, and still
more with Palma's versions at Dresden and Cambridge, or with Cariani's
"Venus" at Hampton Court, to see the classic purity of form, the ideal
loveliness of Giorgione's goddess.[43] It is no mere accident that she
alone is sleeping, whilst they solicit attention. Giorgione's conception
is characteristic in that he endeavours to avoid any touch of realism
abhorrent to his nature, which was far more sensitive than that of
Palma, Cariani, or even Titian.

[Illustration: _Hanfstaengl photo_. Dresden Gallery

VENUS]

The extraordinary beauty and subtlety of the master's "line" is
admirably shown. He has deliberately forgone anatomical precision in
order to accentuate artistic effect. The splendour of curve, the beauty
of unbroken contour, the rhythm and balance of composition is attained
at a cost of academic correctness; but the long-drawn horizontal lines
heighten the sense of repose, and the eye is soothed by the sinuous
undulations of landscape and figure. The artistic effect is further
enhanced by the relief of exquisite flesh tones against the rich crimson
drapery, and although the atmospheric glow has been sadly destroyed by
abrasion and repainting, we may still feel something of the magic charm
which Giorgione knew so well how to impart.

This "Venus" is the prototype of all other Venetian versions; it is in
painting what the "Aphrodite" of Praxiteles was in sculpture, a perfect
creation of a master mind.

Scarcely less wonderful than the "Venus," and even surpassing it in
solemn grandeur of conception, is the "Judith" at St. Petersburg.
Morelli himself had never seen the original, and includes it in his list
with the reservation that it might be an old copy after Giorgione, and
not the original. It would be presumptuous for anyone not familiar with
the picture to decide the point, but I have no hesitation in following
the judgment of two competent modern critics, both of whom have recently
visited St. Petersburg, and both of whom have decided unhesitatingly in
favour of its being an original by Giorgione. Dr. Harck has written
enthusiastically of its beauty. "Once seen," he says, "it can never be
forgotten; the same mystic charm, so characteristic of the other great
works of Giorgione, pervades it; ... it bears on the face of it the
stamp of a great master."[44] Even more decisive is the verdict of Mr.
Claude Phillips.[45] "All doubts," he says, "vanish like sun-drawn mist
in the presence of the wor