GIORGIONE

Zorzi da Castelfranco, known as Giorgione: an artist whose documented works are only four – and only one has come down to us – mentioned in archival documents that can be counted on the fingers of one hand and of which each reconstruction is entirely hypothetical. Yet, after a career span of just over ten years, Giorgione has achieved a fame remaining unchanged over the centuries. Starting from Giovanni Bellini’s lessons in spirituality and harmony between man and nature, and from the use of colour by Giovan Battista Cima da Conegliano, the master of Castelfranco offers a highly peculiar synthesis of harmonious lyricism, immersing bodies and landscape into a soft and dense light. It is the tonal painting that, set by Cima and Bellini, with Giorgione turns into the language of initiation of the formidable brood becoming the protagonist of the great Venetian Cinquecento, the season of Palma il Vecchio, Sebastiano del Piombo and Titian.