Lives of the Artists by Vasari Giorgio; Bondanella Julia Conway; Bondanella Peter

Author:Vasari, Giorgio; Bondanella, Julia Conway; Bondanella, Peter
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Oxford University Press, UK
Published: 1998-06-27T16:00:00+00:00

THE END OF THE LIFE OF LEONARDO DA VINCI,

FLORENTINE PAINTER AND SCULPTOR

The Life of Giorgione da Castelfranco, Venetian Painter

[c. 1478–1510]

In the same period that Florence was acquiring so much fame through the works of Leonardo, no small embellishment was bestowed upon Venice by the talent and excellence of one of its citizens who surpassed by far the Bellinis,* whom the Venetians held in such high esteem, as well as every other artist who had painted in that city up to that time. This was Giorgio, born in Castelfranco in the province of Treviso in the year 1478 while the doge was Giovan Mozenigo, the brother of Doge Piero, and because of his physical features and his greatness of spirit, he was in time called Giorgione.* Although Giorgione was a man of the most humble origins, he was, however, nothing but gentle and well-mannered all his life. He was brought up in Venice, continuously took delight in affairs of the heart, and was so greatly pleased by the sound of the lute that, in his time, he played and sang divinely; he was for that reason often engaged for various musical events and gatherings of the nobility.

He studied design and enjoyed it enormously, and in this study nature favoured him so strongly that he developed a passion for beautiful things and did not want to include anything in his work that was not drawn from life. He was so under nature’s domination and imitated it so well that not only did he acquire a reputation for having surpassed Gentile and Giovanni Bellini, but also for rivalling those artists working in Tuscany who were the authors of the modern style. Giorgione had seen some of the things done by Leonardo that, as has been mentioned, were very subtly shaded off and darkened, as has been said, through the use of deep shadows. And this style pleased him so much that, while he lived, he always went back to it, imitating it most especially in his oil paintings. Since he appreciated the good qualities of craftsmanship, Giorgione always used to pick out the most beautiful and varied subjects he could find to put in his works. And nature gave him such a gracious spirit that, in either oil or fresco, he created living forms and other images so soft, so harmonious, and so carefully shaded off into the shadows that many of the most skilful artists of those times agreed he had been born to infuse life into his figures and to reproduce the freshness of living flesh more than any other artist who had ever painted, not only in Venice but anywhere.

In the beginning Giorgione worked in Venice, where he painted many Madonnas as well as other living portraits, which are both very lifelike and beautiful, as can still be seen in three very beautiful heads he did in oil which are in the study of the Most Reverend Grimani, the Patriarch of Aquileia. One represents David with his hair falling down

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