Giorgione at the Washington National Gallery

The Holly Family, c. 1500

Portrait of a Venetian Gentleman, c. 1510

Like other paintings associated with Giorgione, this striking portrait presents difficulties of attribution. Both Titian and Sebastiano completed paintings by Giorgione that remained unfinished when he died prematurely in his early thirties. (It was said that Giorgione, fond of poetry, music, and beauty in all forms, contracted the plague from his mistress.) A second hand seems to have been at work in this painting, too. The portrait’s format, with its subject glancing sidelong at the viewer from behind a parapet, was developed by Giorgione, and the soft, shadowy gradations of tone also recall his style. Its overall aggressive mood, however, points to another painter, one who both used bolder strokes and possessed a more active, worldly outlook—perhaps Titian or Cariani. The unidentified sitter’s expression of calculating, almost cruel, appraisal is amplified by the gesture of his closed fist. The inscription on the parapet does not help to identify either the sitter or the artist, although Titian sometimes “carved” his initials in a similar manner on painted parapets. These letters, VVO, have been interpreted as a form of the Latin vivo (in life). This would suggest that the portrait was painted from life and that it confers a measure of immortality on both subject and painter. It may be more likely, however, that it abbreviates a humanist motto, perhaps virtus vincit omnia (virtue conquers all)(NGA).

Knowledge of Giorgione’s life and career is in inverse proportion to his artistic importance. He remains one of the least documented and most influential of all Renaissance painters. A single signed painting exists (NGA).




(Washington DC National Gallery of Art)