Skip to main content

Giorgione [Zorzi da Castelfranco] Biography

Giorgione [Zorzi da Castelfranco]

(Castelfranco Veneto, present-day Italy, c.1477-Venice, 1510) Italian painter.He is one of the darkest figures in the history of art, since nothing is known about his life and very little about his work; His canvases also have numerous attribution problems, among other reasons because he left several paintings unfinished, which were completed by other painters.Despite this, it can be affirmed without a doubt that the artist was an innovator, and also a fundamental figure in the evolution of Venetian painting.

He arrived in Venice around 1500 and trained in Giovanni Bellini's workshop, before settling on his own in association with Vincenzo Catena.He participated in two important public commissions: a canvas for the audience room of the ducal palace (lost) and the exterior frescoes of the Fondaco dei Tedeschi, in collaboration with Titian.In addition, he painted on commission for private collectors, and in this he differs from the other artists of his time, who worked mainly for large public or Church institutions.

He is considered the inventor of the emotional landscape, that is, of the nature represented depending on the artist's state of mind.A good example of this is his most admired work, The Tempest (c.1508, Accademia Gallery, Venice), where the theme seems a mere pretext for the realization of an exercise in creative imagination; this painting, with cold and saturated colors, had a great influence on later painting.

The Tempest (c.1508), by Giorgione

The canvas represents a soldier and a breastfeeding woman to a child in a landscape of innumerable shades of green.The atmosphere of imminent storm, underlined by the lightning that illuminates the clouds, is the indisputable protagonist of the canvas, and, therefore, it seems irrelevant to decide whether it is the discovery of Moses the child, of the Holy Family on their flight to Egypt, of an episode from the legend of Genoveva or, as has been claimed, an image sui géneris of Adam and Eve; the characters of The Tempest have also been interpreted, in allegorical key, as personifications of Charity.

In The Tempest , the traditional hierarchical relationship between figures and landscape has been abolished for the benefit of the latter.But in addition, Giorgione was the first painter who subordinated the subject to the evocation of a state of mind, and thus, he often changed his mind during the execution, transforming the original composition.For example, thanks to detailed radiographic examinations, it has been discovered that the soldier that Giorgione painted in The Tempest was originally another female figure, so it is not surprising that his contemporaries were ignorant of the subject of his paintings nor that critics have subsequently failed to define their meanings.This being carried away by temperament and imagination was the birth of the "psychic landscape", and has been considered the most original and transcendent contribution of the Venetian master.

The three philosophers (c.1508-09)

Landscape also plays a major role in another of Giorgione's great creations, The three philosophers (c.1508-09), a painting of uncertain meaning in which it is very innovative that the brushstroke is oriented almost exclusively to the creation of chromatic effects.The figures could be the Magi, who, represented as astrologers, scrutinize with their science the star that announces the birth of the Redeemer.It may also be an evocation of the three ages of man, but the nimbus worn by the oldest character, revealed by radiographic examination, does not clarify matters.

His audacity continued with works such as the Portrait of an old woman (Accademia Gallery, Venice), of unusual realism, or the fantastic Landscape at sunset (1510, National Gallery, London), which demonstrate once again his ability to deviate from prevailing clichés.Giorgione, who according to Vasari was also an excellent musician, achieves the highest expression of his chromatic and sensual poetry in two marvelous oils: the Sleeping Venus (c.1509-1510, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Dresden) , with its amber light, diffuse and seductive, and the Country Concert (which has also been attributed to the young Titian and in any case was finished by him), a beautiful twilight landscape in which the author shows his mastery in treating the atmosphere and tonality.

Regardless of whether the naked women of the Country Concert are courtesans or allegorical figures, the plastic beauty of the opulent forms under the light, the warm shades of red that contrast with the green and the natural attitudes of men give us an impression of ancient and modern life at the same time, like the activity of the shepherd in a shady vegetal landscape and the opening, to the left and in the distance, of the horizon towards the setting sun.Because of its modernity, the painting was one of the sources of inspiration for Édouard Manet's Lunch on the Grass , a forerunner of Impressionism who caused a scandal in 1862 when he presented his painting at the Salon d'Automne in Paris.Giorgione died prematurely, probably from the plague, when he was in his early thirties.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Jan Hus Biography

Jan Hus (Also called John or John Huss; Husinec, Bohemia, 1369-Constance, 1415) Promoter of the Czech ecclesiastical reform.He was born into a poor peasant family in southwestern Bohemia.However, he managed to study Theology and Arts at the University of Prague and ordained himself a priest (1400).In 1402 he was appointed rector of the University, supported by the Czech particularist sentiment against Germanic domination. Jan Hus Under the influence of the English heretic John Wycliffe, Hus began in 1405 to preach against the excessive wealth of the Church and the immorality of the clergy, demanding a return to the purity of the evangelical message, preaching in the Czech language that the people could understand, and communion under both species.Its influence was increased by the crisis in which the Church of Rome was plunged by the "Schism of the West", as well as by the Czech nationalist reaction against the German minority (started with the struggle for control of ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Grace Querejeta Biography

Gracia Querejeta (Gracia Querejeta Marín; Madrid, 1962) Spanish film director.Daughter of the costume designer María del Carmen Marín Maiki and the film producer Elías Querejeta, she studied Geography and History at university and received a degree in Ancient History.Although she never wanted to be an actress, she had two circumstantial appearances in front of the cameras: the first, when she was only seven years old, in the film Las secretas intenciones by Antxon Eceiza, and the second when, at the age of thirteen., played a small role in Las Palabras de Max , by Emilio Martínez-Lázaro. Gracia Querejeta His first professional experience behind a Camera was as assistant director in Sweet hours (1981), directed by Carlos Saura and with his father as producer.After finishing his degree, he had the opportunity to direct Tres en la marca in 1988, as part of the collective project Seven footprints , with which he won the Arriaga Theater Award in Bilbao.The film Seven footp...
Post a Comment
Read more

Arnold toynbee Biography

Arnold Toynbee (Arnold Joseph Toynbee; London, 1889-York, 1975) British philosopher and historian, considered one of the most important philosophers in history, achieved fame thanks to his 12 volumes of A study of History ( Study of History , 1934-1961). Toynbee, nephew of also historian Arnold Toynbee, studied primary school at Winchester Institute and entered the Balliol College of the University of Oxford in 1908, where he graduated in classics in 1911.Upon graduation, he spent a brief period of time at the British School in Athens, one of the contacts with the classical world that most It impressed young Toynbee, and it would have such an impact on his work. Arnold Toynbee He returned to London a year later, to take up the post of Associate Professor of Ancient History at Balliol College, Cambridge.There he remained until 1919, the year in which he was appointed Professor of Greek and Byzantine Studies at the University of London.In 1925, as the culmination of his acade...
Post a Comment
Read more

Giambattista Tiepolo Biography

Giambattista Tiepolo (Giambattista or Giovanni Battista Tiepolo; Venice, 1696-Madrid, 1770) Italian painter.He studied the works of Sebastiano Ricci, Veronese and Giovanni Battista Piazzetta, and imitated the chromaticism, with its violent chiaroscuro effects, of the latter.In his early ceiling paintings (Archinti and Dugnani palaces in Milan) he reaffirmed his decorative talent, based on architectural perspectives, trompe-l'oeil paintings and moving crowds. His first important work, the decorative cycle of the archiepiscopal palace of Udine (1727-1728), composed of biblical narratives, already denotes in the conformation of the figures (of great naturalism) and in the composition of the same contributions from the artist himself, although certain influences from Sebastiano Ricci and Veronese are still detected. Feast of Antony and Cleopatra (c.1743), by Tiepolo In Milan he worked in the Clerici Palace; in Venice he did it in the Scalzi church and in the Labia palace.The...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Spanish Aid in the Independence of the United States

In the history of Spain, has often forgotten relevant events , perhaps because of that character that we Spaniards have in general, of not knowing or wanting to defend our own history. sinking ships that were not as was the case with The USS Maine , all in the interest of the US in Cuba. the Spanish Republican troops were the first to enter Paris, freeing her from the Nazi invasion, another unknown piece of our history.In this article we will know the importance of Spain in the Independence of the US, c omo Espana I collaborate, because it did. A part of our history that we have titled The Spanish Aid in Independence of the United States. Art Index iculo The Spanish Aid in the Independence of the United States To place ourselves in the historical context, the formation of the United States is mainly due to the so-called group of the Thirteen Colonies . These 13 colonies of British origin, had been founded during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, located ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Names of Greek and Roman Goddesses

One of the features that has characterized man, since the dawn of humanity, is the need to believe .Explaining certain natural phenomena should not be an easy task, without having current knowledge.Storms, lightning, hail, earthworks, etc., all these phenomena that escaped our knowledge had to be produced by superior beings , beings with immense power of destruction, to those beings They were eventually given the category of Gods and Goddesses.All and each of the civilizations that have populated the earth have had their own deities, Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece, Rome, etc.Today we are going to dedicate this article to the Names of Greek and Roman Goddesses , let us know their names, who protected and to whom, what relationship existed between the Greek and Roman Goddesses. Index of the ar ticulo Names of Greek and Roman Goddesses | The Origin of the Gods «From the mass report (chaos) the Earth (Gea) and the Sky (Uranus) arose and both engendered the seven Titans» So desc...
Post a Comment
Read more

Florencio Harmodio Arosemena Biography

Florencio Harmodio Arosemena (Panama City, 1872-New York, 1945) Panamanian politician and engineer.He studied in Germany and directed important public works.A member of the Liberal Party, he was elected president in 1928 and dismissed on January 2, 1931 by the nationalist movement of Patriotic Communal Action, which brought the provisional government of Harmodio Arias to power.
Post a Comment
Read more

Josef Willem Mengelberg Biography

Josef Willem Mengelberg (Utrecht, 1871-Zuort, 1951) Dutch conductor.He studied in his hometown with Richard Hol, Henri Wilhelm Petri and Anton Averkamp and later moved to Cologne (Germany), in whose conservatory he studied theory and counterpoint with G.Jensen, piano with I.Seiss and organ with F.W.Franke, in addition to directing and composing with Franz Wüllner. He was musical director of the Lucerne Conservatory in 1892 and years later, in 1895, he obtained the position of director of the Amsterdam Concertgebouw Orchestra, a position he held until 1945.He also continued directing the Museum Concerts group in Frankfurt between 1907 and 1920.From 1899 he annually conducted the Amsterdam Toonkunst Choir in its interpretation of the Passion According to Saint Matthew by JS Bach. He also conducted the American National Symphony Orchestra in New York between 1920 and 1929 and was principal conductor of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra from 1921 until he left it due to differen...
Post a Comment
Read more

Jose Risueño Biography

José Risueño (Granada, 1665- id ., 1732) Spanish sculptor and painter.Follower of A.Cano, P.de Mena and D.de Mora, he worked in Granada, where he made the figures of the chapel of the Sacrament of the Carthusian monastery, the San Juan de Dios of the church of San Matías and the Crucified Christ of Sacromonte.It is famous for its polychrome baked clay figurines ( Penitent Magdalene ).
Post a Comment
Read more

Joseph Maria von Radowitz Biography

Joseph Maria von Radowitz (Blankenburg, 1797-Berlin, 1853) Prussian military and politician.He was an advisor to Frederick William IV and a Prussian military delegate to the Frankfurt Parliament (1836).He held the portfolio of Foreign Affairs (1850), unable to promote his policy towards Austria, which later triumphed in the so-called "withdrawal" from Olmütz.
Post a Comment
Read more