Inspired by Giorgione

Giorgio Barbarelli da Castelfranco, better known as Giorgione, was an Italian High Renaissance artist of the Venetian school tradition. Born in 1477, the artist's life was tragically caught short due to illness at the age of 34. The painter's career was one of brilliance despite him only producing a handful of works over the span of 15 years. Little is known about Giorgione, he remains an elusive and mysterious artist in European art history. No records remain of his patrons' commissions, nor of Giorgione's intentions as an artist by way of sketches, which means that only 6 works have been definitively attributed to the artist. Although Giorgione's collection of works remains small, the influence of his legacy upon European artistic tradition has been mighty.

What we can be sure of regarding Giorgione's practice was that he was one of the earliest members of the Venetian School of art. This consisted of a group of artists who lived and worked in the region and tended to favor bright and softened colors over linear dimensions and harsh perspective. The artist's work is characterized by a romantic and poetic quality. Giorgione is supposed to have met with Leonardo da Vinci on the occasion of the Tuscan master's visit to Venice in 1500. Equally, he was very closely associated with Titian, another great master of the time. It is unsure of their relationship as a master/pupil duo or if they were both pupils to Giovanni Bellini.

Though he died in his thirties, Giorgione left a lasting legacy to be developed by a future generation of 17th-century artists. Giorgione is said to have been the first to establish landscape painting as a genre of painting in its own right, in particular that of the pastoral sort.The Tempest for example, has been called the first landscape in the history of Western painting. Discover the romantic works Kate Styler, Patrick Pietropoli and finally of the landscapist Armando de la Garza on Artsper!