the other Italians looked upon colour as a charming adjunct,
almost, one might say, as an amiable weakness: they never would have
allowed that it might legitimately become the end and aim in painting,
and in the same way form, though respected and considered, was never the
principal object of the Venetians. Up to this time Venice had fed her
emotional instincts by pageants and gold and velvets and brocades, but
with Giorgione she discovered that there was a deeper emotional vehicle
than these superficial glories,--glowing depths of colour enveloped in
the mysterious richness of chiaroscuro which obliterated form, and hid
and suggested more than it revealed.

Giorgione no longer described "in drawing's learned tongue"; he
carried all before him by giving his direct impression in colour. He
conceives in colour. The Florentines cared little if their finely drawn
draperies were blue or red, but Giorgione images purple clouds, their
dark velvet glowing towards a rose and orange horizon. He hardly knows
what attitudes his characters take, but their chestnut hair, their
deep-hued draperies, their amber flesh, make a moving harmony in which
the importance of exact modelling is lost sight of. His scenes are not
composed methodically and according to the old rules, but are the direct
impress of the painter's joy in life. It was a new and audacious style
in painting, and its keynote, and absolutely inevitable consequence,
was to substitute for form and for gay, simple tints laid upon it, the
quality of chiaroscuro. We all know how the shades of evening are able
to transform the most commonplace scene; the dull road becomes a
mysterious avenue, the colourless foliage develops luscious depths,
the drab and arid plain glows with mellow light, purple shadows clothe
and soften every harsh and ugly object, all detail dies, and our
apprehension of it dies also. Our mood changes; instead of observing
and criticising, we become soothed, contemplative, dreamy. It is the
carrying of this profound feeling into a colour-scheme by means of
chiaroscuro, so that it is no longer learned and explanatory, but deeply
sensuous and emotional, that is the gift to art which found full voice
with Giorgione, and which in one moment was recognised and welcomed to
the exclusion of the older manner, because it touched the chord which
vibrated through the whole Venetian temperament.

And the immediate result was the picture of _no subject_. Giorgione
creates