Italian painter, one of the main artists
of the Venetian high renaissance. He was born as Giorgio Barbarelli in
the town of Castelfranco in the Veneto region.
In Venice Giorgione was an apprentice of
By 1500 he was back in Castelfranco, where he made fresco's and an
altarpiece. In 1505 he returned to Venice where he died of the plague
Much of his work is lost, especially his
fresco's. The remaining paintings show creativity, imaginative power,
a colorful palette, and intense depth.
From Wikipedia: “Giorgione never
subordinated line and color to architecture, nor an artistic effect to
a sentimental presentation. He was the first to paint landscapes with
figures, the first to paint genre — movable pictures in their own
frames with no devotional, allegorical, or historical purpose —
and the first whose colors possessed that ardent, glowing, and melting
intensity which was so soon to typify the work of all the Venetian
The portrait accompanying this article
is probably a self-portrait, made after the year 1500.