![]() In 1530 it was referred as “a canvas with landscape and tempest, with a gypsy woman and soldier, made by Zorzi de Castelfranco” in the house of Gabriele Vendramin, who probably commissioned the work.Īfter several owners, the city of Venice acquired the work from Prince Giovannelli in 1932.Ĭrowe J.A. The work is almost certainly dated between 15 and definitely not after 1505. The lightning creates a forceful effect, making the scene look like a snapshot of nature. However, this kind of generic and meaningless artworks were almost nonexistent at the time, as in the beginning of the 16th century all the paintings had some kind explanation which sometimes was more clearly identifiable or, as in this case, cryptic.ĭespite the interpretative problems, this artwork can be considered as an absolute masterpiece for its pleasant landscape and vibrant atmosphere influenced by Leonardo and Dürer's works: the general composition and the variety of tones result as profoundly poetic and harmonic artwork. Perhaps the composition simply represents Giorgione’s strong lyrical sentiment towards the nature, which was typical for Venetian artistic culture at the time. Over the years there have been numerous hypotheses about the artwork suggesting the painting would hide an allegorical meaning where the man represents the Fort, the woman represents the Charity and the lightning represent the Fortune, or that the scene is modern version of the story of Adam and Eve, condemned by the God who is represented by the lightning.ĭespite the various attempts of explanation – which have ranged from mythological to philosophical, alchemical and biblical – nothing has been found to be truly convincing and to worsen the interpretative situation, an X-ray that was performed in 1939 revealed the presence of a bather where the man is standing, strengthening the randomness of the subject. Unfortunately, there is no original title or explanation of the scene which could help to open the meaning of the artwork, but it doesn’t seem believable that the painting represents simply a pure landscape and doesn’t hide more complex interpretations. ![]() In the foreground there are three characters: on the left there’s a young man dressed in renaissance clothes gazing to the right side of the painting where a nude woman, barely covered by a cloth, nurses a newborn child and she is looking at the direction of the observer. The title refers to the meteorological situation of the painting, where a quiet river landscape with ruins and a view of the town is disturbed by the arriving storm. The title, Tempest, with an extraordinary landscape with figures painted by Giorgione, is purely conventional.
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