_School of Giorgione_ (Venetian: early 16th century). _See 269._
_See also_ (p. xx)
This picture--ascribed by Morelli and others to Catena (see 234)--is by
some connected with the name of Giorgione. It displays, says Sir Edward
Poynter, "the qualities which we should expect to find in a picture by
Giorgione, and does not seem so far removed from the only absolutely
authenticated work by him--the altar-piece at Castelfranco--as to make
it impossible to attribute it to his hand. In qualities of drawing and
composition it is superior to what we know of the work of Catena" (_The
National Gallery_, i. 23). "The figures are Bellinesque, yet with that
added touch of delicacy and refinement which Giorgione always knows how
to impart. The richness of colouring, the depth of tone, the glamour of
the whole, is far superior to anything we can point to with certainty
as Catena's work; and no finer example of his 'Giorgionesque' phase
is to be found than the sumptuous 'Warrior adoring the Infant Christ'
(234) which hangs close by. Catena's work seems cold and studied beside
the warmth and spontaneity of Giorgione's little panel" (Herbert Cook's
_Giorgione_, p. 54). "Whoever painted it, it is worth many much larger
canvases. The simple, flowing cast of the drapery, the general scheme
of colour, and the quality of individual tints, such as the mellow
yellow shaded with red, and the greenish-blue of the Virgin's mantle,
are not like what I know of Catena. The lively, well-drawn child, with
its supple limbs; the faces of the women, with full faces, short noses,
and square jaws; the straight-necked horses, and many other things in
this charming picture,--seem to me to proclaim a distinct, if unknown,
master. Above all things distinct, perhaps, is the particular tone of
reverence--naïve, quiet, but deep--that pervades the picture, a feeling
which can scarcely have been imitated, but must have proceeded from the
very character of the painter himself" (Monkhouse, _In the National
Gallery_, p. 224).