Learn About Giorgione in Art History. View His Art and Famous Paintings

"The Tempest” Giorgione, 1508


Giorgio Giorgione, 1477-1510, is one of Italy’s famous artists in art history. His landscape paintings are sometimes rough, craggy, wild and unfriendly, as seen in his most famous painting "The Tempest", painted 1505-10. The landscape is so convincing and ominous that it overshadows the subject matter of the painting that is in some doubt.

The figures in the artwork seem totally unaware of the approaching storm. Ominiously a bolt of lightning flashes out of the sky warning all to beware. Biblical references during the Renaissance period were common subject matter for artists. If there is a reference in this painting, the subject matter might represent Adam and Eve thrown out of the Garden Eden dressed in contemporary clothing.

Giorgione's composition setting is well advanced beyond the day and time Adam and Eve were thrown out of the “Garden”. The bridge is the gate back to the earthly paradise of Eden, and below in the water is the snake Satan, instigator of Adam and Eve’s fall from grace. Eve is shown in the foreground with her first son Cain, the power and authority of God is represented in the lightning bolt reminding Adam and Eve of their trespass.

Giorgio’s male figure on the left seems to have been placed there on a whim as x-rays of the artwork show the figure directly beneath to be a nude woman. If true the Adam and Eve iconography is wrong, but since the Venetians had interest in humanist allegories, we seem free to stay with the story Adam and Eve.

The artwork "Fete Champetre", painted in 1510 is a painting similar to “The Tempest”.
The landscape is equally unfriendly as in the "The Tempest. The landscape is dark and foreboding as light falls quickly into deep shadow. As in "The Tempest", there is no allegorical reference for this painting.

Another one of Giorgione’s famous paintings in art history is "Adoration of the Shepherds", painted in 1505(?) The “Adoration” is a Nativity scene. The landscape is so powerful and overwhelming that the Nativity seems secondary to the scene of Nature. The representation of Nature itself isn't as true to life as Leonardo sketched his plants in Nature, evidence the tree leaves painted in round bunches.

The light source of this famous painting is not consistent throughout the composition. There is also a problem with perspective. The tree's trunk nearest the mouth of the cave is painted in front of the rocks, while its foliage is painted behind the rocks. Giorgione's interest in Nature was representing nature, not one of recording exact details. Other famous artists in art history during the Renaissance art period are Leonardo da Vinci and Titian.


To view gallery 1 of Giorgione posters click here

To view gallery 2, paintings, click here.


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