The happy era we are now entering upon, commences with Giorgione and with Titian, two names which, connected together, yet in competition with each other, divided between them, as it were, the whole body of disciples throughout the capital and the state; insomuch that we find no city that had not more or less adopted for its model one or other of these masters. I shall proceed to describe them separately, each with his own class, as I believe such a method most favourable, to shew how the whole of the school I am describing was almost entirely derived and propagated from two masters of a similar style. Giorgio Barbarelli of Castelfranco, more generally known by the name of Giorgione, from a certain grandeur conferred upon him by nature, no less of mind than form, and which appears also impressed upon his productions, as the character is said to be in the handwriting, was educated in the school of the Bellini. But impelled by a spirit conscious of its own powers, he despised that minuteness in the art which yet remained to be exploded, at once substituting for it a certain freedom and audacity of manner, in which the perfection of painting consists. In this view he may be said to be an inventor; no artist before his time having acquired that mastery of his pencil, so hardy and determined in its strokes, and producing such an effect in the distance. From that period he continued to ennoble his manner, rendering the contours more round and ample, the foreshortenings more new, the expression of the countenance more warm and lively, as well as the motions of his figures. His drapery, with all the other accessaries of the art became more select, the gradations of the different colours more soft and natural, and his chiaroscuro more powerful and effective. It was in this last indeed, that Venetian painting was the most deficient, while it had been introduced into the rest of the schools by Vinci previous to the sixteenth century. Vasari is of opinion that from the same artist, or rather from some of his designs, it was first acquired by Giorgione, a supposition that Boschini will not admit, maintaining that he was only indebted for it to himself, being his own master and scholar. And, in truth, the taste of Lionardo and of the Milanese artists who acquired it from him, not only differs in point of design, inclining in the contours and in the features more towards the graceful and the beautiful, while Giorgione affects rather a round and full expression; but it is contrasted with it, likewise, in the chiaroscuro. The composition of Lionardo abounds much more in shades, which are gradually softened with greater care; while in regard to his lights he is far more sparing, and studies to unite them in a small space with a degree of vividness that produces surprise. Giorgione's composition, on the other hand, is more clear and open, and with less shade; his middle tints, also, partake in nothing of the