design; with a system of colour yet more ardent, melting, I and harmonious; with a stronger sense of life and of the ' glory of the real world as distinguished from the solemn dreamland of the religious imagination. He had a power hitherto unknown of interpreting both the charm of merely human grace and distinction, and the natural joy of life in the golden sunlight among woods and meadows. lIis active career cannot have extended over more than fifteen years, since we know that he died in 1511,——according to one account, of a contagious disorder; according to another, of grief at discovering that his mistress had played false with a pupil. But in that brief career he had both deeply modified the older manner of the Venetian school, as represented even by a master so great and so austere as John Bellini, and had prepared the way for its final manner, as represented by the most complete master of all, Titian. Bellini, who outlived Giorgione, had not been ashamed to learn something from the practice of a teacher fully forty years younger than himself, who was probably in the first instance his own pupil. Titian, only ten years younger than Giorgione, succeeded to his conquests, and
enjoyed the length of days which was denied him.A consecutive biography of Giorgione it is impossible to construct, either from literary records or from extant works. The literary records only furnish us with a few general characteristics, and with the mention of a few of his productions, especially the frescos with which he adorned the front of the Fondaco dei Tedeschi or hall of the German traders at Venice, after its destruction by fire in 1504; and the frescos and altar-piece, sometimes attributed to the same year, which he executed for Tuzio Costanzo in his native town. The decorations of the Fondaco dei Tedeschi, which Vasari praises for their design and glowing colour, but blames for their too fantastic and enigmatical invention, - have unhappily been utterly destroyed by the combined operation of weather and of reckless architectural changes in the building. The frescos of the chapel of Castelfranco were also sacrificed, while the altar-piece was preserved in the manner we have related. A fragment of a love- .marlrigal, which was once to be read on the back of this panel, a:ldresse;l apparently by the painter to his model, is quoted as in character with our traditions of the man. The picture itself represents the Virgin and Child enthroned, with a group of saints, and prominent among them the warrior- saint Liberale, the patron of the church. A small and highly finished study in armour for this figure is now one of the treasures of the National Gallery in London, to which it was bequeathed Ly Mr Rogers. To Giorgione are also attributed pictures in almost all the public and private galleries of Europe, to a number ten times greater than could possibly be consistent with the short duration of his career, and with the fact that no inconsiderable portion of that career must have been occupied with the production of the perished frescos. These so-called Giorgiones of the galleries may to Some extent be recognized and classified as the work of one or another of several groups of painters whose manner was more or less akin to, or influenced by, that of Venice in Giorgione’s days. One such group belbngs to Bergamo; another to Brescia; another is in alliance with Palma; another with Titian; another, again, consists of the later and looser imitators of the master himself, as Andrea and Schiavone, Pietro della Vecchia and llocco Marcone. It is probable, indeed, that those distinguished authorities, Messrs Crowe and Cavalcaselle, have gone too far in excluding from I the genuine work of Giorgione several of the most famous , pictures which have hitherto passed as standards whereby to judge his manner, as, for instance, the Entombmcnt of Christ at Treviso, and particularly the beautiful ('oncert of l the Louvre. Without, however, entering upon disputed grounl, thcre remains a reasonable number of undoubted I pictures of the master, and these, while they possess in common the qualities of feeling and invention which we have above defined, in technical style vary from a minute and pamstakmg precision, ahnost like that of Antonello da Messma, or of Bellini in his earlier manner, to a degree of breadth, glow, and softness, which are the qualities more popularly associated with the name of Giorgione, and more Commonly attempted by his imitators.
We conclude with a mention of a few of the principal undisputed examples of Giorgione’s handiwork, following a chronological onlcr, which, however, it should be understood, is necessarily but approxi- mate and conjectural. Florence, I'llizi: an Ordeal of Moses, and a Judgment of Solomon,—-small pictures with rich landscape acces- sories, and figures of extraordinary grace and delicacy, painted apparently in imitation or in rivalry of the New Testament allegory by Bellini, in the same manner, which is preserved in the same gallery; all three were originally in the sunnner rcsrdencc of the Medici at I’oggio Imperialc. London, collection of Mr \Vcntworth Beaumont: Holy Family, with the angel appearing to the shepherds in the background,—again a small picture, very delicately finished; formerly in the possession of (‘ardinal FeSch. London, National Gallery: the. Study for San Libcralc above men- tioned. (‘astelfranco, Church of San Libel-ale: the altar-piece,— figurcs life size, exhibiting much of the. manner of Bellini in his altar-pieces. Vienna, Belvederc Gallery: a Group of Astronomers in a Glade, known as the Chaldcans,——rich sunset landscape, with villages in the distance and trees in the foreground; beside the trees on the left, three figures in Oriental costumes, one-third of life size ; formerly in the Taddeo Contarini gallery. Venice, Manfrini palace: man, woman, and child, known as the Family ofGiorgionc, in a landscape recalling the neighbourhood of Castelfranco, —onc of the most beautiful works of the master, formerly in the. house. of Gabriel Vendramin at Santa Fosca. England, Kingston Lacy, col- lection of Mr Bankes: J udgmcnt of Solornon,——a large unfinished picture of great beauty, of clearer tones and broader treatment than the foregoing, bought, at the suggestion of Lord Byron, from the Marescalchi gallery. Florence, l’itti: Concert,——a monk of the Augustinians, seated at the harpsichord; behind him, a clerk with a viol; on the left a young man with plumcd hat and long hair. This is the most perfect of all the works which are assumed to belong to the later time of the master.
Sec Vasari, l'itc dc’ pill ccccllcnh' pittori, &c., vol. vii. p. 80, ed. Lelnonnier; lidolfi, JIamviglic tlcll’ Arlc, vol. i. p. 121; (,‘rowc and Cavalcasclle, History of Painting in North Italy, vol. ii. p. 119.
Vasari is the principal authority in regard to this artist; but it is not by any means easy to bring the details of his narrative into harmony with such facts as can be verified at the present day. It would appear that there was a painter of the name of Tommaso (or Maso) di Stefano, termed Giottino ; and the Giottino of Vasari is said to have been born in 1324, and to have died early, of consumption, in 1357,—dates which must be regarded as open to considerable doubt. Stefano, the father of Tommaso, was himself a celebrated painter in the early revival of art; his naturalism was indeed so highly appreciated by Contemporaries as to earn him the appellation of “ Scimia della Natura ” (ape of nature). He, it seems, instructed his Son, who, however, applied himself with greater predilection to studying the works of the great Giotto, formed his style on these, and hence was called Giottino. It is even said that Giottino was really the son (others say the great-grandson) of Giotto. To this statement little or no importance can be attached. To Maso di Stefano, or Giottino, Vasari and Ghibcrti attri- bute the frescos in the chapel of S. Silvestro (or of the lardi family) in the Florentine church of S. Croce ; these represent the miracles of Pope St Sylvester, as narrated 1n the Golden Legend, one conspicuous subject being the sealing of the lips of a malignant dragon. These works are animated and firm in drawing, with naturalism carried further than by Giotto. From the evidence of style, .somc modern connoisseurs assign to the same hand the paintings in the funeral vault of the Strozzi family, below the Cappella degli Spagnuoli in the church of S. Maria Novella, represent- ing the crucifixion and other subjects. Vasari ascribes also
to his Giottino the frescos of the life of St Nicholas in the
