int of view, so that in her case the points of view
are many, and not one. Moreover, he proposed to show in one single
painted figure the front, the back, and the profile on either side,
a challenge which brought them to their senses; and he did it in the
following way. He painted a naked man with his back turned, at whose
feet was a most limpid pool of water, wherein he painted the
reflection of the man's front. At one side was a burnished cuirass
that he had taken off, which showed his left profile, since
everything could be seen on the polished surface of the piece of
armour; and on the other side was a mirror, which reflected the
other profile of the naked figure; which was a thing of most
beautiful and bizarre fancy, whereby he sought to prove that
painting does in fact, with more excellence, labour, and effect,
achieve more at one single view of a living figure than does
sculpture. And this work was greatly extolled and admired, as
something ingenious and beautiful.
[Illustration: JUDITH
(_After the painting by =Giorgione da Castelfranco=. S. Petersburg:
Hermitage, 112_)
_M.S._]
He also made a portrait from life of Caterina, Queen of Cyprus,
which I once saw in the hands of the illustrious Messer Giovanni
Cornaro. There is in our book a head coloured in oils, the portrait
of a German of the Fugger family, who was at that time one of the
chief merchants in the Fondaco de' Tedeschi, which is an admirable
work; together with other sketches and drawings made by him with the
pen.
While Giorgione was employed in doing honour both to himself and to
his country, and frequenting many houses in order to entertain his
various friends with his music, he became enamoured of a lady, and
they took much joy, one with another, in their love. Now it happened
that in the year 1511 she became infected with plague, without,
however, knowing anything about it; and Giorgione, visiting her as
usual, caught the plague in such a manner, that in a short time, at
the age of thirty-four, he passed away to the other life, not
without infinite grief on the part of his many friends, who loved
him for his virtues, and great hurt to the world, which thus lost
him. However, they could bear up against this hurt and loss, in that
he left behind him two excellent disciples in Sebastiano, the
Venetian, who afterwards became Friar of the Piombo[12] at Rome, and
Tiziano da Cadore, who not only equalled him, but surpassed him
greatly; of bot
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