also characteristic.  This work shows no direct connection with Bellini’s portraiture, but far more with that which we are accustomed to associate with the names of Titian and Palma.  It dates probably from the early part of the sixteenth century, at a time when Giorgione was breaking with the older tradition which had strictly limited portraiture to the representation of the head only, or at most to the bust.  The hand is here introduced, though Giorgione feels still compelled to account for its presence by introducing a rosary of large beads.  In later years, as we shall see, the expressiveness of the human hand per se will be recognised; but Giorgione already feels its significance in portraiture, and there is not one of his portraits which does not show this.[24]

The list of Giorgione’s works now numbers seven; the next three to be discussed are those that Crowe and Cavalcaselle added on their own account, but about which Morelli expressed no opinion.  Two are in English private collections, the third in the National Gallery.  This is the small “Knight in Armour,” said to be a study for the figure of S. Liberale in the Castelfranco altar-piece.  The main difference is that in the latter the warrior wears his helmet, whilst in the National Gallery example he is bareheaded.  By some this little figure is believed to be a copy, or repetition with variations, of Giorgione’s original, but it must honestly be confessed that absolutely no proof is forthcoming in support of this view.  The quality of this fragment is unquestionable, and its very divergence from the Castelfranco figure is in its favour.  It would perhaps be unsafe to dogmatise in a case where the material is so slight, but until its genuineness can be disproved by indisputable evidence, the claim to authenticity put forward in the National Gallery catalogue, following Crowe and Cavalcaselle’s view, must be allowed.

[Illustration:  Hanfstaengl photo.  Vienna Gallery

THE ADORATION OF THE SHEPHERDS]

The two remaining pictures definitely placed by Crowe and Cavalcaselle among the authentic productions of Giorgione are the “Adoration of the Shepherds,” belonging to Mr. Wentworth Beaumont, and the “Judgment of Solomon,” in the possession of Mr. Ralph Bankes at Kingston Lacy, Dorsetshire.  The former (of which an inferior replica with differences of landscape exists in the Vienna Gallery) is one of the most poetically conceived representations of this familiar subject which exists.  The actual group of figures forms but an episode in a landscape of the most entrancing beauty, lighted by the rising sun, and wrapped in a soft atmospheric haze.  The landscapes in the two little Uffizi pictures are immediately suggested, yet the quality of painting is here far superior, and is much closer in its rendering of atmospheric effects to the “Adrastus and Hypsipyle.”  The figures, on the other hand, are weak, very unequal in size, and feebly expressed, except the Madonna, who has charm.  The lights and shadows are treated in a masterly way, and contrasts of gloom and sunlight enhance the solemnity of the scene.  The general tone is rich and full of subdued colour.