Giorgione | Page 7

three others in English
collections to which Morelli does not specifically refer, we are left with
four more pictures on which these rival authorities are agreed.
[Illustration: Alinari photo. Uffizi Gallery, Florence
THE JUDGMENT OF SOLOMON]
These are the two small works in the Uffizi, representing the "Judgment
of Solomon" and the "Trial of Moses," the "Knight of Malta," also in
the Uffizi, and the "Christ bearing the Cross," till lately in the Casa
Loschi at Vicenza, and now belonging to Mrs. Gardner of Boston,
U.S.A.
The two small companion pictures in the Uffizi, The "Judgment of
Solomon" and the "Trial of Moses," or "Ordeal by Fire," as it is also
called, connect in style closely with the "Adrastus and Hypsipyle."
They are conceived in the same romantic strain, and carried out with
scarcely less brilliance and charm. The story, as in the previous pictures,
is not insisted upon; the biblical episode and the rabbinical legend are
treated in the same fantastic way as the classic myth. Giovanni Bellini
had first introduced this lyric conception in his treatment of the
mediaeval allegory, as we see it in his picture, also in the Uffizi,
hanging near the Giorgiones; all three works were originally together in
the Medici residence of Poggio Imperiale, and there can be little doubt
are intimately related in origin to one another. Bellini's latest
biographer, Mr. Roger Fry, places this Allegory about the years 1486-8,
a date which points to a very early origin for the other two.[18] For it is
extremely likely that the young Giorgione was inspired by his master's
example, and that he may have produced his companion pieces as early
as 1493. With this deduction Morelli is in accord: "In character they
belong to the fifteenth century, and may have been painted by
Giorgione in his sixteenth or eighteenth year."[19]
Here, then, is a clue to the young artist's earliest predilections. He
fastens eagerly upon that phase of Bellini's art to which his own poetic
temperament most readily responds. But he goes a step further than his

master. He takes his subjects not from mediaeval romances, but from
the Bible or rabbinical writings, and actually interprets them also in this
new and unorthodox way. So bold a departure from traditional usage
proves the independence and originality of the young painter. These
two little pictures thus become historically the first-fruits of the
neo-pagan spirit which was gradually supplanting the older
ecclesiastical thought, and Giorgione, once having cast
conventionalism aside, readily turns to classical mythology to find
subjects for the free play of fancy. The "Adrastus and Hypsipyle" thus
follows naturally upon "The Judgment of Solomon" and "Trial of
Moses," and the pages of Virgil, Ovid, Statius, and Valerius
Flaccus--all treasure-houses of golden legend--yield subjects suggestive
of romance. The titles of some of these poesie, as they were called, are
preserved in the pages of Ridolfi.[20]
[Illustration: Alinari photo. Uffizi Gallery, Florence
THE TRIAL OF MOSES]
The tall and slender figures, the attitudes, and the general
mise-en-scène vividly recall the earlier style of Carpaccio, who was at
this very time composing his delightful fairy tales of the "Legend of S.
Ursula."[21] Common to both painters is a gaiety and love of beauty
and colour. There is also in both a freedom and ease, even a homeliness
of conception, which distinguishes their work from the pageant pictures
of Gentile Bellini, whose "Corpus Christi Procession" was produced
two or three years later, in 1496.[21] But Giorgione's art is instinct with
a lyrical fancy all his own, the story is subordinated to the mood of the
moment, and he is much more concerned with the beauty of the scene
than with its dramatic import.
The repainted condition of "The Judgment of Solomon" has led some
good judges to pronounce it a copy. It certainly lacks the delicacy that
distinguishes its companion piece, but may we not--with Crowe and
Cavalcaselle and Morelli--register it rather as a much defaced original?
So far as we have at present examined Giorgione's pictures, the trend of
thought they display has been mostly in the direction of secular

subjects. The two early examples just described show that even where
the subject is quasi-religious, the revolutionary spirit made itself felt;
but it would be perfectly natural to find the young artist also following
his master Giambellini in the painting of strictly sacred subjects. No
better example could be found than the "Christ bearing the Cross," the
small work which has recently left Italy for America. We are told by
the Anonimo that there was in his day (1525) a picture by Bellini of
this subject, and it is remarkable that four separate versions exist to-day
which, without being copies of one another, are so closely related that
the existence of a common original is a legitimate inference. That