The quality of line in his work makes itself felt in many ways.  Beauty of contour and unbroken continuity of curve is obtained sometimes by sacrificing literal accuracy; a structurally impossible position—­as the seated nude figure in the Louvre picture—­is deliberately adopted to heighten the effect of line or the balance of composition.  The Dresden “Venus,” if she arose, would appear of strange proportions; but expressiveness is enhanced by the long flowing contours of the body, so suggestive of repose.  We may notice also the emphasis obtained by parallelism; for example, the line of the left arm of the “Venus” follows the curve of the body, a trick which may be often seen in folds of drapery.  This picture also illustrates a device to retain continuity of line; the right foot is hidden away so as not to interfere with the contour.  Exactly the same thing may be seen in the standing figure in the Louvre “Pastoral Symphony.”  The trick of making a grand sweep from the top of the head downwards is usually found in the Madonna pictures, where a cunningly placed veil carries the line usually to the sloping shoulders, or else outwards to the point of the elbow, thus introducing the triangular scheme to which Giorgione was particularly partial.

But the question remains, What is Giorgione’s position among the world’s great men?  Is he intellectually to be ranked with the Great Thinkers of all time?  Can he aspire to the position which Titian occupies?  I fear not Beethoven is infinitely greater than Schubert, Shakespeare than Keats, and so, though in lesser degree, is Titian than Giorgione.  I say in lesser degree, because the young poet-painter had something of that profound insight into human nature, something of that wide outlook on life, something of that universal sympathy, and something of that vast influence which distinguishes the greatest intellects of all, and this it is which lessens the distance between him and Titian.  Yet Titian is the greater man, for he is “the highest and completest expression of his own age."[147]

Nevertheless, in that narrower sphere of the great painters, who proclaimed the glad tidings of Liberty when the Spirit of Man awoke from Mediaevalism, may we not add yet a fifth voice to the four-part harmony of Raphael, Correggio, Leonardo, and Michel Angelo, the voice of Giorgione, the wondrous youth, “the George of Georges,” who heralded the Renaissance of which we are the heirs?

NOTES: 

[138] In the Church of San Rocco, Venice, and in Mrs. Gardner’s Collection in America.

[139] Keats died at the age of twenty-five; Schubert was thirty-one; Giorgione thirty-three.

[140] The ruined condition of the Borghese “Lady” prevents any just appreciation of the interpretative qualities.

[141] Venetian Painters, p. 30.

[142] Leonardo, 1452-1519; Michel Angelo, 1475-1564; Giorgione, 1477-1510; Raphael, 1483-1520; Correggio, 1494-1534.  Correggio, Raphael, and Giorgione died at the ages of forty, thirty-seven, and thirty-three years respectively.  Those whom the gods love die young!