A History of European Art

Lecture 19: High Renaissance Painting in Venice

and it was principally by Venetian painters that landscape art was introduced

from northern Europe into Italy, where it increased in importance during the

16 th and 17th centuries. This interest in landscape continues with the great

pupils of Bellini, particularly Giorgione and Titian.

Giorgione (1476/78–1510), born in Castelfranco, was a student of Bellini

during the mid-1490s. We see his Pastoral Concert (in French, Concert

Champêtre, or Fête Champêtre) (c. 1510–1511). In the past, this painting

was sometimes attributed to Titian, but the attribution to Giorgione now is

generally accepted. Giorgione developed his own style based on Bellini’s

example and was extremely inÀ uential on later artists. There are four

principal ¿ gures in the foreground, two clothed males and two nude females,

a puzzling arrangement. Music forms part of the core of the painting. One

man plays a lute, and one woman has a wind instrument. In the Renaissance,

music was associated with passion. The other woman pours a crystal glass of

water into a stone urn. This ¿ gure may represent the Classical ideal, while the

seated woman may represent human passion. The landscape is based on the

Venetian mainland territory. This painting

often is associated with Arcadian Classical

poetry, in particular the work of Virgil and

Ovid, and may represent a golden age now

past. This painting, on display in the Louvre

for 200 years, has been a great inÀ uence on

countless painters, poets, and writers.

Titian (1488/90–1576) was born Tiziano

Vecellio in the village of Pieve di Cadore,

north of Venice in the foothills of the

Dolomite mountains. As a boy, he may have

been apprenticed to mosaicists in Venice,

then to Gentile Bellini, followed by his brother, Giovanni. He was also a

friend and colleague of Giorgione, who was about 10 years older. They

developed their styles together but had different temperaments. Giorgione

died young, leaving some un¿ nished paintings. Titian probably completed

a number of those works while continuing to develop his own unique style

over the course of a long career. He was probably not yet 30 when his early

masterpiece was completed, for the high altar of the Basilica of Santa Maria

Bellini’s Madonna and

Child Enthroned with

Saints (San Zaccaria

Altarpiece) (c. 1505)

is in a prestigious

church dedicated to

the father of St. John

the Baptist.