The Renaissance

between an old man and a young boy cap-
tures the essential humanist element of
the Renaissance, when heartfelt and famil-
iar emotions became a worthy subject for
painters besides the loftier sentiments of
biblical scenes and stories. Still in the
prime of his creative powers, Ghirlandaio
died as an epidemic of plague swept the
city of Florence in 1494.

SEEALSO: Florence; painting

Giorgione .......................................

(1477–1510)

Venetian painter of the High Renaissance,
known as a master for the handful of his
paintings that have survived. Born as Gior-
gio Barbarelli da Castelfranco in the small
town of Castelfranco Veneto, he appren-
ticed in the workshop of Giovanni Bellini,
who was at that time one of the most re-
spected painters in Venice. His talent was
recognized from an early age; he was com-
missioned to paint a portrait of Doge Ago-
stino Barberigo and, in 1504, an altarpiece
commemorating Matteo Constanzo for a
church in Castelfranco. He also worked on
frescoes for the walls of the Fondaco dei
Tedeschi, the Hall of German Merchants
that served as a warehouse. These frescoes
were painted in collaboration with Titian,
another major Venetian painter, but were
later destroyed. Giorgione specialized in
paintings commissioned from private in-
dividuals, with whom he had a much
greater range of possible subject matter
and style than he would have in works
commissioned by the church or public of-
ficials.

Historians have disagreed on works at-
tributed to Giorgione, with only about six
definitely by his hand. Only one of his
paintings, a portrait entitledLaura, was
signed. Others include theThree Philoso-
phers, Portrait of a Young Man, thePastoral

Concert, andSleeping Venus,inwhicha

nude figure is placed in a natural back-

ground, and which directly inspired the

Venus of Urbinoof Titian. The most fa-

mous Giorgione painting,The Tempest,is

a startling landscape that shows a seated

woman, who is breast-feeding an infant,

near the figure of a standing soldier. In the

background a storm approaches over the

ruins of a city.The Tempestchallenges the

viewer to decipher the meaning of the fig-

ures, the storm, and other symbols, which

originate completely in the artist’s imagi-

nation.

In this and other works Giorgione was

the first to place figures in a landscape set-

ting. Possibly under the influence of Le-

onardo da Vinci, Giorgione also adopted

the sfumato technique of soft, shaded con-

tours, a sharp break from the clear lines

and brighter colors of early Renaissance

paintings. In several of his works, he ig-

nored traditional subjects of the Christian

religion or classical mythology, and cre-

ated personal allegories, set in symbol-rich

landscapes that give his works an air of

mystery and poetic charm. By the time of

his death of the plague at the age of thirty-

three, his works had a strong influence on

many Venetian painters, including Bellini

and Titian, and Venetian painting of the

next two centuries, notably in the Baroque

works of Palma Vecchio and Dosso Dossi,

who borrowed many of the techniques that

Giorgione pioneered.

SEEALSO: painting; Titian; Venice

Giotto di Bondone ..........................

(1267–1337)

Painter of Florence who made an impor-

tant break with the medieval Byzantine

style of painting, and whose works helped

bring about the more intensely personal

and humanistic outlook of Renaissance

Giorgione