d curve and amber colour. She seems to listen lazily
to the liquid fall of the water mingling with the half-heard music of
the pipes. The beautiful idyll in the Giovanelli Palace is full of art
of composition. It is built up with uprights; pillars are formed by the
groups of trees and figures, cut boldly across by the horizontal line of
the bridge, but the figures themselves are put in without any attention
to subject, though an unconscious humorist has discovered in them the
domestic circle of the painter. The man in Venetian dress is there to
assist the left-hand columnar group, placed at the edge of the picture
after the manner of Leonardo. The woman and child lighten the mass of
foliage on the right and make a beautiful pattern. The white town of
Castelfranco sings against the threatening sky, the winds bluster
through the space, the trees shiver with the coming storm. Here and
there leafy boughs are struck in with a slight, crisp touch, in which
we can follow readily the painter's quick impression.

The "Knight of Malta" is a grand magisterial figure, majestic, yet full
of ardent warmth lying behind the grave, indifferent nobility. The face
is bisected with shadow, in the way which Michelangelo and Andrea del
Sarto affected, and the cone-shaped head with parted hair is of the type
which seems particularly to have pleased the painter. To Giorgione, too,
belongs the honour of having created a Venus as pure as the Aphrodite of
Cnidos and as beautiful as a courtesan of Titian.

[Illustration: _Giorgione._
FETE CHAMPETRE.
_Louvre._
(_Photo, Alinari._)]

The death of Giorgione from plague in 1511 is registered by all the
oldest authorities. His body was conveyed to Castelfranco by members of
the Barbarelli family and buried in the Church of San Liberale. In 1638
an epitaph was placed over his tomb by Matteo and Ercole Barbarelli.

Allowing that he was hardly more than twenty when his new manner began
to gain a following, he had only some twelve years in which to establish
his deep and lasting influence. We divine that he was a man of strong
personality, such a one as warms and stimulates his companions. Even his
nickname tells us something,--Great George, the Chief, the George of
Georges,--it seems to express him as a leader. And we have no lack of
proof that he was admired and looked up to. His style became the only
one that found favour in Venice, and the painters