WHO was the first modern artist.9 How about Giorgione (46){{U}}A、far-fetched notion, perhaps, but this Renaissance Venetian revolutionized painting--and his work, focusing on subjects such as bodies, landscapes and female beauty, was titled "modern" by the leading art commentator of the day, Vasari.{{/U}}
Giorgione was not alone, as illustrated by the excellent catalogue accompanying the exhibition "Bellini, Giorgione, Titian, and the Renaissance of Venetian Painting" now showing at the National Gallery ofArt in Washington,D、C、(47){{U}}What made him, and the generation of artists he inspired, so special was his ability to absorb the new currents of culture then flowing through Venice.{{/U}}A、catalyst was Leonardo da Vinci, who briefly visited Venice in 1500. In Leonardo’s drawings, Giorgione, as well as the younger artist, Titian, and their master, GiovanniBellini, glimpsed a new conception of the human form, based on observation and expressed in smoky contours and subtle shades of light and dark.
Over the subsequent 30 years, one of the most exciting periods in the history of art unfoldeD、In readable, engaging essays,DavidBrown and Sylvia Ferino-Pagden, the exhibition’s curators, together with a team of top scholars, tell its story. We learn how this triumvirate of Venetian painters devoured not only Leonardo’s ideas, but also those ofAlbrechtDarer, the German artist whose realistic rendering of nature was known in Venice through prints, even before his sojourn there in 1506-7. (48){{U}}Darer’s work taught Venetian artists that landscape could be an independent element of a painting, rather than just a symbolic backdrop for religious subjects.{{/U}}
The result was a new style full of natural movement, sensuality and poetic atmosphere. (49) {{U}}Venetian painting had long been characterized by its jewel-like color--obtained by grinding colored glass and minerals--but now it was applied in a way that gave art the kiss of life.{{/U}}
Giorgione blazed the trail.A、top student ofBellini, he later forged his own style, inspired by the current vogue for pastoral love poetry based on recently discovered ancient texts, then the bestsellers of Venice’s flourishing printing industry. (50) {{U}}He excelled at what was known among the educated elite as the model a competition between painting and poetry in which painters sought to prove that they could rival poets in conveying beauty by appealing to the eyes, as well as to the minD、{{/U}} This was revolutionary because it implied that painting originated in the imagination of the artist, rather than being a simple recording of the great and the good, history and religion. It proved painters were creators and not just craftsmen.