INTERMEDIATE SUMMARY
It is necessary for anyone who seeks to recover the missing or
unidentified works of an artist like Giorgione, first to define his
conception of the artist based upon a study of acknowledged materials.
The preceding chapter has been devoted to a survey of the best
authenticated pictures, the evidence for the genuineness of which is, as
we have seen, largely a matter of personal opinion. Nevertheless there
is, on the whole, a unanimity of judgment sufficient to warrant our
drawing several inferences as to the general character of Giorgione's
work, and to attempt a chronological arrangement of the twenty-six
pictures here accepted as genuine.
The first and most obvious fact then to be noted is the amazing variety
of subjects handled by the master. Religious paintings, whether
altar-pieces or easel pictures of a devotional character, are
interspersed with mediaeval allegories, genre subjects, decorative
_cassone_ panels, portraiture, and purely lyrical "Fantasiestücke,"
corresponding somewhat with the modern "Landscape with Figures." Truly
an astonishing range! Giorgione, as we have seen, could not have been
more than eighteen years in active practice, yet in that short time he
gained successes in all these various fields. His many-sidedness shows
him to have been a man of wide sympathies, whilst the astonishing
rapidity of his development testifies to the precocity of his talent.
His versatility and his precocity are, in fact, the two most prominent
characteristics to be borne in mind in judging his art, for much that
appears at first sight incongruous, if not utterly irreconcilable, can
be explained on this basis. For versatility and precocity in an artist
are qualities invariably attended by unevenness of workmanship, as we
see in the cases of Keats and Schubert, who were gifted with the lyrical
temperament and powers of expression in poetry and music in
corresponding measure to Giorgione in painting. It would show want of
critical acumen to expect from Keats the consistency of Milton, or that
Schubert should keep the unvarying high level of Beethoven, and it is
equally unreasonable to exact from Giorgione the uniform excellence
which characterises Titian. I do not propose at this point to work out
the comparison between the painter, the musician, and the poet; this
must be reserved until the final summing-up of Giorgione as artist, when
we have examined all his work. But this point I do insist on, that from
the very nature of things Giorgione's art is, and must be, uneven, that
whilst at times it reaches sublime heights, at other times it attains to
a level of only average excellence.
And so the criticism which condemns a picture claiming to be Giorgione's
because "it is not _good_ enough for him," does not recognise the truth
that for all that it may be _characteristic_, and, consequently,
perfectly authentic. Modern criticism has been apt to condemn because
it has expected too much; let us not blind our eyes to the weaknesses,
even to the failures of great men, who, if they lose somewhat of the
hero in our eyes, win our sympathy and our love the more for being
human.
I have spoken of Giorgione's versatility, his precocity, and the natural
inequality of his work. There is another characteristic which commonly
exists when these qualities are found united, and that is
Productiveness. Giorgione, according to all analogy, must have produced
a mass of work. It is idle to assert, as some modern writers have done,
that at the utmost his easel pictures could have been but few, because
most of his short life was devoted to painting frescoes, which have
perished. It is true that Giorgione spent time and energy over fresco
painting, and from the very publicity of such work as the frescoes on
the Fondaco de' Tedeschi, he came to be widely known in this direction,
but it is infinitely probable that his output in other branches was
enormous. The twenty-six pictures we have already accepted, plus the
lost frescoes, cannot possibly represent the sum-total of his artistic
activities, and to say that everything else has disappeared is, as I
shall try to show, not correct. We know, moreover, from the Anonimo (who
was almost Giorgione's contemporary) that many pictures existed in his
day which cannot now be traced,[75] and if we add these and some of the
others cited by Vasari and Ridolfi (without assuming that every one was
a genuine example), it goes to prove that Giorgione did paint a good
number of easel pictures. But the evidence of the twenty-six themselves
is conclusive. They illustrate so many different phases, they stand
sometimes so widely apart, that intermediate links are necessarily
implied. Moreover, as Giorgione's influence on succeeding artists is
allowed by all writers, a considerable number of his easel pictures must
have been in circulation, from which these imitators drew inspiration,
for he certainly never kept, as Bellini did, a body of assistants and
pupils to hand on his teaching, and disseminate his style.
Productiveness must then have been a feature of his art, and as so few
pictures have as yet come to be accepted as genuine, the majority must
have perished or been lost to sight for the time. That much yet remains
hidden away in private possession I am fully persuaded, especially in
England and in Italy, and one day we may yet find the originals of the
several old copies after Giorgione which I enumerate elsewhere.[76] In
some cases I believe I have been fortunate enough to detect actually
missing originals, and occasionally restore to Giorgione pieces that
parade under Titian's name. Much, however, yet remains to be done, and
the research work now being systematically conducted in the Venetian
archives by Dr. Gustav Ludwig and Signor Pietro Paoletti may yield rich
results in the discovery of documents relating to the master himself,
which may help us to identify his productions, and possibly confirm some
of the conjectures I venture to make in the following chapters.[77]
But before proceeding to examine other pictures which I am persuaded
really emanate from Giorgione himself, let us attempt to place in
approximate chronological order the twenty-six works already accepted as
genuine, for, once their sequence is established, we shall the more
readily detect the lacunae in the artist's evolution, and so the more
easily recognise any missing transitional pieces which may yet exist.
The earliest stage in Giorgione's career is naturally marked by
adherence to the teaching and example of his immediate predecessors.
However precocious he may have been, however free from academic
training, however independent of the tradition of the schools, he
nevertheless clearly betrays an artistic dependence, above all, on
Giovanni Bellini. The "Christ bearing the Cross" and the two little
pictures in the Uffizi are direct evidence of this, and these,
therefore, must be placed quite early in his career. We should not be
far wrong in dating them 1493-5. Carpaccio's influence is also apparent,
as we have already noticed, and through this channel Giorgione's art
connects with the more archaic style of Gentile Bellini, Giovanni's
elder brother. Thus in him are united the quattrocentist tradition and
the fresher ideals of the cinquecento, which found earliest expression
in Giambellini's Allegories of about 1486-90. The poetic element in
these works strongly appealed to Giorgione's sensitive nature, and we
find him developing this side of his art in the Beaumont "Adoration,"
and the National Gallery "Epiphany," both of which are clearly early
productions. But there is a gap of a few years between the Uffizi
pictures and the London ones, for the latter are maturer in every way,
and it is clear that the interval must have been spent in constant
practice. Yet we cannot point with certainty to any of the other
pictures in our list as standing midway in development, and here it is
that a lacuna exists in the artist's career. Two or three years,
possibly more, remain unaccounted for, just at a period, too, when the
young artist would be most impressionable. I am inclined to think that
he may have painted the "Birth of Paris" during these years, but we have
only the copy of a part of the composition to go by, and the statement
of the Anonimo that the picture was one of Giorgione's early works.
The "Adrastus and Hypsipyle" must also be a youthful production prior to
1500, and in the direction of portraiture we have the Berlin "Young
Man," which, for reasons already given, must be placed quite early. It
is not possible to assign exact dates to any of these works, all that
can be said with any certainty is that they fall within the last decade
of the fifteenth century, and illustrate the rapid development of
Giorgione's art up to his twenty-fourth year.
A further stage in his evolution is reached in the Castelfranco
"Madonna," the first important undertaking of which we have some record.
Tradition connects the painting of this altar-piece with an event of the
year 1504, the death of the young Matteo Costanzo, whose family, so it
is said, commissioned Giorgione to paint a memorial altar-piece, and
decorate the family chapel at Castelfranco with frescoes. Certain it is
that the arms of the Costanzi appear in the picture, but the evidence
which connects the commission with the death of Matteo seems to rest
mainly on his alleged likeness to the S. Liberale in the picture, a
theory, we may remark, which is quite consistent with Matteo being still
alive. Considering the extraordinary rapidity of the artist's
development, it would be more natural to place the execution of this
work a year or two earlier than 1504, but, in any case, we may accept it
as typical of Giorgione's style in the first years of the century. The
"Judith" (at St. Petersburg), as we have already seen, probably
immediately precedes it, so that we get two masterpieces approximately
dated.
In the field of portraiture Giorgione must have made rapid strides from
the very first. Vasari states that he painted the portraits of the great
Consalvo Ferrante, and of one of his captains, on the occasion of their
visit to the Doge Agostino Barberigo. Now this event presumably took
place in 1500,[78] so that, at that early date, he seems already to have
been a portrait painter of repute. Confirmatory evidence of this is
furnished by the statement of Ridolfi, that Giorgione took the portrait
of Agostino Barberigo himself.[79] Now the Doge died in 1500, so that if
Giorgione really painted him, he could not have been more than
twenty-three years of age at the time, an extraordinarily early age to
have been honoured with so important a commission; this fact certainly
presupposes successes with other patrons, whose portraits Giorgione must
have taken during the years 1495-1500. I hope to be able to identify two
or three of these, but for the moment we may note that by 1500
Giorgione was a recognised master of portraiture. The only picture on
our list likely to date from the period 1500-1504 is the "Knight of
Malta," the "Young Man" (at Buda-Pesth) being later in execution.[80]
From 1504 on, the rapid rate of progress is more than fully maintained.
Only six years remain of the artist's short life, yet in that time he
rose to full power, and anticipated the splendid achievements of
Titian's maturity some forty years later. First in order, probably, come
the "Venus" (Dresden) and the "Concert" (Pitti), both showing
originality of conception and mastery of handling. The date of the
frescoes on the Fondaco de' Tedeschi is known to be 1507-8,[81] but, as
nothing remains but a few patches of colour in one spot high up over the
Grand Canal, we have no visible clue to guide us in our estimate of
their artistic worth. Vasari's description, and Zanetti's engraving of a
few fragments (done in 1760, when the frescoes were already in decay),
go to prove that Giorgione at this period studied the antique,
"commingling statuesque classicism and the flesh and blood of real
life."[82]
At this period it is most probable we must place the "Judgment of
Solomon" (at Kingston Lacy), possibly, as I have already pointed out,
the very work commissioned by the State for the audience chamber of the
Council, on which, as we know from documents, Giorgione was engaged in
1507 and 1508. It was never finished, and the altogether exceptional
character of the work places it outside the regular course of the
artist's development. It was an ambitious venture in an unwonted
direction, and is naturally marked and marred by unsatisfactory
features. Giorgione's real powers are shown by the "Pastoral Symphony"
(in the Louvre), and the "Portrait of the Young Man" (at Buda-Pesth),
productions dating from the later years 1508-10. The "Three Ages" (in
the Pitti) may also be included, and if Giorgione conceived and even
partly executed the "Storm calmed by S. Mark" (Venice Academy), this
also must be numbered among his last works.
Morelli states: "It was only in the last six years of his short life
(from about 1505-11) that Giorgione's power and greatness became fully
developed."[83] I think this is true in the sense that Giorgione was
ever steadily advancing towards a fuller and riper understanding of the
world, that his art was expanding into a magnificence which found
expression in larger forms and richer colour, that he was acquiring
greater freedom of touch, and more perfect command of the technical
resources of his art. But sufficient stress is not laid, I think, upon
the masterly achievement of the earlier times; the tendency is to refer
too much to later years, and not recognise sufficiently the prodigious
precocity before 1500. One is tempted at times to question the accuracy
of Vasari's statement that Giorgione died in his thirty-fourth year,
which throws his birth back only to 1477. Some modern writers disregard
this statement altogether, and place his birth "before 1477."[84] Be
this as it may, it does not alter the fact that by 1500 Giorgione had
already attained in portraiture to the highest honours, and in this
sphere, I believe, he won his earliest successes. My object in the
following chapter will be to endeavour to point out some of the very
portraits, as yet unidentified, which I am persuaded were produced by
Giorgione chiefly in these earlier years, and thus partly to fill some
of the lacunae we have found in tracing his artistic evolution.
NOTES:
[75] A list of these is given at p. 138.
[76] _Vide_ List of Works, pp. 124-137.
[77] The results of these archivistic researches are being published in
the _Repertorium für Kunstwissenschaft_.
[78] For the evidence, see _Magazine of Art_, April 1893.
[79] Meravig, i. 126.
[80] Vasari saw Giorgione's portrait of the succeeding Doge Leonardo
Loredano (1501-1521).
[81] See Crowe and Cavalcaselle, ii. 141.
[82] Crowe and Cavalcaselle, _ibid_.
[83] ii. 213. We now know that he died in 1510.
[84] Crowe and Cavalcaselle, ii. 119. Bode: _Cicerone_.