Giorgio Da Castelfranco, Called Giorgione

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GIORGIO DA CASTELFRANCO, CALLED GiORGIONE WIDELY CELEBRATED DURING HIS lifEtimE, Giorgione (ca. 1477–1510) remains an enigmatic figure about whom tantalizingly little is known. Only recently has the artist’s last name (Gasparini) come to light, from a 1511 inventory of his possessions made after his death. Although the attribution of individual works to the artist remains contentious, Giorgione’s seminal contribution to the evolution of European painting is universally accepted. During a brief career that spanned only fifteen years, Giorgione transformed painting in Venice and set the stage for the Venetian High Renaissance. Early biographers place the young Giorgione in the Venice studio of Giovanni Bellini. Bellini’s influence is discernable in Giorgione’s large and relatively traditional altarpiece in the cathedral of San Liberale, Castelfranco Veneto, from the early 1500s. Two subsequent commissions, one a painting for the Palazzo Ducale and the other the exterior fresco decoration of the Fondaco dei Tedeschi, the headquarters of the German merchants near the Ponte di Rialto, attest to Giorgione’s successful establishment in Venice, where he spent a prolific decade painting. In the final years of Giorgione’s life, conventional religious subjects gave way to small-scale works of a secular nature. This change, coupled with the artist’s increasing interest in painting atmospheric effects, suggests that Giorgione was aware of the work of Leonardo da Vinci. It also signals a shift in patronage; indeed, Giorgione’s small, evocative compositions are the perfect springboard for a connoisseur’s private reverie. Although his paintings are clearly inspired by literary and philosophical themes, Giorgione’s images continue to challenge scholars and many remain indecipherable. Uniting poetry in technique with enigmatic subject matter, Giorgione, who died of the plague at age thirty-six, created an incomparable legacy..

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