His "Three Heads," in the Brera, is a superb piece of painting and
an interesting characterisation. The woman is ripe, sensual, and
calculating, feeling with her fingers for the gold chain, a mere
golden-fleshed, rose-flushed hireling, solid and prosaic. The
go-between is dimly seen in the background, but the face of the suitor
is a strange, ironic study: past youth, worn, joyless, and bitter,
taking his pleasure mechanically and with cynical detachment. The "Storm
calmed by S. Mark" (Academy) was, in Mr. Berenson's opinion, begun by
Giorgione.
Rich, brilliant, and essentially Venetian as is the work of these
two painters, it does not reach the highest level. It falls short of
grandeur, and has that worldly tone that borders on vulgarity. As we
study it we feel that it marks the point to which Venetian art might
have attained, the flood-mark it might have touched, if it had lacked
the advent of the three or four great spirits, who, appearing about
the same time, bore it up to sublimer heights and developed a more
distinguished range of qualities. Bonifazio and Bordone lack the
grandeur and sweetness of Titian, the brilliant touch and imaginative
genius of Tintoretto, the matchless feeling for colour, design, and
decoration of Veronese, but they continue Venetian painting on logical
lines, and they form a superb foundation for the highest.
PRINCIPAL WORKS
_Bonifazio Veronese._
Dresden. Finding of Moses.
Florence. Pitti: Madonna; S. Elizabeth and Donor (E.); Rest in Flight
into Egypt; Finding of Moses.
Hampton Court. Santa Conversazione.
London. Santa Conversazione (E.).
Milan. Brera: Finding of Moses.
Paris. Santa Conversazione.
Rome. Villa Borghese: Mother of Zebedee's Children; Return of the
Prodigal Son.
Colonna: Holy Family with Saints.
Venice. Academy: Rich Man's Feast; Massacre of Innocents; Judgment of
Solomon, 1533; Adoration of Kings.
Giovanelli: Santa Conversazione.
Vienna. Santa Conversazione; Triumph of Love; Triumph of Chastity;
Salome.
_Paris Bordone._
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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