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GIORGIONE (1477-1510)

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Originally appearing in Volume V12, Page 33 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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GIORGIONE (1477-1510) , See also:Italian painter, was See also:born at See also:Castelfranco in 1477. In contemporary documents he is always called (according to the Venetian manner of See also:pronunciation and spelling) Zorzi, Zorzo or Zorzon of Castelfranco. A tradition, having its origin in the 17th See also:century, represented him as the natural son of some member of the See also:great See also:local See also:family of the Barbarelli, by a See also:peasant girl of the neighbouring See also:village of Vedelago; consequently he is commonly referred to in histories and catalogues under the name of Giorgio Barbarelli or Barbarella. exercised, and continue to exercise, no less a spell on posterity. This tradition has, however, on See also:close examination been proved But to identify and define, among the See also:relics of his See also:age and school, baseless. - On the other See also:hand mention has been found in a precisely what that See also:work is, and to distinguish it from the contemporary document of an earlier Zorzon, a native of kindred work of other men whom his See also:influence inspired, is a Vedelago, living in Castelfranco in 146o. See also:Vasari, who wrote very difficult See also:matter. There are inclusive critics who still before the Barbarella See also:legend had sprung up, says that Giorgione claim for Giorgione nearly every See also:painting of the See also:time that at was of very humble origin. It seems probable that he was all resembles his manner, and there are exclusive critics who See also:pare simply the son or See also:grandson of the afore-mentioned Zorzon the down to some ten or a dozen the See also:list of extant pictures which See also:elder; that the after-claim of the Barbarelli to kindred with him they will admit to be actually his. was a See also:mere piece of family vanity, very likely suggested by the To name first those which are either certain or command analogous See also:case of Leonardo da See also:Vinci; and that, this claim once the most See also:general See also:acceptance, placing them in something like put abroad, the peasant-See also:mother of Vedelago was invented on an approximate and probable See also:order of date. In the Uffizi at the ground of some dim knowledge that his real progenitors See also:Florence are two See also:companion pieces of the " Trial of See also:Moses " came from that village. and the " See also:Judgment of See also:Solomon," the latter the finer and Of the facts of his See also:life we are almost as meagrely informed as better preserved of the two, which pass, no doubt justly, as of the circumstances of his See also:birth. The little See also:city, or large typical See also:works of Giorgione's youth, and exhibit, though not yet fortified village, for it is scarcely more, of Castelfranco in the ripely, his See also:special qualities of See also:colour-richness and landscape Trevisan stands in the midst of a See also:rich and broken See also:plain at some See also:romance, the See also:peculiar facial types of his predilection, with the distance from the last spurs of the `Venetian See also:Alps. From the pure See also:form of forehead, See also:fine See also:oval of cheek, and somewhat close-set natural surroundings of Giorgione's childhood was no doubt eyes and eyebrows, and the intensity of that still and brooding derived his ideal of See also:pastoral scenery, the See also:country of pleasant sentiment with which, rather than with dramatic life and copses, glades, See also:brooks and hills amid which his personages love See also:movement, he instinctively invests his figures.

Probably the to wander or recline with See also:

lute and See also:pipe. How See also:early in boyhood earliest of the portraits by See also:common consent called his is the he went to See also:Venice we do not know, but See also:internal See also:evidence beautiful one of a See also:young See also:man at See also:Berlin. His earliest devotional supports the statement of See also:Ridolfi that he served his apprentice- picture would seem to be the highly finished " See also:Christ bearing See also:ship there under Giovanni See also:Bellini; and there he made his fame his See also:Cross " (the See also:head and shoulders only, with a peculiarly and had his See also:home. That his gifts were early recognized we serene and high-bred See also:cast of features) formerly at See also:Vicenza and know from the facts, recorded in contemporary documents, now in the collection of Mrs See also:Gardner at See also:Boston. Other versions that in 1500, when he was only twenty-three (that is if Vasari of this picture exist, and it has been claimed that one in private gives rightly the age at which he died), he was chosen to paint See also:possession at See also:Vienna is the true See also:original: erroneously in the portraits of the See also:Doge See also:Agostino Barberigo and the See also:condottiere judgment of the See also:present writer. Another " Christ bearing the Consalvo Ferrante; that in 1504 he was commissioned to paint Cross," with a See also:Jew dragging at the rope See also:round his See also:neck, in the an altarpiece in memory of Matteo See also:Costanzo in the See also:cathedral See also:church of See also:San Rocco at Venice, is a ruined but genuine work, of his native See also:town, Castelfranco; that in 1507 he received at the quoted by Vasari and Ridolfi, and copied with the name of order of the See also:Council of Ten See also:part See also:payment for a picture (subject Giorgione appended, by See also:Van Dyck in that See also:master's See also:Chatsworth not mentioned) on which he was engaged for the See also:Hall of the See also:sketch-See also:book. (Vasari gives it to Giorgione in his first and to See also:Audience in the ducal See also:palace; and that in 1507—1508 he was See also:Titian in his second edition.) The See also:composition of a lost early employed, with other artists of his own See also:generation, to decorate picture of the birth of See also:Paris is preserved in an See also:engraving of the with frescoes the exterior of the newly rebuilt Fondaco dei " See also:Teniers See also:Gallery " See also:series, and an old copy of part of the same Tedeschi or See also:German merchants' hall at Venice, having already picture is at See also:Budapest. In the Giovanelli Palace at Venice done similar work on the exterior of the Casa Soranzo, the Casa is that fascinating and enigmatical See also:mythology or See also:allegory, Grimani alli Servi and other Venetian palaces. Vasari gives known to the Anonimo Morelliano, who saw it in 1530 in the See also:house also as an important event in Giorgione's life, and one which had of See also:Gabriel Vendramin, simply as " the small landscape with influence on his work, his See also:meeting with Leonardo da Vinci on the See also:storm, the gipsy woman and the soldier "; the picture is the occasion of the Tuscan master's visit to Venice in 1500. In conjecturally interpreted by See also:modern authorities as illustrating See also:September or See also:October 1510 he died of the See also:plague then raging a passage in See also:Statius which describes the meeting of Adrastus in the city, and within a few days of his See also:death we find the great with Hypsipyle when she was serving as See also:nurse with the See also:king of See also:art-patroness and See also:amateur, See also:Isabella d'See also:Este, See also:writing from See also:Mantua Nemea. Still belonging to the earlier part of the painter's and trying in vain to secure for her collection a See also:night-piece by brief career is a beautiful, virginally pensive See also:Judith at St See also:Peters-his hand of which the fame had reached her. See also:burg, which passed under various See also:alien names, as See also:Raphael, All accounts agree in representing Giorgione as a personage See also:Moretto, &c., until its kindred with the unquestioned work of of distinguished and romantic See also:charm, a great See also:lover, a great Giorgione was in See also:late years firmly established. The great musician, made to enjoy in life and to See also:express in art to the Castelfranco altarpiece, still, in spite of many restorations, uttermost the delight, the splendour, the sensuous and imaginative one of the most classically pure and radiantly impressive works See also:grace and fulness, not untinged with poetic See also:melancholy, of the of See also:Renaissance painting, may be taken as closing the earlier Venetian existence of his time.

They represent him further as phase of the young master's work (1504). It shows the Virgin having made in Venetian painting an advance analogous to that loftily enthroned on a plain, sparely draped See also:

stone structure with made in Tuscan painting by Leonardo more than twenty years St See also:Francis and a See also:warrior See also:saint (St Liberale) See also:standing in attitudes before; that is as having released the art from the last shackles of great simplicity on either See also:side of the See also:foot of the See also:throne, a of archaic rigidity and placed it in possession of full freedom high See also:parapet behind them, and a beautiful landscape of the and the full mastery of its means. He also introduced a new master's usual type seen above it. Nearly akin to this master-range of subjects. Besides altarpieces and portraits he painted piece, not in shape or composition but by the type of the Virgin pictures that told no See also:story, whether biblical or classical, or if and the very Bellinesque St Francis, is the altarpiece of the they professed to tell such, neglected the •See also:action and simply Madonna with St Francis and St See also:Roch at See also:Madrid. Of the embodied in form and colour moods of lyrical or romantic master's fully ripened time is the fine and again enigmatical feeling, much as a musician might embody them in sounds. picture formerly in the house of Taddeo See also:Contarini at Venice, Innovating with the courage and felicity of See also:genius, he had for described by contemporary witnesses as the "Three Philosophers," a time an overwhelming influence on his contemporaries and and now, on slender enough grounds, supposed to represent immediate successors in the Venetian school, including Titian, See also:Evander showing See also:Aeneas the site of See also:Troy as narrated in the See also:Sebastian del Piombo, the elder See also:Palma, Cariani and the two eighth Aeneid. The portrait of a See also:knight of See also:Malta in the Uffizi at Campagnolas, and not a little even on seniors of See also:long-standing Florence has more See also:power and authority, if less sentiment, than fame such as Giovanni Bellini. His name and work have the earlier example at Berlin, and may be taken to be of the master's See also:middle time. Most entirely central and typical of all Giorgione's extant works is the Sleeping See also:Venus at See also:Dresden, first recognized by See also:Morelli, and now universally accepted, as being the same as the picture seen by the Anonimo and later by Ridolfi in the Casa See also:Marcello at Venice. An exquisitely pure and severe See also:rhythm of See also:line and See also:contour chastens the sensuous richness of the presentment: the sweep of See also:white drapery on which the goddess lies, and of glowing landscape that fills the space behind her, most harmoniously See also:frame her divinity. It is recorded that the master See also:left this piece unfinished and that the landscape, with a See also:Cupid which subsequent restoration has removed, were completed after his death by Titian. The picture is the prototype of Titian's own Venus at the Uffizi and of many more by other painters of the school; but none of them attained the quality of the first exemplar.

Of such small scenes of mixed classical mythology and landscape as early writers attribute in considerable number to Giorgione, there have survived at least two which See also:

bear strong evidences of his handiwork, though the action is in both of unwonted liveliness, namely the See also:Apollo and See also:Daphne of the Seminario at Venice and the See also:Orpheus and See also:Eurydice of See also:Bergamo. The portrait of See also:Antonio Grocardo at Budapest represents his fullest and most penetrating power in that See also:branch of art. In his last years the purity and relative slenderness of form which See also:mark his earlier See also:female nudes, including the Dresden Venus, gave way to ideals of ampler See also:mould, more nearly approaching those of Titian and his successors in Venetian art; as is proved by those last remaining fragments of the frescoes on the See also:Grand See also:Canal front of the Fondaco dei Tedeschi which were seen and engraved by Zanetti in 1760, but have now totally disappeared. Such See also:change of ideal is apparent enough in the famous " See also:Concert " or " Pastoral See also:Symphony " of the Louvre, probably the latest, and certainly one of the most characteristic and harmoniously splendid, of Giorgione's creations that has come down to us, and has caused some critics too hastily to doubt its authenticity. We pass now to pictures for which some affirm and others deny the right to bear Giorgione's name. As youthful in See also:style as the two early pictures in the Uffizi, and closely allied to them in feeling, though less so in colour, is an unexplained subject in the See also:National Gallery, sometimes called for want of a better See also:title the " See also:Golden Age "; this is officially and by many critics given only to the "school of " Giorgione, but may not unreasonably be claimed for his own work (No.1173). There is also in See also:England a See also:group of three paintings which are certainly by one hand, and that a hand very closely related to Giorgione if not actually his own, namely the small oblong " See also:Adoration of the Magi " in the National Gallery (No. 1160), the " Adoration of the Shepherds " belonging to See also:Lord Allendale (with its somewhat inferior but still attractive replica at Vienna), and the small " See also:Holy Family " in the collection of Mr R. H. See also:Benson. The type of the Madonna in all these three pieces is different from that customary with the master, but there seems no See also:reason why he should not at some particular moment have changed his See also:model. The sentiment and gestures of the figures, the cast of draperies, the technical handling, and especially, in Lord See also:Allen-See also:dale's picture, the romantic richness of the landscape, all incline us to accept the group as original, notwithstanding the deviation of type already mentioned and certain weaknesses of See also:drawing and proportion which we should have hardly looked for.

Better known to See also:

European students in general are the two fine pictures commonly given to the master at the Pitti gallery in Florence, namely the " Three Ages " and the " Concert." Both are very Giorgionesque, the " Three Ages " leaning rather towards the early manner of Lorenzo See also:Lotto, to whom by'some critics it is actually. given. The " Concert " is held on technical grounds cry some of the best See also:judges rather to bear the See also:character of Titian ,at the moment when the See also:inspiration of Giorgione was strongest on him, at least so far as concerns the extremely beautiful and expressive central figure of the See also:monk playing on the See also:clavichord with reverted head, a very incarnation of musical rapture and yearning—the other figures are too much injured to See also:judge.

End of Article: GIORGIONE (1477-1510)

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