Giorgione
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Giorgione
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About this book
Herbert Frederick Cook’s monograph on Giorgirione is a scholarly survey that opens with a candid appraisal of the artist’s historiography. The author notes that, unlike many celebrated painters, Giorgione has never attracted a modern biographer, and that recent criticism has tended to “destroy not to fulfil.” Cook then outlines the surge of new documents and recovered pictures that now permit a more systematic reconstruction of the painter’s life and work, citing the contributions of earlier scholars such as Crowe, Cavalcaselle, Morelli, Gronau, and Berenson. The opening pages also include a note on the second edition’s added appendix, an article on Titian’s age, a translated reply by Dr. Georg Gronau, and a further author’s response, demonstrating the work’s ongoing engagement with contemporary art‑historical debate.
Written in the measured, erudite prose of early‑20th‑century art criticism, the book combines meticulous documentation with a personal, almost conversational voice. Its style will appeal to readers who relish dense, source‑driven scholarship, students of Renaissance art, museum curators, and collectors interested in the nuanced attribution of Venetian paintings. Those who appreciate a blend of biographical detail, catalogued illustrations, and thoughtful analysis of artistic personality will find Cook’s study a rewarding, if demanding, read.
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Unlike most famous artists of the past, Giorgione has not yet found a modern biographer. The whole trend of recent criticism has, in his case, been to destroy not to fulfil. Yet signs are not wanting that the disintegrating process is at an end, and that we have reached the point where reconstruction may be attempted. The discovery of documents and the recovery of lost pictures in the last few years have increased the available material for a more comprehensive study of the artist, and the time has come when the divergent results arrived at by independent modern inquirers may be systematically arranged, and a reconciliation of apparently conflicting views attempted on a psychological basis.
Crowe and Cavalcaselle were the first to examine the subject critically. They separated--so far as was then possible (1871)--the real from the traditional Giorgione, and their account of his life and works must still rank as the nearest equivalent to a modern biography. Morelli, who followed in 1877, was in singular sympathy with his task, and has written of his favourite master enthusiastically, yet with consummate judgment. Among living authorities, Dr. Gronau, Herr Wickhoff, Signor Venturi, and Mr. Bernhard Berenson have contributed effectively to the elucidation of obscure or disputed points, and the latter writer has probably come nearer than anyone to recognise the scope of Giorgione's art, and grasp the man behind his work. The monograph by Signor Conti and the chapter in Pater's Renaissance may be read for their delicate appreciations of the "Giorgionesque"; other contributions on the subject will be found in the Bibliography.
It is absolutely necessary for those whose judgment depends upon a study of the actual pictures to be constantly registering and adjusting their impressions. I have personally seen and studied all the pictures I believe to be by Giorgione, with the exception of those at St. Petersburg; and many galleries and churches where they hang have been visited repeatedly, and at considerable intervals of time. If in the course of years my individual impressions (where they deviate from hitherto recognised views) fail to stand the test of time, I shall be the first to admit their inadequacy. If, on the other hand, they prove sound, some of the mists which at present envelop the figure of Giorgione will have been dispersed.
H.C.
To this Edition an Appendix has been added, containing--(1) an article by the Author on the age of Titian, which was published in the Nineteenth Century of January 1902; (2) the translation of a reply by Dr. Georg Gronau, published in the Repertorium für Kunstwissenschaft; (3) a further reply by the Author, published in the same German periodical.
The writer wishes to acknowledge his indebtedness to the Editors of the Nineteenth Century and of the Repertorium for permission to reprint these articles.
A better photograph of the "Portrait of an Unknown Man" at Temple Newsam has now been taken (p. 87), and sundry footnotes have been added to bring the text up to date.
H. C.
ESHER, January 1904.
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