Zorzi da Castelfranco, known as Giorgione: an artist who has so few confirmed works attributed to him, and about whose life little is known.

Yet, after a career span of just over ten years, Giorgione has achieved a fame that has remained unchanged over the centuries. Starting from Giovanni Bellini's lessons on spirituality and harmony between man and nature, and from the use of colour by Giovan Battista Cima da Conegliano, the master from Castelfranco offers a very particular synthesis of musical lyricism, connecting bodies and landscape with a soft and dense light.

This tonal painting, set by Cima and Bellini, becomes with Giorgione the language of initiation of the formidable brood protagonist of the great Venetian 16th century, the season of Palma il Vecchio, Sebastiano del Piombo and Tiziano Vecellio.

Table of contents:

Zorzi’s Hidden Canvases. Visits with an Exceptional Guide

Gypsy Women and Philosophers: Giorgione’s Enigmas. Open Work, Context and Readings

A Façade and a Frieze. Debut and Early Success amidst Classicism and Astrology

An Altarpiece for Castelfranco. Certain and Uncertain Family Ties: Costanzo and Barbarella

“With Time” and in a Hurry. Portraits of the Young and Old

The Competition between the Arts. The Young Man from Castelfranco in the Venetian Melting Pot

Portraits, Self-Portraits, Personalities and Interpreters. Giorgione’s Gallery

The Legend of the Libidinous Painter. A Myth and its Creators

Bibliographical notes