t have resolved themselves into sinecure offices, for
we find Bellini holding one, and certainly without discharging any of
the original duties, and they seem to have become some sort of State
retainerships. In 1505 the old Fondaco had been burnt to the ground, and
the present building was rising when Giorgione and Titian were boys. A
decree went forth that no marble, carving, or gilding were to be used,
so that painting the outside was the only alternative. The roof was on
in 1507, and from that date Giorgione, Titian, and Morto da Feltre were
employed in the adornment of the facade. Vasari is very much exercised
over Giorgione's share in these decorations. "One does not find one
subject carefully arranged," he complains, "or which follows correctly
the history or actions of ancients or moderns. As for me, I have never
been able to understand the meaning of these compositions, or have met
any one able to explain them to me. Here one sees a man with a lion's
head, beside a woman. Close by one comes upon an angel or a Love: it is
all an inexplicable medley." Yet he is delighted with the brilliancy of
the colour and the splendid execution, and adds, "Colour gives more
pleasure in Venice than anywhere else."

Among other early work was the little "Adoration of the Magi," in the
National Gallery, and the so-called "Philosophers" at Vienna. According
to the latest reading, this last illustrates Virgil's legend that when
the Trojan Aeneas arrived in Italy, Evander pointed out the future site
of Rome to the ancient seer and his son. Giorgione, in painting the
scene, is absorbed in the beauty of nature. It is his first great
landscape, and all accessories have been sacrificed to intensity of
effect. He revels in the glory of the setting sun, the broad tranquil
masses of foliage, the long evening shadows, and the effect of dark
forms silhouetted against the radiant light.

CHAPTER XV

GIORGIONE (_continued_)

When Giorgione was twenty-six he went back to Castelfranco, and painted
an altarpiece for the Church of San Liberale. In the sixteenth century
Tuzio Costanza, a well-known captain of Free Companions, who had made
his fortune in the wars, where he had been attached to Catherine
Cornaro, followed the dethroned queen from Cyprus, and when she retired
to Asolo, settled near her at Castelfranco. His son, Matteo, entered the
service of the Venetian Republic, and became a leader of fifty lances;
but Matteo was killed a