y
characteristic; it is needless to repeat here what I said when
discussing the Beaumont and Vienna "Adoration"; the reader who compares
the reproductions will readily see the same features in both works. Mr.
Benson's little picture has this additional interest, that more than
either of its companion pieces it points forward to the Castelfranco
"Madonna" in the bold sweep of the draperies, the play of light on
horizontal surfaces, and the exquisite gaiety of its colour.

[Illustration: _Hanfstaengl photo. Vienna Gallery_ THE "GIPSY" MADONNA]

In claiming this picture for Giorgione I am claiming nothing new, for
his name, in spite of modern critics, has here persistently survived.
Not so with a group of three Madonnas, one of which has for at least two
centuries borne Titian's name, another which passes also for a work of
the same painter, whilst the third was claimed by Crowe and
Cavalcaselle again for Titian, partly on the analogy of the
first-mentioned one.[122] The first is the so-called "Gipsy Madonna" in
the Vienna Gallery, the second is a "Madonna" in the Bergamo Gallery,
and the third is a "Madonna" again in Mr. Benson's collection.

I am happily not the first to identify the "Gipsy Madonna" as
Giorgione's work, for it requires no little courage to tilt at what has
been unquestioningly accepted as "the earliest known Madonna of Titian."
I am indebted, therefore, to Signor Venturi for the lead,[123] although
I have the satisfaction of feeling that independent study of my own had
already brought me to the same conclusion.

Of course, all modern writers have recognised the "Giorgionesque"
elements in this supposed Titian. "In the depth, strength, and richness
of the colour-chord, in the atmospheric spaciousness and charm of the
landscape background, in the breadth of the draperies, it is already,"
says Mr. Claude Phillips,[124] "Giorgionesque." Yet, he goes on, the
Child is unlike Giorgione's type in the Castelfranco and Madrid
pictures, and the Virgin has a less spiritualised nature than
Giorgione's Madonnas in the same two pictures. On the other hand, Dr.
Gronau, Titian's latest biographer, declares[125] that the thoughtful
expression ("der tief empfundene Ausdruck") of the Madonna is
essentially Giorgionesque. Morelli, with peculiar insight, protested
against its being considered a very _early_ work of Titian, basing his
protest on the advanced nature of the landscape, which, he says,[126]
"must have been p