Giorgione | Page 3

ever allude to such an origin, or
speak of "Barbarelli," but always of "Zorzon de Castelfrancho," "Zorzi
da Castelfranco," and the like,[5]

We may take it as certain that Giorgione spent the whole of his short
life in Venice and the neighbourhood. Unlike Titian, whose busy career
was marked by constant journeyings and ever fresh incidents, the
young Castelfrancan passed a singularly calm and uneventful life.
Untroubled, apparently, by the storm and stress of the political world
about him, he devoted himself with a whole-hearted simplicity to the
advancement of his art. Like Leonardo, he early won fame for his skill
in music, and Vasari tells us the gifted young lute-player was a
welcome guest in distinguished circles. Although of humble origin, he
must have possessed a singular charm of manner, and a comeliness of
person calculated to find favour, particularly with the fair sex. He early
found a quasi-royal friend and patroness in Caterina Cornaro, ex-Queen
of Cyprus, whose portrait he painted, and whose recommendation, as I
believe, secured for him important commissions in the like field. But
we may leave Giorgione's art for fuller discussion in the following
chapters, and only note here two outside events which were not without
importance in the young artist's career.
The one was the visit paid by Leonardo to Venice in the year 1500.
Vasari tells us "Giorgione had seen certain works from the hand of
Leonardo, which were painted with extraordinary softness, and thrown
into powerful relief, as is said, by extreme darkness of the shadows, a
manner which pleased him so much that he ever after continued to
imitate it, and in oil painting approached very closely to the excellence
of his model."[6] This statement has been combated by Morelli, but
although historical evidence is wanting that the two men ever actually
met, there is nothing improbable in Vasari's account. Leonardo
certainly came to Venice for a short time in 1500, and it would be
perfectly natural to find the young Venetian, then in his twenty-fourth
year, visiting the great Florentine, long a master of repute, and from
him, or from "certain works of his," taking hints for his own
practice.[7]
The second event of moment to which allusion may here be made was
the great conflagration in the year 1504, when the Exchange of the
German Merchants was burnt. This building, known as the Fondaco de'
Tedeschi, occupying one of the finest sites on the Grand Canal, was

rebuilt by order of the Signoria, and Giorgione received the
commission to decorate the façade with frescoes. The work was
completed by 1508, and became the most celebrated of all the artist's
creations. The Fondaco still stands to-day, but, alas! a crimson stain
high up on the wall is all that remains to us of these great frescoes,
which were already in decay when Vasari visited Venice in 1541.
Other work of the kind--all long since perished--Giorgione undertook
with success. The Soranzo Palace, the Palace of Andrea Loredano, the
Casa Flangini, and elsewhere, were frescoed with various devices, or
ornamented with monochrome friezes.
We know nothing of Giorgione's home life; he does not appear to have
married, or to have left descendants. Vasari speaks of "his many friends
whom he delighted by his admirable performance in music," and his
death caused "extreme grief to his many friends to whom he was
endeared by his excellent qualities." He enjoyed prosperity and good
health, and was called Giorgione "as well from the character of his
person as for the exaltation of his mind."[8]
He died of plague in the early winter of 1510, and was probably buried
with other victims on the island of Poveglia, off Venice, where the
lazar-house was situated.[9] The tradition that his bones were removed
in 1638 and buried at Castelfranco in the family vault of the Barbarelli
is devoid of foundation, and was invented to round off the story of his
supposed connection with the family.[10]
NOTES:
[1] See Appendix, where the documents are quoted in full.
[2] Vasari gives 1478 (1477 in his first edition) and 1511 as the years
of his birth and death. Crowe and Cavalcaselle, and Dr. Bode prefer to
say "before 1477," a supposition which would make his precocity less
phenomenal, and help to explain some chronological difficulties (see p.
66).
[3] Zorzon da Castelfranco. La sua origine, la sua morte e tomba, by

Dr. Georg Gronau. Venice, 1894.
[4] Vide Repertorium für Kunstwissenschaft, xix. 2, p. 166. [Dr.
Gronau.]
[5] It would seem, therefore, desirable to efface the name of Barbarelli
from the catalogues. The National Gallery, for example, registers
Giorgione's work under this name.
[6] The translation given is that of Blashfield and Hopkins's edition.
Bell, 1897.
[7] M. Müntz adduces strong arguments in favour of this view (_La fin
de la Renaissance_, p.