Giorgione

Giorgione

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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 für 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