of a young life. The painter
shows his connection with his master by using the figure of the St.
Francis in Bellini's San Giobbe altarpiece. What Bellini owed to
Giorgione is still a matter for speculation. The San Zaccaria
altarpiece was, as we have seen, painted in the year following that of
Castelfranco. Something has incited the old painter to fresh efforts;
out of his own evolution, or stimulated by his pupil's splendid
experiments, he is drawn into the golden atmosphere of the Venetian
cinque-cento.

The Venetian painters were distinguished by their love for the kindred
art of music. Giorgione himself was an admirable musician, and linked
with all that is akin to music in his work, is his love for painting
groups of people knit together by this bond. He uses it as a pastime to
bring them into company, and the rich chords of colour seem permeated
with the chords of sound. Not always, however, does he need even this
excuse; his "conversation-pieces" are often merely composed of persons
placed with indescribable grace in exquisite surroundings, governed by a
mood which communicates itself to the beholder.

With the Florentines, the cartoon was carefully drawn upon the wall and
flat tints were superimposed. They knew beforehand what the effect was
to be; but the Venetians from this time gradually worked up the picture,
imbedding tints, intensifying effects, one touch suggesting another,
till the whole rich harmony was gradually evoked. With the Florentines,
too, the figures supply the main interest; the background is an
arbitrary addition, placed behind them at the painter's leisure, but
Giorgione's and Titian's _fetes champetres_ and concerts could not _be_
at all in any other environment. The amber flesh-tints and the glowing
garments are so blended with the deep tones of the landscape, that one
would not instil the mood the artist desires without the other. Piero di
Cosimo and Pintoricchio can place delightful nymphs and fairy princesses
in idyllic scenes, and they stir no emotion in us beyond an observant
pleasure, a detached amusement; but Giorgione's gloomy blues, his
figures shining through the warm dusk of a summer evening, waken we
hardly know what of vague yearning and brooding memory.

In the "Fete Champetre" of the Louvre he acquires a frankly sensuous
charm. He becomes riper, richer in feeling, and displays great
exuberance of style. The woman filling her pitcher at the fountain is
exquisite in line an