rangement of
the Long Gallery), close by, ought surely to convince the advocates of
Cariani of their mistake.

[137] Morto da Feltre is mentioned by Vasari as having assisted
Giorgione in the decoration of the Fondaco de' Tedeschi. This was in
1508. Otherwise, we know of no pupils or assistants employed by the
master, a fact which goes to show that his influence was felt, not so
much through any personal teaching, as through his work.

CHAPTER VI

GIORGIONE'S ART, AND PLACE IN HISTORY

The examination in detail of all those pictures best entitled, on
internal evidence, to rank as genuine productions of Giorgione has
incidentally revealed to us much that is characteristic of the man
himself. We started with the axiom that a man's work is his best
autobiography, and where, as in Giorgione's case, so little historical
or documentary record exists, such indications of character as may be
gleaned from a study of his life's work become of the utmost value. _Le
style c'est l'homme_ is a saying eminently applicable in cases where, as
with Giorgione, the personal element is strongly marked. The subject, as
we have seen over and over again, is so highly charged with the artist's
mood, with his individual feelings and emotions, that it becomes
unrecognisable as mere illustration, and the work passes by virtue of
sheer inspiration into the higher realms of creative art. Such fusion of
personality and subject is the characteristic of lyrical art, and in
this domain Giorgione is a supreme master. His genius, as Morelli
rightly pointed out, is essentially lyrical in contradistinction to
Titian's, which is essentially dramatic. Take the epithets that we have
constantly applied to his pictures in the course of our survey, and see
how they bear out this statement--epithets such as romantic, fantastic,
picturesque, gay, or again, delicate, refined, sensitive, serene, and
the like; these bear witness to qualities of mind where the keynote is
invariably exquisite feeling. Giorgione was, in fact, what is commonly
called a poet-painter, gifted with the artistic temperament to an
extraordinary degree, essentially impulsive, a man of moods. It is
inevitable that such a man produces work of varying merit; inequality
must be a characteristic feature of his art. In less fortunate
circumstances than those in which Giorgione was placed, such
temperaments as his become peevish, morose, morbid; but his lines were
cast in pleasant places,