Italian 1476-1510 Giorgione Galleries For his home town of Castelfranco, Giorgione painted the Castelfranco Madonna, an altarpiece in sacra conversazione form ?? Madonna enthroned, with saints on either side forming an equilateral triangle. This gave the landscape background an importance which marks an innovation in Venetian art, and was quickly followed by his master Giovanni Bellini and others.Giorgione began to use the very refined chiaroscuro called sfumato ?? the delicate use of shades of color to depict light and perspective ?? around the same time as Leonardo. Whether Vasari is correct in saying he learnt it from Leonardo's works is unclear ?? he is always keen to ascribe all advances to Florentine sources. Leonardo's delicate color modulations result from the tiny disconnected spots of paint that he probably derived from manuscript illumination techniques and first brought into oil painting. These gave Giorgione's works the magical glow of light for which they are celebrated. Most entirely central and typical of all Giorgione's extant works is the Sleeping Venus now in Dresden, first recognized by Morelli, and now universally accepted, as being the same as the picture seen by Michiel and later by Ridolfi (his 17th century biographer) in the Casa Marcello at Venice. An exquisitely pure and severe rhythm of line and contour chastens the sensuous richness of the presentment: the sweep of white drapery on which the goddess lies, and of glowing landscape that fills the space behind her, most harmoniously frame her divinity. The use of an external landscape to frame a nude is innovative; but in addition, to add to her mystery, she is shrouded in sleep, spirited away from accessibility to her conscious expression. It is recorded by Michiel that Giorgione left this piece unfinished and that the landscape, with a Cupid which subsequent restoration has removed, were completed after his death by Titian. The picture is the prototype of Titian's own Venus of Urbino and of many more by other painters of the school; but none of them attained the fame of the first exemplar. The same concept of idealized beauty is evoked in a virginally pensive Judith from the Hermitage Museum, a large painting which exhibits Giorgione's special qualities of color richness and landscape romance, while demonstrating that life and death are each other's companions rather than foes. Apart from the altarpiece and the frescoes, all Giorgione's surviving works are small paintings designed for the wealthy Venetian collector to keep in his home; most are under two foot (60 cm) in either dimension. This market had been emerging over the last half of the fifteenth century in Italy, and was much better established in the Netherlands, but Giorgione was the first major Italian painter to concentrate his work on it to such an extent ?? indeed soon after his death the size of such paintings began to increase with the prosperity and palaces of the patrons.  Related Paintings of Giorgione :. | Fete champetre(Concerto in the Country) (mk14) | Laura (MK45) | The Adulteress brought before christ Giorgione | Portrait of a Youth (Antonio Broccardo) dsdg | The Adoration of the Kings |
Related Artists:
Joel Pettersson
(June 8, 1892 - January 5, 1937) was a painter and writer on the Åland Islands, Finland. He remained an obscure figure during his lifetime; most of his works were unpublished for decades after his death. Pettersson was born into poverty in Lemland, Åland. His parents were elderly peasants, Joel's father being well over 50 at the time of Joel's birth. Joel had a younger brother Karl, who died at sea in 1916. Pettersson began writing and painting in his early school years, though much of his works from this period were not preserved. In 1913, he had the opportunity to study at a drawing school in Turku. He stayed in Turku until 1915, when he decided to abort his studies and return to Åland. He painted for a few years, but he eventually tired of it and did not paint for many years. Upon his return, Pettersson became active in the local youth organisation, for which he wrote plays and monologues. He also wrote prose which he read out loud during organisation meetings. Pettersson was most active as a writer following his return from Turku until 1921. During the 1920s, Pettersson worked mostly on his parents' farm, only sporadically participating in the youth organisation's activities. His parents both died in 1928, leaving Pettersson to care for the farm. He sold all the animals and most of the property. He tried earning a living on his artistry, but was unsuccessful. He then tried raising hens, but this also proved to be an unsuccessful venture. He resumed painting in 1935, and some of his paintings were displayed during an exhibition the following year. His constant economic difficulties and work load took their toll. In 1936, he suffered a nervous breakdown and was committed to Grelsby Asylum, where he remained until his death in early 1937.
Pierre Auguste Cot
(February 17, 1837 ?C 1883) was a French painter of the Academic Classicism school. He was born in B??darieux, and initially studied at l'Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Toulouse before going to Paris. He studied under Leon Cogniet, Alexandre Cabanel and William-Adolphe Bouguereau. From the 1870s, his popularity grew quickly. In 1874 he was made Chevalier of the Legion of Honour. He created several works of lasting popularity, including Le Printemps, featuring two young lovers sitting upon a swing, and The Storm. Both these paintings are on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City;
Jan Stobbaerts
1539 - 1584