He was raised in the household of Jacopo Bellini, formerly thought to have been his fath ...
and others. Giorgione began to use the very refined
chiaroscuro Chiaroscuro ( , ; ), in art, is the use of strong contrasts between light and dark, usually bold contrasts affecting a whole composition. It is also a technical term used by artists and art historians for the use of contrasts of light to achi ...
called
sfumato Sfumato (, ) is a painting technique for softening the transition between colours, mimicking an area beyond what the human eye is focusing on, or the out-of-focus plane. It is one of the canonical painting modes of the Renaissance. Leonardo da ...
—the delicate use of shades of color to depict light and perspective—around the same time as Leonardo. Whether Vasari is correct in saying he learned it from Leonardo's works is unclear—he is always keen to ascribe all advances to Florentine sources. Leonardo's delicate color modulations result from the tiny disconnected spots of paint that he probably derived from
Illuminated manuscript An illuminated manuscript is a formally prepared document where the text is often supplemented with flourishes such as borders and miniature illustrations. Often used in the Roman Catholic Church for prayers, liturgical services and psalms, th ...
techniques and first brought into oil painting. These gave Giorgione's works the magical glow of light for which they are celebrated. Most central and typical of all of Giorgione's extant works is the '' Sleeping Venus'' now in
Dresden Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label= Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth ...
. It was first recognized by Giovanni Morelli, and is now universally accepted, as being the same as the picture seen by
Marcantonio Michiel Marcantonio Michiel (1484–1552) was a Venetian noble from a family prominent in the service of the State who was interested in matters of art. His notes on the contemporary art collections of Venice, Padua, Milan and other northern Italian cent ...
and later by Ridolfi (his 17th century biographer) in the Casa Marcello at Venice. An exquisitely pure and severe rhythm of line and contour chastens the sensuous richness of the painting. The sweep of white drapery on which the goddess lies; and the glowing landscape that fills the space behind her; most harmoniously frame her divinity. The use of an external landscape to frame a nude is innovative; but in addition, to add to her mystery, she is shrouded in sleep, spirited away from accessibility to any conscious expression. It is recorded by Michiel that Giorgione left this piece unfinished and that the landscape, with a
Cupid In classical mythology, Cupid (Latin Cupīdō , meaning "passionate desire") is the god of desire, lust, erotic love, attraction and affection. He is often portrayed as the son of the love goddess Venus (mythology), Venus and the god of war Mar ...
which subsequent restoration has removed, were completed after his death by Titian. The picture is the prototype of Titian's own '' Venus of Urbino'' and of many more by other painters of the school; but none of them attained the fame of the first exemplar. The same concept of idealized beauty is evoked in a virginally pensive '' Judith'' from the
Hermitage Museum The State Hermitage Museum ( rus, Государственный Эрмитаж, r=Gosudarstvennyj Ermitaž, p=ɡəsʊˈdarstvʲɪn(ː)ɨj ɪrmʲɪˈtaʂ, links=no) is a museum of art and culture in Saint Petersburg, Russia. It is the larges ...
, a large painting which exhibits Giorgione's special qualities of color richness and landscape romance, while demonstrating that life and death are each other's companions rather than foes. Apart from the altarpiece and the frescoes, all Giorgione's surviving works are small paintings designed for the wealthy Venetian collector to keep in his home; most are under two feet (60 cm) in either dimension. This market had been emerging over the last half of the 15th century in Italy, and was much better established in the
Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...
, but Giorgione was the first major Italian painter to concentrate his work on it to such an extent—indeed soon after his death the size of paintings began to increase with the prosperity and palaces of the patrons. '' The Tempest'' has been called the first
landscape A landscape is the visible features of an area of land, its landforms, and how they integrate with natural or man-made features, often considered in terms of their aesthetic appeal.''New Oxford American Dictionary''. A landscape includes the ...
in the history of Western painting. The subject of this painting is unclear, but its artistic mastery is apparent. ''The Tempest'' portrays a man and a breast-feeding woman on either side of a stream, amid a city's rubble and an incoming storm. The multitude of symbols in ''The Tempest'' offer many interpretations, but none is wholly satisfying. Theories that the painting is about duality (city and country, male and female) have been dismissed since
radiography Radiography is an imaging technique using X-rays, gamma rays, or similar ionizing radiation and non-ionizing radiation to view the internal form of an object. Applications of radiography include medical radiography ("diagnostic" and "therapeu ...
has shown that in the earlier stages of the painting the man to the left was a seated female nude. '' The Three Philosophers'' is equally enigmatic and its attribution to Giorgione is still disputed. The three figures stand near a dark empty cave. Sometimes interpreted as symbols of
Plato's cave The Allegory of the Cave, or Plato's Cave, is an allegory presented by the Greek philosopher Plato in his work ''Republic'' (514a–520a) to compare "the effect of education ( παιδεία) and the lack of it on our nature". It is written as ...
or the Three Magi, they seem lost in a typical Giorgionesque dreamy mood, reinforced by a hazy light characteristic of his other landscapes, such as the ''
Pastoral Concert The ''Pastoral Concert'' or ''Le Concert Champêtre'' is an oil painting of c. 1509 attributed to the Italian Renaissance master Titian. It was previously attributed to his fellow Venetian and contemporary Giorgione. It is now in the Musée du Lo ...
'', now in the
Louvre The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is the world's most-visited museum, and an historic landmark in Paris, France. It is the home of some of the best-known works of art, including the ''Mona Lisa'' and the '' Venus de Milo''. A central ...
. The latter "reveals the Venetians' love of textures", because the painter "renders almost palpable the appearance of flesh, fabric, wood, stone, and foliage". The painting is devoid of harsh contours and its treatment of landscape has been frequently compared to pastoral poetry, hence the title. Giorgione and the young
Titian Tiziano Vecelli or Vecellio (; 27 August 1576), known in English as Titian ( ), was an Italians, Italian (Republic of Venice, Venetian) painter of the Renaissance, considered the most important member of the 16th-century Venetian school (art), ...
revolutionized the genre of the
portrait A portrait is a painting, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face and its expressions are predominant. The intent is to display the likeness, personality, and even the mood of the person. For this ...
as well. It is exceedingly difficult and sometimes simply impossible to differentiate Titian's early works from those of Giorgione. None of Giorgione's paintings are signed and only one bears a reliable date: his portrait of ''Laura'' (1 June 1506), one of the first to be painted in the "modern manner", distinguished by dignity, clarity, and sophisticated characterization. Even more striking is the ''Portrait of a Young Man'' now in
Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitu ...
, acclaimed by art historians for "the indescribably subtle expression of serenity and the immobile features, added to the chiseled effect of the silhouette and modeling". Few of the portraits attributed to Giorgione appear as straightforward records of the appearance of a commissioning individual, although it is entirely possible that many are. Many can be read as types designed to express a mood or atmosphere, and certainly many of the examples of the portrait tradition Giorgione initiated appear to have had this purpose, and not to have been sold to the sitter. The subjects of his non-religious figure paintings are equally hard to discern. Perhaps the first question to ask is whether there was intended to be a specific meaning to these paintings that ingenious research can hope to recover. Many art historians argue that there is not: "The best evidence, perhaps, that Giorgione's pictures were not particularly esoteric in their meaning is provided by the fact that while his stylistic innovations were widely adopted, the distinguishing feature of virtually all Venetian non-religious painting in the first half of the 16th century is the lack of learned or literary content".


Attributions

Attributions of work by Giorgione's hand dates from soon after his death, when some of his paintings were completed by other artists, and his considerable reputation also led to very early erroneous claims of attribution. The vast bulk of documentation for paintings in this period relates to large commissions for Church or government; the small domestic panels that make up the bulk of Giorgione's oeuvre are always far less likely to be recorded. Other artists continued to work in his style for some years, and probably by the mid-century deliberately deceptive work had started. Primary documentation for attributions comes from the Venetian collector Marcantonio Michiel. In notes dating from 1525 to 1543 he identifies twelve paintings and one drawing as by Giorgione, of which five of the paintings are identified virtually unanimously with surviving works by art historians: ''The Tempest'', ''The Three Philosophers'', ''Sleeping Venus'', ''Boy with an Arrow'', and '' Shepherd with a Flute'' (not all accept the last as by Giorgione however). Michiel describes the ''Philosophers'' as having been completed by Sebastiano del Piombo, and the ''Venus'' as finished by Titian (it is now generally agreed that Titian did the landscape). Some recent art historians also involve Titian in the ''Three Philosophers''. The ''Tempest'' is therefore the only one of the group universally accepted as wholly by Giorgione. In addition, the ''Castelfranco Altarpiece'' in his hometown has rarely, if ever, been doubted, nor have the wrecked fresco fragments from the German warehouse. The Vienna ''Laura'' is the only work with his name and the date (1506). This is on the back and is not necessarily by his own hand, but does appear to come from the period. The early pair of paintings in the Uffizi are usually accepted. After that, things become more complicated, as exemplified by
Vasari Giorgio Vasari (, also , ; 30 July 1511 – 27 June 1574) was an Italian Renaissance Master, who worked as a painter, architect, engineer, writer, and historian, who is best known for his work ''The Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculpt ...
. In the first edition of the ''Vite'' (1550), he attributed a ''
Christ Carrying the Cross Christ Carrying the Cross on his way to his crucifixion is an episode included in the Gospel of John, and a very common subject in art, especially in the fourteen Stations of the Cross, sets of which are now found in almost all Roman Cathol ...
'' to Giorgione; in the second edition completed in 1568 he ascribed authorship, variously, to Giorgione in his biography, which was printed in 1565, and to Titian in his, printed in 1567. He had visited Venice in between these dates, and may have obtained different information. The uncertainty in distinguishing between the painting of Giorgione and the young Titian is most apparent in the case of the
Louvre The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is the world's most-visited museum, and an historic landmark in Paris, France. It is the home of some of the best-known works of art, including the ''Mona Lisa'' and the '' Venus de Milo''. A central ...
's ''
Pastoral Concert The ''Pastoral Concert'' or ''Le Concert Champêtre'' is an oil painting of c. 1509 attributed to the Italian Renaissance master Titian. It was previously attributed to his fellow Venetian and contemporary Giorgione. It is now in the Musée du Lo ...
'' (or ''Fête champêtre''), described in 2003 as "perhaps the most contentious problem of attribution in the whole of Italian Renaissance art," but affects a large number of paintings possibly from Giorgione's last years. The ''Pastoral Concert'' is one of a small group of paintings, including the ''Virgin and Child with Saint Anthony and Saint Roch'' in the Prado, which are very close in style and, according to Charles Hope, have been "more and more frequently given to Titian, not so much because of any very compelling resemblance to his undisputed early works—which would surely have been noted before—as because he seemed a less implausible candidate than Giorgione. But no one has been able to create a coherent sequence of Titian's early works that includes these ones, in a way that commands general support, and fits the known facts of his career. An alternative proposal is to assign the ''Pastoral Concert'' and the other pictures like it to a third artist, the very obscure Domenico Mancini." While Crowe and Cavalcaselle considered the ''Concert'' from Palazzo Pitti as Giorgione's masterpiece but disattributed the Louvre's ''Pastoral Concert'', Lermolieff reinstated the ''Pastoral Concert'' and claimed instead that the Pitti ''Concert'' was by Titian.
Giulio Campagnola Giulio Campagnola (; c. 1482 – c. 1515) was an Italian engraver and painter, whose few, rare, prints translated the rich Venetian Renaissance style of oil paintings of Giorgione and the early Titian into the medium of engraving; to further his ...
, well known as the engraver who translated the Giorgionesque style into
prints In molecular biology, the PRINTS database is a collection of so-called "fingerprints": it provides both a detailed annotation resource for protein families, and a diagnostic tool for newly determined sequences. A fingerprint is a group of conserved ...
, but none of whose paintings are securely identified, is also sometimes also brought into consideration. For example, the late W.R. Rearick gave him ''Il Tramonto'' (see Gallery) and he is an alternative choice for a number of drawings that might be by Titian or Giorgione, and both are sometimes credited with the design of some of his engravings. At an earlier period in Giorgione's short career, a group of paintings is sometimes described as the "Allendale group", after the ''Allendale Nativity'' (or ''Allendale Adoration of the Shepherds'', rather more correctly) in the National Gallery of Art, Washington. This group includes another Washington painting, the ''Holy Family'', and an ''Adoration of the Magi'' predella panel in the
National Gallery, London The National Gallery is an art museum in Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, in Central London, England. Founded in 1824, it houses a collection of over 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900. The current Director of ...
. This group, now often expanded to include a very similar ''Adoration of the Shepherds'' in Vienna, and sometimes further, are usually included (increasingly) or excluded together from Giorgione's oeuvre. Ironically, the ''Allendale Nativity'' caused the rupture in the 1930s between
Lord Duveen Joseph Duveen, 1st Baron Duveen (14 October 1869 – 25 May 1939), known as Sir Joseph Duveen, Baronet, between 1927 and 1933, was a British art dealer who was considered one of the most influential art dealers of all time. Life and career Jos ...
, who sold it to Samuel Kress as a Giorgione, and his expert Bernard Berenson, who insisted it was an early Titian. Berenson had played a significant part in reducing the Giorgione catalogue, recognising fewer than twenty paintings. Matters are further complicated because no drawing can be certainly identified as by Giorgione (although one in Rotterdam is widely accepted), and a number of aspects of the arguments over the defining of Giorgione's late style involve drawings. Despite being greatly praised by all contemporary writers, and remaining a great name in Italy, Giorgione became less known to the wider world, and many of his (probable) paintings were assigned to others. The Hermitage ''Judith'' for example, was long regarded as a
Raphael Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino, better known as Raphael (; or ; March 28 or April 6, 1483April 6, 1520), was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance. His work is admired for its clarity of form, ease of composition, and visual ...
, and the Dresden ''Venus'' a Titian. In the late 19th century a great Giorgione revival began, and the fashion ran the other way. Despite well over a century of dispute, controversy remains active. Large numbers of pictures attributed to Giorgione a century ago, in particular portraits, are now firmly excluded from his oeuvre, but debate is, if anything, more fierce now than then. There are effectively two fronts on which the battles are fought: paintings with figures and landscape, and portraits. According to David Rosand in 1997, "The situation has been thrown into new critical confusion by Alessandro Ballarin's radical revision of the corpus ... aris exhibition catalogue, 1993, increasing it... as well as Mauro Lucco ... ilan book, 1996" Recent major exhibitions at Vienna and Venice in 2004 and Washington in 2006, have given art historians further opportunities to see disputed works side by side (see External links below). But the situation remains confused; in 2012 Charles Hope complained: "In fact, there are only three paintings known today for which there is clear and credible early evidence that they were by him. Despite this, he is now generally credited with between twenty and forty paintings. But most of these ... bear no resemblance to the three just mentioned. Some of them might be by Giorgione, but in most cases there is no way of telling".


Legacy

Although he died in his thirties, Giorgione left a lasting legacy to be developed by Titian and 17th-century artists. Giorgione never subordinated line and colour to architecture, nor an artistic effect to a sentimental presentation. He was arguably the first Italian to paint landscapes with figures as movable pictures in their own frames with no devotional, allegorical, or historical purpose—and the first whose colours possessed that ardent, glowing, and melting intensity which was so soon to typify the work of all the Venetian School.


Selected works

* '' The Test of Fire of Moses'' (1500–1501) - Oil on panel, 89 x 72, Uffizi,
Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico ...
* '' The Judgement of Solomon'' (1500–1501) - Oil on panel, 89 x 72 cm, Uffizi, Florence *
Judith
' (c. 1504) - Oil on canvas, transferred from panel, 144 x 66,5 cm,
Hermitage Museum The State Hermitage Museum ( rus, Государственный Эрмитаж, r=Gosudarstvennyj Ermitaž, p=ɡəsʊˈdarstvʲɪn(ː)ɨj ɪrmʲɪˈtaʂ, links=no) is a museum of art and culture in Saint Petersburg, Russia. It is the larges ...
, St. Petersburg
* '' Adoration of the Shepherds'' (c. 1505–10) - Oil on panel, 90.8 x 110.5 cm,
National Gallery of Art The National Gallery of Art, and its attached Sculpture Garden, is a national art museum in Washington, D.C., United States, located on the National Mall, between 3rd and 9th Streets, at Constitution Avenue NW. Open to the public and free of ch ...
,
Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...
* '' Castelfranco Madonna'' (''Madonna and Child Enthroned between St. Francis and St. Nicasius''); c. 1505 - Oil on wood, 200 x 152 cm, Duomo, Castelfranco Veneto * '' Portrait of a Young Bride (Laura)'' (c. 1506) Oil on wood, 41 x 33,5 cm,
Kunsthistorisches Museum The Kunsthistorisches Museum ( "Museum of Art History", often referred to as the "Museum of Fine Arts") is an art museum in Vienna, Austria. Housed in its festive palatial building on the Vienna Ring Road, it is crowned with an octagonal d ...
,
Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...
* '' The Tempest'' (''La Zingara e il Soldato'') (''La Zingarella e il Soldato'') (c. 1508) - Oil on canvas, 82 x 73 cm, Accademia, Venice * '' La Vecchia (Old Woman)'' (c. 1508) - Oil on canvas, 68 x 59 cm, Accademia, Venice * ''
Pastoral Concert The ''Pastoral Concert'' or ''Le Concert Champêtre'' is an oil painting of c. 1509 attributed to the Italian Renaissance master Titian. It was previously attributed to his fellow Venetian and contemporary Giorgione. It is now in the Musée du Lo ...
'' (c. 1509) widely now given to Titian- Oil on canvas, 110 x 138 cm,
Louvre The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is the world's most-visited museum, and an historic landmark in Paris, France. It is the home of some of the best-known works of art, including the ''Mona Lisa'' and the '' Venus de Milo''. A central ...
, Paris
* '' Portrait of a Youth'' (1508–10) - Oil on canvas, 72,5 x 54 cm, Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest * '' The Three Philosophers'' (1509) - Oil on canvas,
Kunsthistorisches Museum The Kunsthistorisches Museum ( "Museum of Art History", often referred to as the "Museum of Fine Arts") is an art museum in Vienna, Austria. Housed in its festive palatial building on the Vienna Ring Road, it is crowned with an octagonal d ...
, Vienna
*
Portrait of Warrior with his Equerry
' (c. 1509) - Oil on canvas, 90 x 73 cm, Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence * '' Sleeping Venus'' (c. 1510) - Oil on canvas, 108,5 x 175 cm, Gemäldegalerie, Dresden *
The Impassioned Singer
' (c. 1510) - Oil on canvas, 102 x 78 cm,
Galleria Borghese The Galleria Borghese () is an art gallery in Rome, Italy, housed in the former Villa Borghese Pinciana. At the outset, the gallery building was integrated with its gardens, but nowadays the Villa Borghese gardens are considered a separate touris ...
, Rome
*
Portrait of a Young Man
' - Wood, 69,4 x 53,5 cm, Alte Pinakothek, Munich * Young Man with Arrow ( Garçon à la flèche) ''(Knabe mit Pfeil) (L'enfant à la flèche) (sometimes attributed)''


Gallery

File:Giorgione - The Adoration of the Kings - Google Art Project.jpg, One of the "Allendale group", the small ''Adoration of the Magi'' predella, London File:Giorgione 060.jpg, ''Young Man with Arrow'', (1506?)
Kunsthistorisches Museum The Kunsthistorisches Museum ( "Museum of Art History", often referred to as the "Museum of Fine Arts") is an art museum in Vienna, Austria. Housed in its festive palatial building on the Vienna Ring Road, it is crowned with an octagonal d ...
, Vienna File:Giorgione - Judith.jpg, '' Judith'', Hermitage Museum File:Giorgione - La Vecchia.jpg, ''La Vecchia'', "The Old Woman", Accademia. The paper she holds reads, "Col tempo" or "With time". File:Giorgione 042.jpg, ''Il Tramonto'', London, little known until the middle of the 20th century, and still a controversial attribution File:Giorgione - Portrait of a young man - Gemäldegalerie, Berlin.jpg, The Berlin '' Giustiniani Portrait'' (or ''Portrait of a Man''), one of the most frequently attributed portraits File:Palma il Vecchio 003.jpg, The San Diego ''Portrait of a Man'', another of the more frequently attributed portraits File:Giorgione Budapest 01.jpg, The Budapest ''Portrait of a Young Man'', damaged File:Tizian 080.jpg, ''Portrait of a Venetian Gentleman'', by Giorgione and
Titian Tiziano Vecelli or Vecellio (; 27 August 1576), known in English as Titian ( ), was an Italians, Italian (Republic of Venice, Venetian) painter of the Renaissance, considered the most important member of the 16th-century Venetian school (art), ...
1510 –
National Gallery of Art The National Gallery of Art, and its attached Sculpture Garden, is a national art museum in Washington, D.C., United States, located on the National Mall, between 3rd and 9th Streets, at Constitution Avenue NW. Open to the public and free of ch ...
File:Giorgione, Portrait of a Young Man 2.jpg, ''Portrait of a Young Man'', attributed to Giorgione


Notes


References

* * Gould, Cecil, ''The Sixteenth Century Italian Schools'', National Gallery Catalogues, London 1975, * ''Encyclopedia of Artists, volume 2'', edited by William H.T. Vaughan, , 2000


Further reading

* David Alan Brown and Sylvia Ferino-Pagden, ''Bellini·Giorgione·Titian and the Renaissance of Venetian Painting'', New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2006 (accompanying an exhibition at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., and the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna). * ''The Complete Paintings of Giorgione''. Introduction by Cecil Gould. Notes by Pietro Zampetti. NY: Harry N. Abrams. 1968. * ''Giorgione. Atti del Convegno internazionale di studio per il quinto centenario della nascita (Castelfranco Veneto 1978)'', Castelfranco Veneto, 1979. * Tom Nichols, ''Giorgione's Ambiguity'', London, UK: Reaktion Books, 2020. * Sylvia Ferino-Pagden, ''Giorgione: Mythos und Enigma'', Ausst. Kat. Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien, Wien, 2004 (translated as ''Giorgione: Myth and Enigma'', Milan, Italy: Skira, 2004). * Sylvia Ferino-Pagden (Hg.), ''Giorgione entmythisiert'', Turnhout, Brepols, 2008. * Unglaub, Jonathan, "The Concert Champêtre: The Crises of History and the Limits of Pastoral." ''Arion'', Vol. 5, no. 1 (Spring - Summer, 1997): 46–96.


External links


Video: "Giorgione and the problem of attribution"
by Charles Hope, ''
London Review of Books The ''London Review of Books'' (''LRB'') is a British literary magazine published twice monthly that features articles and essays on fiction and non-fiction subjects, which are usually structured as book reviews. History The ''London Review o ...
'', 2016
Tour: Giorgione and the High Renaissance in Venice, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC

Giorgione featured on 10 Euro CoinGiorgione death notice and original sketch
at the University of Sydney Library {{Authority control Italian Renaissance painters Painters from Venice 1470s births 1510 deaths Italian male painters People from Castelfranco Veneto 15th-century Italian painters 16th-century Italian painters * 16th-century deaths from plague (disease)