l robes, with her train of court ladies, as though
attending a state function! How Giorgione has penetrated through all
outward show, and revealed the charm of manner, the delightful
_bonhomie_ of his royal patroness!

We are enabled, by a simple calculation of dates, to fix approximately
the period when this portrait was painted. Gentile Bellini's picture of
"The Miracle of the True Cross" is dated 1500--that is, when Caterina
Cornaro was forty-six years old (she was born in 1454). In Signor
Crespi's picture she appears, if anything, younger in appearance, so
that, at latest, Giorgione painted her portrait in 1500. Thus, again, we
arrive at the same conclusion, that the master distinguished himself
very early in his career in the field of portraiture, and the similarity
in style between this portrait and the Cobham Hall one is accounted for
on chronological grounds. All things considered, it is very probable
that this portrait was his earliest real success, and proved a passport
to the favourable notice of the fashionable society of Venice, leading
to the commission to paint the Doge, and the Gran Signori, who visited
the capital in the year 1500. That Giorgione was capable of such an
achievement before his twenty-fourth year constitutes, we may surely
admit, his strongest right to the title of Genius.[106]

The Barberigo gentleman and the Caterina Cornaro are comparatively
unfamiliar, owing to their seclusion in private galleries. Not so the
third portrait, which hangs in the National Gallery, and which, in my
opinion, should be included among Giorgione's authentic productions.
This is No. 636, "Portrait of a Poet," attributed to Palma Vecchio; and
the catalogue continues: "This portrait of an unknown personage was
formerly ascribed to Titian, and supposed to represent Ariosto; it has
long since been recognised as a fine work by Palma." I certainly do not
know by whom this portrait was first recognised as such, but as the
transformation was suddenly effected one day under the late Sir Frederic
Burton's _regime_, it is natural to suppose he initiated it. No one
to-day would be found, I suppose, to support the older view, and the
rechristening certainly received the approval of Morelli;[107] modern
critics apparently acquiesce without demur, so that it requires no
little courage to dissent from so unanimous an opinion. I confess,
therefore, it was no small satisfaction to me to find the question had
been raised by an i