precedes it, so that we get two masterpieces approximately
dated.

In the field of portraiture Giorgione must have made rapid strides from
the very first. Vasari states that he painted the portraits of the great
Consalvo Ferrante, and of one of his captains, on the occasion of their
visit to the Doge Agostino Barberigo. Now this event presumably took
place in 1500,[78] so that, at that early date, he seems already to have
been a portrait painter of repute. Confirmatory evidence of this is
furnished by the statement of Ridolfi, that Giorgione took the portrait
of Agostino Barberigo himself.[79] Now the Doge died in 1500, so that if
Giorgione really painted him, he could not have been more than
twenty-three years of age at the time, an extraordinarily early age to
have been honoured with so important a commission; this fact certainly
presupposes successes with other patrons, whose portraits Giorgione must
have taken during the years 1495-1500. I hope to be able to identify two
or three of these, but for the moment we may note that by 1500
Giorgione was a recognised master of portraiture. The only picture on
our list likely to date from the period 1500-1504 is the "Knight of
Malta," the "Young Man" (at Buda-Pesth) being later in execution.[80]

From 1504 on, the rapid rate of progress is more than fully maintained.
Only six years remain of the artist's short life, yet in that time he
rose to full power, and anticipated the splendid achievements of
Titian's maturity some forty years later. First in order, probably, come
the "Venus" (Dresden) and the "Concert" (Pitti), both showing
originality of conception and mastery of handling. The date of the
frescoes on the Fondaco de' Tedeschi is known to be 1507-8,[81] but, as
nothing remains but a few patches of colour in one spot high up over the
Grand Canal, we have no visible clue to guide us in our estimate of
their artistic worth. Vasari's description, and Zanetti's engraving of a
few fragments (done in 1760, when the frescoes were already in decay),
go to prove that Giorgione at this period studied the antique,
"commingling statuesque classicism and the flesh and blood of real
life."[82]

At this period it is most probable we must place the "Judgment of
Solomon" (at Kingston Lacy), possibly, as I have already pointed out,
the very work commissioned by the State for the audience chamber of the
Council, on which, as we know from documents, Giorgione was engaged in
1507 and 15