DOI chapter:
Painters, Sculptors, Architects, Engravers, and their Works
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61295#0326
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GIORDANO — GIORGIONE.
Engraver, Wagner, Joseph. Meeting of Jacob and Rachel-
Rebecca receiving the presents from Eliezer.
Engraver, ZUCCHI, Lorenzo. David with the Head of Goliath.
Giorgione, real name Giorgio Barbarelli, born at Castelfranco
(1477-1511). The first Venetian who cast off the Bellinesque rule
and handled brush and colors freely. Grimm says, “ His outlines
disappear into something almost unessential. As when living beings
approach us, we only see colors and movement, so in his pictures;
there is none of the fixed, statue-like appearance; the living, moving
character alone seems produced by magic.” This artist had great
personal beauty, and a dignified deportment. Giorgione means
George the Great, and he acquired this name on account of his tall,
noble figure. He had also an intense love of beauty; he was a good
lute player, and composed songs which he sung; in short, his nature
was full of harmony and sentiment. This shows itself plainly in his
works, and Mrs. Jameson says, “ If Raphael be the Shakespeare, then
Giorgione may be styled the Byron of painting.” Very little is known
of his life. The Venetian traditions give the following: He was
fond of pleasure, but never profligate, and his love of his art would
not allow him long to neglect it. Pietro Luzzo, a painter known as
Morto da Feltri, lived in the same house with Giorgione, where was
also a girl whom he passionately loved. He made Morto his confi-
dant, of which he took advantage to seduce and carry off the girl.
Giorgione never recovered from the double grief caused by the faith-
lessness of his mistress and his friend, and sank into a despondent
state of mind, in which he died. Morto fled from Venice, entered
the army, and was killed at the battle of Zara, 1519. Giorgione was
much employed in decorative painting, and worked with Titian on
the Fondacho dei Tedeschi, at Venice. He had great influence upon
Titian. If any of the frescoes of Giorgione remain in Venice, they
are but parts of pictures. The dampness of the climate, fires, and
the effect of time have effaced them. His pictures are rare, and it
is difficult to give a list of them, for there have been so many differ-
ences of opinion among the best judges, concerning the genuineness
of those assigned to him, that few remain upon which no doubt has
been thrown. He painted but few historical subjects. Among the
works acknowledged as his, the first place should be given to an
altar-piece in the ch. at Castelfranco. It represents the Virgin and
Child between SS. Francis and Liberale. A study in oil for the
figure of S. Liberale is in the National Gall. This altar-piece was
executed before 1504. In the Belvedere Gall, at Vienna, there is a
picture called the “ Chaldean Sages,” in which a company of as-
tronomers study the heavens. In the Manfrini Pal., Venice, is the
so-called “ Family of Giorgione.” Be the subject what it may, it is
an exquisite picture in which the painter succeeded in throwing great
interest into a simple and natural arrangement of common objects.
GIORDANO — GIORGIONE.
Engraver, Wagner, Joseph. Meeting of Jacob and Rachel-
Rebecca receiving the presents from Eliezer.
Engraver, ZUCCHI, Lorenzo. David with the Head of Goliath.
Giorgione, real name Giorgio Barbarelli, born at Castelfranco
(1477-1511). The first Venetian who cast off the Bellinesque rule
and handled brush and colors freely. Grimm says, “ His outlines
disappear into something almost unessential. As when living beings
approach us, we only see colors and movement, so in his pictures;
there is none of the fixed, statue-like appearance; the living, moving
character alone seems produced by magic.” This artist had great
personal beauty, and a dignified deportment. Giorgione means
George the Great, and he acquired this name on account of his tall,
noble figure. He had also an intense love of beauty; he was a good
lute player, and composed songs which he sung; in short, his nature
was full of harmony and sentiment. This shows itself plainly in his
works, and Mrs. Jameson says, “ If Raphael be the Shakespeare, then
Giorgione may be styled the Byron of painting.” Very little is known
of his life. The Venetian traditions give the following: He was
fond of pleasure, but never profligate, and his love of his art would
not allow him long to neglect it. Pietro Luzzo, a painter known as
Morto da Feltri, lived in the same house with Giorgione, where was
also a girl whom he passionately loved. He made Morto his confi-
dant, of which he took advantage to seduce and carry off the girl.
Giorgione never recovered from the double grief caused by the faith-
lessness of his mistress and his friend, and sank into a despondent
state of mind, in which he died. Morto fled from Venice, entered
the army, and was killed at the battle of Zara, 1519. Giorgione was
much employed in decorative painting, and worked with Titian on
the Fondacho dei Tedeschi, at Venice. He had great influence upon
Titian. If any of the frescoes of Giorgione remain in Venice, they
are but parts of pictures. The dampness of the climate, fires, and
the effect of time have effaced them. His pictures are rare, and it
is difficult to give a list of them, for there have been so many differ-
ences of opinion among the best judges, concerning the genuineness
of those assigned to him, that few remain upon which no doubt has
been thrown. He painted but few historical subjects. Among the
works acknowledged as his, the first place should be given to an
altar-piece in the ch. at Castelfranco. It represents the Virgin and
Child between SS. Francis and Liberale. A study in oil for the
figure of S. Liberale is in the National Gall. This altar-piece was
executed before 1504. In the Belvedere Gall, at Vienna, there is a
picture called the “ Chaldean Sages,” in which a company of as-
tronomers study the heavens. In the Manfrini Pal., Venice, is the
so-called “ Family of Giorgione.” Be the subject what it may, it is
an exquisite picture in which the painter succeeded in throwing great
interest into a simple and natural arrangement of common objects.