Venice in the early 16th century was Europe s undisputed capital of
culture: home to some of the finest artists of the Italian Renaissance
whose importance stretched far beyond the region. The first great
painter to emerge was also the most mysterious. Little is known about
Giorgio Barbarelli da Castelfranco, known as Giorgione (c. 1477 1510),
and few works have been attributed to him with certainty, yet he painted
what is considered the first landscape in Western art history and his
influence was profoundly felt by contemporaries including Lorenzo Lotto,
Palma il Vecchio, Sebastiano del Piombo, and Titian. This sumptuous
volume brings together many of the works attributed to Giorgione, along
with other masterpieces of the Venetian school, demonstrating the
extraordinary richness of color and mood for which these artists were
famed. Published to accompany a major exhibition, this book brings to
life an extraordinary moment in art history.