Giorgione

Giorgione

The Project Gutenberg EBook of Giorgione, by Herbert Cook This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net
Title: Giorgione
Author: Herbert Cook
Release Date: May 9, 2004 [EBook #12307]
Language: English, with Italian and French
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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[Illustration: Art Repro Co.
Madonna & Child with two Saints.
From the painting by Giorgione at Castelfranco.]

GIORGIONE
BY
HERBERT COOK, M.A., F.S.A.
BARRISTER-AT-LAW

1904

"Born half-way between the mountains and the sea--that young George of Castelfranco--of the Brave Castle: Stout George they called him, George of Georges, so goodly a boy he was--Giorgione."
(RUSKIN: Modern Painters, vol. V. pt. IX. ch. IX.)
_First Published, November 1900 Second Edition, revised, with new Appendix, February 1904._

PREFACE
Unlike most famous artists of the past, Giorgione has not yet found a modern biographer. The whole trend of recent criticism has, in his case, been to destroy not to fulfil. Yet signs are not wanting that the disintegrating process is at an end, and that we have reached the point where reconstruction may be attempted. The discovery of documents and the recovery of lost pictures in the last few years have increased the available material for a more comprehensive study of the artist, and the time has come when the divergent results arrived at by independent modern inquirers may be systematically arranged, and a reconciliation of apparently conflicting views attempted on a psychological basis.
Crowe and Cavalcaselle were the first to examine the subject critically. They separated--so far as was then possible (1871)--the real from the traditional Giorgione, and their account of his life and works must still rank as the nearest equivalent to a modern biography. Morelli, who followed in 1877, was in singular sympathy with his task, and has written of his favourite master enthusiastically, yet with consummate judgment. Among living authorities, Dr. Gronau, Herr Wickhoff, Signor Venturi, and Mr. Bernhard Berenson have contributed effectively to the elucidation of obscure or disputed points, and the latter writer has probably come nearer than anyone to recognise the scope of Giorgione's art, and grasp the man behind his work. The monograph by Signor Conti and the chapter in Pater's Renaissance may be read for their delicate appreciations of the "Giorgionesque"; other contributions on the subject will be found in the Bibliography.
It is absolutely necessary for those whose judgment depends upon a study of the actual pictures to be constantly registering and adjusting their impressions. I have personally seen and studied all the pictures I believe to be by Giorgione, with the exception of those at St. Petersburg; and many galleries and churches where they hang have been visited repeatedly, and at considerable intervals of time. If in the course of years my individual impressions (where they deviate from hitherto recognised views) fail to stand the test of time, I shall be the first to admit their inadequacy. If, on the other hand, they prove sound, some of the mists which at present envelop the figure of Giorgione will have been dispersed.
H.C.
November 1900

NOTE TO THE SECOND EDITION
To this Edition an Appendix has been added, containing--(1) an article by the Author on the age of Titian, which was published in the Nineteenth Century of January 1902; (2) the translation of a reply by Dr. Georg Gronau, published in the Repertorium f��r Kunstwissenschaft; (3) a further reply by the Author, published in the same German periodical.
The writer wishes to acknowledge his indebtedness to the Editors of the Nineteenth Century and of the Repertorium for permission to reprint these articles.
A better photograph of the "Portrait of an Unknown Man" at Temple Newsam has now been taken (p. 87), and sundry footnotes have been added to bring the text up to date.
H. C.
ESHER, January 1904.

CONTENTS
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Chapter I.
GIORGIONE'S LIFE
II. GIORGIONE'S GENERALLY ACCEPTED WORKS
III. INTERMEDIATE SUMMARY
IV. ADDITIONAL PICTURES--PORTRAITS
V. ADDITIONAL PICTURES--OTHER SUBJECTS
VI. GIORGIONE'S ART, AND PLACE IN HISTORY
APPENDIX I--DOCUMENTS
APPENDIX II--THE AGE OF TITIAN
CATALOGUE OF WORKS

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Madonna, with SS. Francis and Liberale. Castelfranco.
Adrastus and Hypsipyle. Palazzo Giovanelli, Venice
Aeneas, Evander, and Pallas. Vienna Gallery
The Judgment of Solomon. Uffizi Gallery
The Trial of Moses. Uffizi Gallery
Christ bearing the Cross. Collection of Mrs. Gardner, Boston, U.S.A.
Knight of Malta. Uffizi Gallery
The Adoration of the Shepherds. Vienna Gallery
The Judgment of Solomon. _Collection of Mrs. Ralph Bankes, Kingston Lacy_
Portrait of a Young Man. Berlin Gallery
Portrait of a Man. Buda-Pesth Gallery
Portrait of a Lady. Borghese Gallery, Rome
Apollo and Daphne. Seminario, Venice
Venus. Dresden Gallery
Judith. Hermitage Gallery, St. Petersburg
Pastoral Symphony. Louvre, Paris
The Three Ages. Pitti Gallery
Nymph and Satyr. Pitti Gallery
Madonna, with SS. Roch and Francis. Prado, Madrid
The Birth of Paris--Copy of a portion. Buda-Pesth Gallery
Shepherd Boy. Hampton Court
Portrait of a Man. (By Torbido) Padua Gallery
The