Giorgione Self-Portrait

Giorgione Self Portrait
Budapest, 31.5 x 28.5 cm
Oil on paper, mounted on wood

In the first decade of the sixteenth century at the very height of the Renaissance six of the world’s greatest painters were active in Italy. We have all heard of Leonardo, Michelangelo, and Raphael but Giovanni Bellini, Giorgione and Titian matched them in Venice. Of the six we know the least about Giorgione who died at about the age of 33 in 1510 at the height of his career.

Even though we have very little biographical information, we might have a very fine self-portrait of the artist. In a Budapest Museum there is a striking portrait of a young man that might be Giorgione himself. It is a small painting measuring 31.5 x 28.5 cm done in oil on paper and then mounted on wood. The painting bears a close resemblance to one in Braunschweig that has been identified as a self-portrait in the guise of David.

Giorgione: Self Portrait as David
Braunschweig, 52 x 43 cm
Oil on canvas

In her 1997 Giorgione catalog Jaynie Anderson gave the Braunschweig “David” to Giorgione but believed that the Budapest version was a later copy. In their 1997 catalog Pignatti and Pedrocco did not include either painting in their list of works by Giorgione.

The Budapest painting was included in the 2004 Giorgione exhibition held in both Venice and Vienna.  The catalog, “Giorgione Myth and Enigma”, described it in this way:

The paintings in Budapest and Braunschweig share the position of the head, the striking features, the facial expression with the knitted brow, drooping mouth and prominent chin. But the gaze in this small picture [Budapest] is much more direct, penetrating, critically examining; and at the same time the position of the head seems consciously posed. Instead of the melancholy, contemplative expression we find in the Braunschweig painting, there is a feeling of concentrated self-expression.

The catalog noted that some have called the painting a copy, perhaps by Dosso Dossi or Palma Vecchio, but sided with those who “defend its authenticity.” It cited Baldass who in 1955 gave it to Giorgione and said: “The sketch is made from the life model.”

In his 2007 Giorgione catalog Wolfgang Eller also gave both paintings to Giorgione mainly on stylistic grounds, and he noted that the Budapest “self-portrait is one of the first oil sketches on paper.”

The use of paper support is much more customary for sketches and drafts than for copies executed in oil. The type of depiction makes is appear probable that Giorgione painted the picture in the evening sitting in front of a mirror in his atelier.[1]

In his Lives of the Painters Vasari credited Giorgione with the invention of the modern manner and since then most scholars have agreed that Giorgione’s work signaled a revolution in art.

At the same time when Florence was acquiring so much renown form the works of Leonardo, the city of Venice obtained no small glory from the talents and excellence of one of its citizens, by whom the Bellini, then held in such esteem, were very far surpassed, as were all others who had practiced painting up to that time in that city. This was Giorgio, born in the year 1478, at Castelfranco, in the territory of Treviso…Giorgio was, at a later period, called Giorgione, as well from the character of his person as for the exaltation of his mind….[2]

I would like to believe that the man in the Budapest painting is Giorgione. He is young, self-confident, and his expression shows that audacity that marked all his work. With his long hair and prominent features he even resembles the man in the "Tempest". ###

Giorgione: Tempest

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[1] Wolfgang Eller, Giorgione, 2007, p.117

[2] Giorgio Vasari, Lives of the Most Eminent Painters, selected, edited, and introduced by Marilyn Aronberg Lavin, Volume II, New York, 1967, p. 227.

Giorgione's Venice

      

Gentile Bellini: Procession in Venice, St. Mark's Square

                   

It is hard to imagine today but in the year 1500 Venice was the greatest power on the European continent. Founded in the fifth century by refugees seeking the protection of its lagoons from barbarian invaders, the city had become the leading commercial power in the Mediterranean world by the fifteenth century, especially after it had emerged victorious in its life and death struggle with archrival Genoa. Subsequently, Venice became much more than a sea power by gradually extending its dominion over the various cities in the surrounding mainland, the so-called Veneto. This process was largely completed by 1500 and Venice was even beginning to make incursions into the Papal States.

In 1500 none of the other cities in Renaissance Italy could compare with Venice in wealth, military power, or political stability. Florence was mired in civil strife after the downfall of the Medici. Pope Alexander VI and his notorious son, Cesare Borgia, were attempting to regain control over the various warlords of the Papal States, but events were to show that their efforts were built on sand. The fall of the House of Sforza in Milan had made that city and Genoa puppets of the French monarchy. Even the Kingdom of Naples and Sicily was mired in conflict between French and Spanish claimants to the throne.

At the same time France, Spain, England and Germany hardly existed as unified nations and were only beginning to be in a position to challenge Venice after a century of internal disorder and ruinous wars. Still suffering from the ravages of the Hundred Years War, the crafty Kings of France were contending with powerful local nobles while at the same time engaging in costly foreign adventures. In Spain, Ferdinand and Isabella had spent the first 30 years of their reigns subduing not only rebellious nobles but also eliminating the last vestiges of Moslem Granada. It would take decades before the discoveries following the voyage of Columbus would help refill the depleted treasuries of Castile and Aragon. England was no better off. The Hundred Years War had been followed by the Wars of the Roses, and although Henry VII was to prove a skillful and resourceful ruler, the success of his Tudor dynasty was by no means assured. Despite the presence of the Holy Roman Empire, the various German states, both large and small, were disorganized and relatively poor. In 1509 it took the combined forces of the Holy Roman Empire, the Kingdom of France, and the Papacy led by the warrior Pope Julius II to inflict a serious but only temporary defeat on Venice at the battle of Agnadello. Within a couple of years the Venetians had recouped most of their losses in the Veneto.

 By 1500 only the Ottoman Empire stood as a serious rival to the power of Venice. The conquest of Constantinople had finally brought an end to the last vestige of the Roman Empire, and established a secure foothold for the Sultan in Europe. Venice appeared to be the only state in Europe with the wealth and sea power necessary to resist further Moslem expansion. Although the Venetians seemed to prefer negotiations with the Infidel in order to safeguard their commercial interests, on occasion they did resort to military action to protect their overseas colonies.

Historians can look back and mark the downfall of Venice in 1453 with the fall of Constantinople, or in 1492 with the discovery of the “New World” by Columbus, but in 1500 the hegemony of Venice in the Mediterranean world seemed secure. The great city-state had existed for over 1000 years, and it would survive as an independent entity for another 300. In 1500 Venice was not just a city, or even a city-state, it was a great island empire.

Contemporary commentators noted that the unique government of Venice provided the stability that lay behind its greatness. Venice was a republic and not a monarchy. The titles of King and Queen were forbidden in Venice. The Doge, the chief executive officer, was elected for life and the position was never hereditary. However, the position of Doge had all the trappings of monarchy. The Doge’s palace on St. Mark’s square was unrivalled in Europe. The ancient and magnificent Church of San Marco was the chapel of the Doge and not the cathedral of the Patriarch of Venice. In fact, only recently had the position of Bishop of Aquileia been elevated to that of Patriarch. Despite the exalted title the appointment of the Patriarch was in the hands of the Venetian government. More than any other country in Europe, the Venetian church was firmly controlled by the state.

The Doge was chosen from the ranks of the patrician families that effectively ruled Venice. Although titles of nobility were also forbidden, Venetian patricians formed the most aristocratic class in all Europe. Unlike England, for example, where the King could elevate wealthy or powerful commoners to the ranks of the nobility, newcomers could not be added to the ranks of the patricians for any reason. In Venice wealth and military prowess were not sufficient to enter the ruling class. It was a closed caste. Positions in the Senate, the Venetian governing body, were reserved for patricians.

Although socially inferior to the patrician class, a host of humanist scholars, scribes, and lawyers played a key role in serving the State and its rulers. Forbidden by law and custom to marry either above or below their caste, these ‘mandarins’ performed both actual and virtual service to the State. At the head of the humanist bureaucracy was the Grand Chancellor, the highest-ranking non-patrician in the government. In most cases his position was also a lifetime appointment. Other humanists served as legal advisors, scribes, and even diplomats. Their virtual service to the State was just as important. They were the writers and historians who used their classical learning to extol the greatness and the destiny of Venice. In other Renaissance centers humanists might place their own studies first and even challenge traditional culture and religious orthodoxy. But Venetian humanists, even those who came from abroad, placed themselves and their learning at the service of the State.

The various merchant and manufacturing classes that made up the rest of the city’s population could be found in any other thriving medieval city, but no other city could match the wealth and prosperity of the Venetians. Venice was the Big Apple.

The artists of the city were regarded as mere craftsmen and they belonged to the guild that represented house painters and wallpaper hangers. The steady demand for devotional images for both public and private use was being augmented as the new century opened by the increasing needs of wealthy patrons to fill their new palaces with beautiful works of art.

Only at the turn of the century would the two Bellini brothers, Gentile and Giovanni, achieve independent fame and recognition. The correspondence of Isabella d’Este shows that Giovanni Bellini had become a kind of super star able to call his own shots and keep wealthy patrons in waiting. It was into this environment that Giorgione and Titian, two young artists from the Veneto, arrived in Venice to seek fame and fortune.

In the background of the "Tallard" Madonna, usually attributed to Giorgione, we get another view of St. Mark's Square with the famed tower awaiting the addition of it's spire. Scholars date the painting between 1506 and 1513 because of the buildings depicted.###

Giorgione: "Tallard Madonna", Oxford

Titian: Presentation of the Virgin

This little post is mainly to draw attention to David Orme's  wonderful discussion at art-threads.co.uk of the artistic renderings in Renaissance Italy of the apocryphal legend of the Presentation of the Virgin. Titian's version above is perhaps the most famous but David reproduces some equally marvelous versions especially one by Tintoretto. He includes an explanation of the 15 steps so commonly used. Although Titian's version only seems to contain 13 steps, there are two more behind the priest at the top. David's discussion of the Presentation is included in his section on the Life of the Virgin and Childhood of Jesus.

I would like to take the opportunity, however, to put my own two cents in and offer a guess on the identity of the mysterious elderly woman so prominently depicted in the foreground sitting next to a basket of eggs in Titian's version. To my knowledge no one has so far been able to come up with a good explanation of this woman who does not even look at the young Virgin ascending the steps.

Perhaps the answer can be found not in an apocryphal legend but in Scripture itself. In his gospel Luke, always a stickler for historical accuracy and detail, noted the presence of an elderly woman who practically lived in the Temple. It was Anna the prophetess. In Luke's account of the Presentation of the Infant Jesus in the Temple, itself probably the basis for the legend of the Presentation of his Mother, we meet two strange figures: the famous Simeon, and the not so famous Anna. Here is Luke's description. (2:36-38)

There was a prophetess also, Anna the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher, she was well on in years. Her days of girlhood over, she had been married for seven years before becoming a widow. She was now eighty-four years old and never left the Temple, serving God night and day with fasting and prayer. she came by just at that moment and began to praise God; and she spoke of the child to all who looked forward to the deliverance of Jerusalem.

Do the eggs represent a problem for this identification? There might be a reference in the legends, or they might be symbolic, but I suspect that they refer to the sacrifice mentioned by Luke at the Presentation of Jesus: "a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons." Perhaps Anna was thought to support herself by supplying these birds.

I think it would have been perfectly natural for the legends to place a Temple denizen who had been present at the Presentation of Jesus at the scene of the Presentation of his Mother only a few years before. In another legend popular at the time the two thieves who were crucified alongside of Christ were believed to have been the same two who had waylaid the Holy Family on the flight into Egypt 30 years before. See my discussion of "Discovery of Paris" or the Encounter with the Robbers at MyGiorgione.

Giorgione: "Man of Sorrows"

"Homage to a Poet", London, National Gallery, panel, 59x48 cm.

In 1885 London's National Gallery acquired a painting, now entitled, "Homage  to a Poet," that was originally thought to have been done by Raphael. Subsequently, scholars tended to give it to Giorgione but now the Museum claims that it was by a "follower of Giorgione," although it mentions  a more recent view.

The painting was long considered as the product of Giorgione's studio. More recently it has been suggested that it is an imitation of Giorgione made in about 1540.*

The major figure in the painting is a man with a sorrowful expression on his face, with a flowing golden robe, and a laurel wreath on his head. The man is seated on a kind of throne with two young men paying him homage. Another young man sits on a step playing a lute. In the foreground on the other side of the painting are a leopard and a peacock. All the figures are in a Giorgionesque landscape which includes an indistinct figure in the rocky outcrop on the left.

In his 2009 monumental study of Giorgione, Enrico Maria dal Pozzolo claimed that the painting might be the earliest Giorgione still extant.

This bizarre painting on a medium-sized panel (59x 48 cm), now at the National Gallery in London, might be the first of Zorzi’s works to have been handed down to us. The use of the conditional concerns every single aspect of it—the attribution, the date, the subject—because it is a work unlike any other from that time, and so disconcerting…**

Dal Pozzolo made note of the different attributions as well as the varying interpretations of this mysterious painting. He then offered his own unique interpretation.

But the main figure is none other than Saturn, the god who devoured his own children, was castrated and denounced by Zeus, represented here in decline and exile in a hortus conclusus inside which human beings and animals live together in peace, all within the bounds of a “virtuous “laurel shrub….**

In 2007 Wolfgang Eller declined to attribute the painting to Giorgione, although he did admit that Giorgione might have done the landscape. His opinion was based on stylistic grounds.

The pictorial arrangement is too unbalanced with inharmonious progressions....Moreover, the painterly style of the animals is too stiff and of mostly average quality. In spite of some very delicately painted details, the painting is also rather average in the painterly execution of the figures. The light effects are very good even if the shadows do not have Giorgione’s organic structure. The interpretation of the landscape is very Tuscan, which also explains the earlier attribution to Raphael. Giorgione’s participation in the landscape in the upper part of the painting is not impossible but very difficult to prove. An attribution to Domenico Campagnola would suggest itself, and Carpaccio and Catena are possible closer authors.***

Eller declined to suggest an interpretation.

In 1999 Teriseo Pignatti and Filippo Pedrocco gave the painting to Giorgione also on stylistic grounds. 

The common tendency is to re-evaluate the geometrically balanced composition, the superb rendering of light, and the truly high level of the handling of the paint, all of which seem to presage Giorgione’s early mature work...#

They also called the painting mysterious and mentioned the many attempts at interpretation but without coming to any conclusion.

Although I believe the painting to be by Giorgione, I have neither the skill nor the tools to enter the attribution debate. However, I do believe that this painting is a version of the "Man of Sorrows" so popular in Venice at the time. I have discussed this on an earlier post dated June 25, 2011. ###

William Dyce: Man of Sorrows

* National Gallery Website.

**Dal Pozzolo, Enrico Maria: Giorgione, Milan, 2009.

***Eller, Wolfgang:, Giorgione, Catalog Raisonne, 2007, p.124.
#Pignatti, Teriseo and Pedrocco, Filippo: Giorgione, NY, 1999. Catalog entry #5.

Giorgione, Titian Bibliography

Below find a bibliography of works consulted in my interpretation of Giorgione's "Tempest" as the "Rest on the Flight into Egypt". Some of the works have already been discussed or reviewed in previous postings. Just search under the author's name or click on the sidebar. I also append an additional list used in my interpretation of Titian's "Sacred and Profane Love" as "The Conversion of Mary Magdalen."*

Giorgione: Tempest

Giorgione: Tempest Bibliography.

Anderson, Jaynie: Giorgione, 1997.

The Anonimo, Notes on Pictures and Works of Art in Italy made by an Anonymous Writer in the Sixteenth Century: ed. By George C. Williamson, London, 1903.

The Bible of the Poor, (Biblia Pauperum), a Facsimile and Edition of the British Library Blockbook C. 9 d. 2, translation and commentary by Albert C. Labriola and John W. Smeltz, Pittsburgh, 1990.

Bembo, Pietro: History of Venice, edited and translated by Robert W. Ulery, Jr.,Cambridge, MA, 2008, vol. 2, books v-viii (1499-1509).

Brown, David Alan, Leonardo Da Vinci, Origins of a Genius, Yale, 1998.

Brown, David Alan, and Ferino-Pagden, Sylvia, Bellini, Giorgione, Titian, and the Renaissance of Venetian Painting, Washington, 2006.

Campbell, Stephen J: “Giorgione’s Tempest, Studiolo Culture, and the Renaissance Lucretius,” Renaissance Quarterly, 56 (2003) 299-332.

Cartwright, Julia, Isabella D’Este, Marchioness of Mantua, 1474-1539, London, 1932.

Christiansen, Keith: “Giovanni Bellini and the Practice of Devotional Painting,” in Giovanni Bellini and the Art of Devotion, Indianapolis, 2004.

Colonna, Francesco, Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, The Strife of Love in a Dream. The entire test translated for the first time into English with an introduction by Joscelyn Godwin, New York, 1999.

Dal Pozzolo, Enrico Maria: Giorgione, Milan, 2009.

Ekserdjian, David: Correggio, Yale, 1997.

Eller, Wolfgang: Giorgione Catalog Raisonne, Petersberg, 2007.

Ferino-Pagden, Sylvia, and Nepi-Scire, Giovanna: exh. Cat. Giorgione, Myth and Enigma, Vienna, 2004.

Filas, Francis L., Joseph: The Man Closest to Jesus, The Complete Life, Theology and Devotional History of St. Joseph, Boston, 1962.

Fleming, John V. From Bonaventure to Bellini, an Essay in Franciscan Exegesis, Princeton, 1982.

Gilbert, Creighton E.: How Fra Angelico and Signorelli Saw the End of the World, Penn State, 2003.

Goffen, Rona: Piety and Patronage in Renaissance Venice, Yale, 1986.

The Grimani Breviary: Levenger Press, DelRay Beach, Florida, 2007.

Hall, Marcia: Color and Meaning, Practice and Theory in Renaissance Painting, Cambridge, 1992.

Hennecke, Edgar: New Testament Apocrypha, ed. By Wilhelm Schneemelcher, Volume One, Gospels and Related Writings, Philadelphia,1963.

Holberton, Paul: Giorgione’s Tempest or ‘little landscape with the storm with the gypsy’: more on the gypsy, and a reassessment,” Art History, Vol. 18, No. 3, September 1995, pp. 383-404.

Humfrey, Peter: Painting in Renaissance Venice, Yale, 1993.

Humfrey, Peter: Titian, London, 2007.

Howard, Deborah: “Giorgione’s Tempesta and Titian’s Assunta in the Context of the Cambrai Wars, Art History, Vol. 8, No. 3, September 1985, pp. 271-289.

Hutton, Edward: Venice and Venetia, NY, 1911.

Impelluso, Lucia: Nature and Its Symbols, translated by Stephen Sartarelli,Los Angeles, 2003.

Jameson Mrs. Anna: Legends of the Madonna, Boston, 1885.

Joannides, Paul: Titian to 1518, the Assumption of Genius, Yale, 2001.

Kaplan, Paul H.D.: “The Storm of War: The Paduan Key to Giorgione’s Tempesta,” Art History, Vol. 9, No. 4, December, 1986.

Kasl, Ronda ed.: Giovanni Bellini and the Art of Devotion, Indianapolis, 2004.

King, Margaret L.: Venetian Humanism in an Age of Patrician Dominance, Princeton, 1986.

Lugli, Emanuele: Between Form and Representation: the Frick St. Francis.” Art History, Vol. 32, No. 1—February 2009, pp. 21-51.

Male, Emile: Religious Art in France, The Late Middle Ages: A Study of Medieval Iconography and Its Sources, Princeton, 1986.

Male, Emile: Religious Art in France, The Thirteenth Century, Princeton, 1986.

Norwich, John Julius: A History of Venice, NY, 1982.

O’Connor, Edward Dennis, ed.: The Dogma of the Immaculate Conception, History and Significance, Notre Dame, 1958.

Pignatti, Terisio and Pedrocco, Filippo: Giorgione, Rizzoli, NY, 1999.

Rapp, Jurgen: “The ‘Favola’ in Giorgione’s Tempesta,” Giorgione, Myth and Enigma, 119-123.

Ridolfi, Carlo: The Life of Titian, ed. Julia Conway Bondanella and Peter Bondanella, Bruce Cole, and Jody Robin Shiffman, Penn State, 1996.

Rosand, David: Painting in Cinquecento Venice: Titian, Veronese, Tintoreto, Yale, 1982.

Schier, Rudolf: “Giorgione’s Tempesta, a Virgilian pastoral,” Renaissance Studies, 22 (May 2008), issue 4, 476-506.

Schwartz, Sheila: “The Iconography of the Rest on the Flight into Egypt,” unpublished doctoral dissertation, NYU, 1975.

Settis, Salvatore: Giorgione’s Tempesta, Chicago, 1990.

Steinberg, Leo: Leonardo’s Incessant Last Supper, New York, 2001.

Steinberg, Leo: The Sexuality of Christ in Renaissance Art and in Modern Oblivion, NY,1983.

Wilson, Carolyn: St. Joseph in Italian Renaissance Society and Art, Philadelphia, 2001.

Wind, Edgar: Giorgione’s Tempesta, Oxford, 1969.

Wind, Edgar: Pagan Mysteries of the Renaissance, New Haven, 1958.

Titian: Sacred and Profane Love

Titian: "Sacred and Profane Love" Bibliography.

Cleugh, James: The Divine Aretino, NY,1966.

Goffen, Rona: Titian’s Sacred and Profane Love and Marriage, The Expanding Discourse, Feminism and Art History, ed. Norma Broude and Mary D. Garrard, NY, 1992. Pp. 111-125.

Goffen, Rona: Titian’s Sacred and Profane Love: Individuality and Sexuality in a Renaissance Marriage Picture “ in Titian 500, ed. Joseph Manca, Washington, 1993.

Goffen, Rona: Titian’s Women, Yale, 1997.

Haskins, Susan: Mary Magdalen, Myth and Metaphor, NY, 1994.

Hope, Charles: Titian, NY, 1980.

Jansen, Katherine Ludwig: The Making of the Magdalen, Preaching and Popular Devotion in the Later Middle Ages, Princeton, 2000.

Joannides, Paul: Titian to 1518, Yale, 2001.

Masson, Georgina: Courtesans of the Italian Renaissance, NY, 1971.

Panofsky, Erwin: “The Neoplatonic Movement in Florence and North Italy (Bandinelli and Titian”, Studies in Iconology, NY, 1962. Pp. 129-171.

Rosand, David: Titian, NY, 1978.

Rowland, Ingrid: From Heaven to Arcadia, The Sacred and the Profane in the Renaissance, NY, 2005.

Titian, catalogue edited by David Jaffe, London, 2003.

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*Copies of either bibliography will be sent to interested students upon request.