Giorgione and the Venetian School

I have gone out of my way to see the works of any number of artists in "real life" in retrospectives and exhibitions... but I can only think of a single exhibition that so overwhelmed me that I had to go back... driving some 400+ miles... a second time... but a single week later!

I had traveled to Washington DC with three artist friends to see an exhibition of Anselm Kiefer's paintings at the Hirschhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. The show was quite impressive... with several paintings that struck me as truly masterful. Yet at the same time I could not help but recognize that Kiefer's work was somewhat limited. So much gray!... and so many charred and wasted landscapes!... and so many allusions to the horrors of WWII and the Holocaust! It was like watching Schindler's List again and again. Now undoubtedly, Spielberg's work is a brilliant film... but how many times in a row can you watch it without wanting to slit your wrists?! I found myself calling out for something that spoke of life and sensuality and color!... and then we headed over to the National Gallery.

At the same time as the Kiefer exhibition, there in the National Gallery, Washington was a visiting exhibition of Venetian Renaissance painters... primarily Giovanni Bellini, Giorgione, and Titian.

The Italian High-Renaissance is commonly seen as being divided between the Florentine/Roman School and the Venetian School. The Florentine/Roman School, exemplified by Michelangelo and Raphael stressed sculptural form, sharp contours, clean, bright colors and even light. The Venetian School stressed color first and foremost, atmosphere, soft contours, and sensuality.

There have been many theories for the divide between the Florentine/Roman and Venetian Schools put forth by art historians... all likely containing a degree of truth. Some have pointed out the fact that the Florentine/Roman painters benefited from direct exposure to the examples of Classical Roman statuary. Others have pointed out that the Florentine/Roman preference for egg-tempera and fresco reinforced a linear/sculptural approach to painting. Some have even suggested that the homosexuality of major Florentine/Roman artists Donatello, Leonardo, Michelangelo, and others, as well as the church dictates against the use of the nude female models resulted in a focus upon the more sculptural male figure.

By way of contrast, the Venetians developed a preference for oil painting... and pushed the possibilities of this medium far further than anyone else. Up until this point, the primary approaches to painting were fresco (painting on wet plaster) and egg-tempera. Smaller "panel" paintings were rendered in egg-tempera... a fragile media that needed a stable surface such as a wood panel to minimize cracking. Egg-tempera is an incredibly time-intensive medium. To achieve the illusion of a gradual modeling of form, the painter must layer dozens... even hundreds of layers of single-hair brushstrokes in a cross-hatching method. Botticelli's masterpiece, Primavera, took over a year to complete... with the artist painting 8-12 hours a day, 6 days a week:

-Sandro Botticelli- Primavera (Spring)

Not only did egg-tempera make painting extremely time-consuming... and thus expensive... but being painted on wood panels... in the days before plywood... made the paintings... especially a large painting like Primavera... quite heavy and difficult... if not impossible... to move or transport. The medium also limited the amount of changes a painter might make to a painting. Large scale composition changes were nearly out of the question... or required the surface be sanded down and the new passages be feathered into the old.

Oil painting was developed in the North by Netherlandish painters such as Jan van Eyck:

-Jan van Eyck- Arnolfini Wedding Portrait

... and Rogier van der Weyden:

-Rogier van der Weyden- St. Luke Painting the Virgin and Child (note: this is where my moniker, Stlukesguild comes from... the legend of St. Luke painting the Virgin resulted in St. Luke becoming the patron saint of artists... and the artist's guild becoming known as the Guild of St. Luke or St. Luke's Guil)

These Flemish masters had discovered that they could achieve the most brilliant colors and the most subtle modeling of forms by the application of thin, semi-transparent layers of oil paint (known as "glazes") over an under-painting of egg-tempera. Quickly they determined that the egg-tempera could be done away with all together. Art patrons and collectors across Europe were in awe of the phenomenal detail and illusion of real space and form that the Flemish painters could achieve. Naturally, they were quite protective of their techniques.

The development of oil painting in Venice, owes much to fortune. The painter, Antonella da Messina settled in Venice, bringing with him the knowledge of the new technique.

-Antonella da Messina- Portrait of a Young Man

Antonella da Messina- St. George in his Study

There are various notions as to how da Messina acquired a grasp of oil painting, but the best theory is that he learned the technique from Jan van Eyck's pupil, Petrus Christus:

-Petrus Christus- Portrait of a Young Lady

-Petrus Christus- Deposition

As both Antonello and Petrus Christus were in Milan at the same time... and as Antonella left Milan with a grasp of oil painting while Petrus Christus soon after exhibited the first examples of the use of linear perspective in Northern painting (a development then known only to the Italians), there is a strong likelihood that the two artists exchanged "trade secrets".

Settling in Venice, the technique of oil painting spread from Da Messina to the leading Venetian painters... including Giovanni Bellini:

-Giovanni Bellini- Portrait of a Gentleman

-Giovanni Bellini- The Portrait of Doge Leonardo Loredan

The early Italian attempts at oil paint did not vary far from the Flemish models. The primary concern remained cracking, and so the paint was still applied in thin, transparent layers as it had been with egg tempera. However with the passage of time it became apparent that oil paint had a flexibility that avoided this problem. At the same time, Venice was asserting itself as a cultural center... but was unable to compete with the epic fresco paintings of Florentine masters such as Giotto, Fra Angelico, Simone Martini, Masaccio, etc... The humidity and constant flooding of Venice led to the rapid deterioration of attempts at fresco... and painting on an epic scale on wood panels was wholly impractical. Again, fortune came to the aid. They say "Necessity is the Mother of Invention."

Venice, as a great naval power, had developed into a leading maker of canvas for sails... made with Flemish linen. At some point it was recognized that the flags on ships and decorations on the sails were essentially paint on canvas, and so the artists began to experiment with oil on canvas... primed with rabbit's skin glue to avoid the deterioration of the linen fibers caused when oil came into contact with the fabric. The artists began timidly... but soon realized that oil paint held up incredibly well... and that they could work in a direct manner... without detailed drawings... immediately on the canvas... making changes as they saw fit.

For much of the later 15th century, the Bellini Family dominated painting in Venice. There was Giovanni Bellini's father, Jacopo Bellini:

-Jacopo Bellini- Annunciation 

His brother, Gentile Bellini:

-Gentile Bellini- The Miracle of the Bridge of San Lorenzo

and their Brother-in-Law, Andrea Mantegna:

-Andrea Mantegna- The Arrival of the Cardinal Francesco Gonzaga

Giovanni began his career as a talented and poetic painter and was quickly recognized as the leading painter in Venice. He established stylistic conventions that would be followed by later Venetian artists such as his approach to the theme of the Madonna and Child:

Giovanni Bellini- Madonna and Child

-Giovanni Bellini- Madonna and Child

And his large altarpiece paintings that are among the first epic-scaled paintings in Venice:

Giovanni Bellini- The Baptism of Christ

Giovanni Bellini- The San Zaccaria Altarpiece

-Giovanni Bellini- The Deposition

These paintings began to establish the Venetian tradition of atmospheric painting. Bellini establishes the sfumato... the softened, smoky edges that suggests the illusion of depth as contours become increasing blurred as they recede in space. This technique will be famously adapted by Leonardo da Vinci in the landscape backgrounds of his paintings:

Leonardo da Vinci- Gherardini, wife of Francesco del Giocondo 

But Bellini and the Venetians bring to this technique a brilliance of color... owed to the Flemish painters. This was achieved through layers of semi-transparent "glazes" until that the paintings literally glow like stained glass.

Bellini stands as one of the great artists of art history whose work continued to grow and develop throughout the whole of his career as the artist was ever open to ideas developed by younger artists.

The two most important younger painters in Venice were Giorgio Barbarelli da Castelfranco (or Giorgione) c. 1477/8 – 1510, and Tiziano Vecellio (or Titian) c. 1488/1490 – 27 August 1576. In spite of his short life span and limited oeuvre, Giorgione is one of the most important painters in the history of Western Art. If the greatest loss to music due to an early death was Mozart or Schubert, Giorgione's premature death must be among the greatest losses to the visual arts.

In the ten years, from 1500 until Giorgione's death in 1510, the triumvirate of Bellini, Titian, and Giorgione... who worked so closely together... physically and stylistically... that it is often difficult 500 years later to discern who painted what... reinvented Western painting to the point that their efforts are often thought as having resulted in the "Golden Age" of oil painting.

Giorgione's early works echo elements of Bellini's portraits...

-Giorgione- Portrait of a Man

Giorgione- Portrait of a Gentleman

-Giorgione- Portrait of Francesco Rovera

Yet by the time of his Portrait of a Gentleman...

-Giorgione- Portrait of a Gentleman

... he is already suggesting stylistic elements that will later be employed by Titian...

-Titian- Portrait of a Gentleman in Blue Sleeves

... and eventually Raphael...

Raphael Sanzio d'Urbino- Portrait of Baldasarre Castiglione

and even Rembrandt:

-Rembrandt van Rijn- Sketch after Raphael's Portrait of Baldasarre Castiglione

-Rembrandt van Rijn- Self Portrait 1659

Giorgione's religious paintings build upon Bellini's use of atmosphere and brilliant color. Some art historians have suggested that these elements owe much to the natural environment of Venice... the humidity as a result of the location of Venice on the sea leading to a blurring of edges... and refraction of colors. The effect in person is almost akin to that of stained glass... as the paintings virtually glow.

-Giorgione- The Holy Family

-Giorgione- Sacrae Conversazione

-Giorgione- Sacrae Conversazione

-Giorgione- The Virgin and Child in a Landscape

-Giorgione- Judith

-Giorgione- The Adulteress Brought before Christ

-Giorgione- The Madonna and Child Enthroned

-Giorgione- The Judgment of Solomon

-Giorgione- Moses' Trial by Fire

Whatever the truth may be, few paintings have ever radiated with such rich luminosity as those of the Venetian School... and it is not surprising that many painters deem the School of Venice... from Bellini through Tintoretto, Veronese, and Tiepolo...

-Tintoretto- The Birth of the Milky Way

-Tintoretto- Marriage at Cana

Veronese- Perseus and Andromedae

-Veronese- The Rape of Europa

-Giovanni Battista Tiepolo -Apollo and Daphne

-Giovanni Battista Tiepolo- The Immaculate Conception

...as the peak of Western painting. While the art historian, Giorgio Vasari was rather dismissive of the whole Venetian School, this was to be expected. Vasari was himself a painter... deeply schooled in the lessons of the Florentine/Roman School and revered artists such as Michelangelo and Raphael who stressed line and form... drawing above all else. The Venetian School stressed color and brushwork... and as such they would become the model for all future "painterly" approaches... including Peter Paul Rubens:

-Peter Paul Rubens- The Judgment of Paris

-Peter Paul Rubens- The Feast of Venus

... Rococo painters such as Boucher...

-Francois Boucher- Portrait of Mademoiselle O'Murphy

... Romantics such as Delacroix...

-Eugene Delacroix- Algerian Women

... the Impressionists...

-Pierre Renoir- Portrait of Jeanne Samary

... and beyond:

-Henri Matisse- Seated Riffian

-Philip Guston- Zone

One of Giorgione's last religious paintings is the magnificent Adoration of the Shepherds.

-Giorgione (Bellini?)- Adoration of the Shepherds

This is one of those paintings open to dispute as to authorship. There are elements suggestive of Bellini's last paintings... especially the landscape... and some suggest it was begun by Bellini. There are also elements that point toward early Titian... and paintings such as Noli me tangere:

Titian- Noli me tangere ("Touch me not...")

Whatever the case may be, the Adoration of the Shepherds is an absolutely stunning painting... and one of my true favorites. I never fail to spend a good period of time with it whenever I visit Washington D.C. and the National Gallery. For a good many years a reproduction of this painting hung in my bedroom.

The structure or composition of paintings prior to Giorgione and the Venetian School tends to be more "obvious"... often based on geometric structures. If we were to make a comparison to literature, we might draw an analogy with formally structured works such as sonnets... or Dante's terza rima. Giorgione and the Venetian School employed a far more "organic" approach to composition. Again, if we were making a comparison with literature, we might draw a comparison with Wordsworth or Whitman and a far freer structure. Giorgione ties the Adoration of the Shepherds together with a repetition of arches... the cave mouth, the bodies of the participants, the shrubs, and even the rocks... but the effect is as if this were all natural... not as if the artist had intentionally composed the work, but rather as if he had merely painted what was before his eyes.

Giorgione's most innovative works are those that some have termed "poesies". These are paintings in which the artist has broken with the expectation that outside of the realm of portraiture (and one should remember that the genre of landscape has yet to have evolved) the goal of all painting is to illustrate a narrative... from history, from literature, from mythology... or from the Bible. The painter today takes it for granted that he or she may paint whatever comes to mind... whatever interests them. But prior to Giorgione, this was not so.

Looking at a painting such as Nymphs, Children, and Shepherds in a Landscape:

-Giorgione- Nymphs, Children, and Shepherds in a Landscape

... we are immediately baffled as to just what the hell the subject is. Ultimately, it is just what it is: nymphs, children, and shepherds lolling about in some bucolic landscape. We can struggle to uncover some Greco-Roman mythology involving Venus and other goddesses... but there are no elements to suggest such.

Let's look at another of the poesies: the Landscape with Sunset:

-Giorgione- Landscape with a Sunset

There are few (if any) true landscapes prior to those of the great German Renaissance master, Albrecht Dürer... (and we should make a note of the fact that Dürer spent a period of time in Venice where he became friends with Giovanni Bellini)

-Albrecht Dürer- House by the Pond

At a time in which travel was dangerous and the great untamed distances between cities were filled with bears and wolves and highway robbers, "nature"... and landscape... had not yet been romanticized. And yet... here Giorgione seemingly offers a painting that is first and foremost a landscape. There is a figure rearing on a horse before a serpent... possibly St. George... and there's a couple of men sitting in the foreground... one apparently helping the other with his boot (perhaps he's broken or sprained an ankle)... but the painting is essentially a landscape... if only due to the fact that no one can discern just what the subject really is.

Another painting that has similarly baffled art historians is the so-called "Tempest":

-Giorgione- The Tempest

What we are presented with is an image of a nearly-nude woman breastfeeding in the forest landscape outside a city. To the left stands a soldier, and in the distrance dark clouds and a flash of lighting suggest an on-coming storm... the "tempest" of the title. Some have suggested that the painting represents the flight of the holy family into Egypt... but to present Mary nude would have literally verged upon heresy. And where is Joseph? And who is the soldier? Where are any symbols that might lead us to recognize that this is indeed an image of the Holy Family? At a time in which painters were expected to illustrate known narratives employing recognized symbols and iconography, Giorgione has essentially invented a narrative of his own... and challenged us to interpret it.

This is as true of his stunning nude, the so-called "Dresden Venus":

Giorgione- The Dresden Venus

The absolute wealth of female nudes in Western painting has resulted in a failure by many to recognize just how innovative this painting by Giorgione was at the time. Giorgione has essentially invented the genre of the "reclining nude". Where Botticelli's Primavera revived the Greco-Roman tradition of the Three Graces...

...and his Birth of Venus...

Sandro Botticelli- The Birth of Venus

... revived the tradition of the Greco-Roman standing Venus... especially per the example of the Medici Venus...

-Roman after a Greek original: [I]The Medici Venus[/I]

... Giorgione's Dresden Venus in one fell swoop virtually establishes (or "re-establishes") the whole of the Western tradition of the "reclining nude". There were Etruscan and Roman precursors to Giorgione's reclining figure... but these are nearly all clearly portraits... or representations of Venus or other goddesses. But if we look at Giorgione's sleeping nude, there is absolutely nothing that suggests that she is indeed Venus... or any other Goddess. Giorgione has simply presented us with an image of a beautiful nude woman sleeping in the warm hills outside of Venice.

While some art historians, critics, and theorists have argued that the purpose of painting the nude must have some higher, symbolic value... Giorgione offers us nothing more than a work in which he has simply painted a beautiful nude woman because he finds her attractive... or beautiful.

The painterly manner in which Giorgione's "Venus" is rendered... the lack of hard contours and sculptural form... and the sensuality of the brushwork, the softened edges, and the warm and atmospheric color all stress the sense of touch... and suggest erotic desire as the raison d'etre.

Subsequent artists would jump upon (eek!) the subject after Giorgione opened the door. Shortly thereafter we get Titian's Venus d'Urbino:

The Rococo presents us with Bouche'r Portrait of Mademoiselle O'Murphy (seen above), and in the 19th century, we get Manet's Olympia:

-Edouard Manet- Olympia

Both Titian's and Manet's paintings outraged members of the audience for the simple reason that like Giorgione's audacious painting, they did not disguise the sexual or erotic intent behind the work. (Boucher's work was reserved for the eyes of the King of France and his inner circle).

Giorgione's most famous painting, along with the Dresden Venus, most certainly must be the stunning Fête champêtre:

Giorgione (Titian?)- Fête champêtre

This is yet another painting open to dispute with regard to authorship. Some art historians ascribe the painting to Titian... or suggest that it may have been completed by Titian, while others... pointing to the open-ended narrative... attribute the work to Giorgione. This painting again became the source of a work by Manet, Le déjeuner sur l'herbe:

-Edouard Manet- Le déjeuner sur l'herbe

Manet was astutely struck by the fact that the Fête champêtre (housed in the Louvre) was essentially nothing more than a painting of a couple of fashionable dressed young men accompanied by a couple of naked young ladies sitting about enjoying the landscape on a warm summer's day. While some have suggested that due to the manner in which the men seem oblivious to the presence of the nude women, and in consideration of the clothing suggestive of "classical" robes worn by the woman on the left, the women in the Fête champêtre are actually invisible muses... the sources of inspiration visible only in the mind's eye of the young musicians/artists in the painting. In all actuality, there is nothing to suggest that they are anything more than a couple of young naked Venetian ladies.

Manet recognized that the subject matter of the Fête champêtre... or rather its lack of any legitimate narrative... was diffused by the perfume of time. As one of the prize possessions of the Louvre, no one questioned what was really going on in the Fête champêtre... let alone dared suggest something slightly risqué or unseemly... but when Manet ironically modernized the theme matter and set the same exact subjects in a park in 19th century Paris, the result was absolute outrage.

Once again, Giorgione confronts the audience with an open-ended narrative... rather than a clear illustration of a known theme or subject using accepted symbols and iconography.

I had the chance to see the Fête champêtre in person in the National Gallery, Washington some few years ago. The painting glows and exudes a rich and luxurious sense of warmth and atmosphere. It stands among my favorite paintings of all time.

The year before he died, Giorgione completed work on the so-called Three Philosophers:

Giorgione- The Three Philosophers

The work was commissioned by Taddeo Contarini, a Venetian merchant with an interest for occult and alchemy. It was later partially reworked by Sebastiano del Piombo and the painting was cut down... somewhat unbalancing the composition. Again, the subject matter of the painting is left open-ended and uncertain. Some have suggested that the three men represent three Greek Philosophers... and there are constant disputes as to just which three philosophers.

Another intriguing interpretation suggests that the three men represent the three great Abrahamic religions: the bearded figure on the right being Moses (or Abraham), holding the law; the turbaned central figure representing Muhammad, and the young, seated figure being Matthew of Patmos writing down his visions and Revelations. But then such a subject... sympathetic to Judaism and Islam... would have been seen as even more outrageous and blatantly blasphemous than the idea of a naked Holy Virgin in "The Tempest".

Still other interpretations suggest the three represent the 3 Magi, or the ages of European Civilizations (the Classical Age, the Middle Ages, the Renaissance), or merely the Three Ages of Mankind (Youth, Middle Age, Old Age). The manner in which the young man looks into the darkened void of the cavern is especially intriguing (Matthew... Youth looking into the future?). 

Considering the strength and inventiveness of Giorgione's later painting, one cannot help but feel especially saddened by the artist's premature death. Had he survived another decade or two his name would most assuredly have been immortalized or canonized along-side of the names of Michelangelo, Raphael, Leonardo, and Titian. Even so... he remains one of the towering figures of Venetian painting... a true "painter's painter."