Just such another instance of average merit is afforded by the “Venus and Adonis” of the National Gallery (No. 1123), from which, had not an artificial standard of excellence been falsely raised, Giorgione’s name would never have been removed.  I am happily not the first to call attention to the propriety of the old attribution, for Sir Edward Poynter claims that the same hand that produced the Louvre “Concert” is also responsible for the “Venus and Adonis."[120] I fully share this opinion.  The figures, with their compactly built and rounded limbs, are such as Giorgione loved to model, the sweep of draperies and the splendid line indicate a consummate master, the idyllic landscape framing episodes from the life of Adonis is just such as we see in the Louvre picture and elsewhere, the glow and splendour of the whole reveal a master of tone and colouring.  Some good judges would give the work to the young Titian, but it appears too intimately “Giorgionesque” to be his, although I admit the extreme difficulty in drawing the line of division.  Passages in the “Sacred and Profane Love” of the Borghese Gallery are curiously recalled, but the National Gallery picture is clearly the work of a mature and experienced hand, and not of any young artist.  In my opinion it dates from about 1508, and illustrates the later phase of Giorgione’s art as admirably as do the “Epiphany” (No. 1160) and the “Golden Age” (No. 1173) his earliest style.  Between these extremes fall the “Portrait” (No. 636), and the “S.  Liberale” (No. 269), the National Gallery thus affording unrivalled opportunity for studying the varying phases of the great Venetian master at different stages of his career.

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We may now pass from the realm of “fancy” subjects to that of sacred art—­that is, to the consideration of the “Madonnas,” “Holy Families,” and “Santa Conversazione” pictures, other than those already described.  The Beaumont “Adoration of the Shepherds,” with its variant at Vienna, the National Gallery “Epiphany,” the Madrid “Madonna with S. Anthony and S. Roch,” and the Castelfranco altar-piece are the only instances so far of Giorgione’s sacred art, yet Vasari tells us that the master “in his youth painted very many beautiful pictures of the Virgin.”

This statement is on the face of it likely enough, for although the young Castelfrancan early showed his independence of tradition and his preference for the more modern phases of Bellini’s art, it is extremely probable he was also called upon to paint some smaller devotional pieces, such, for instance, as “The Christ bearing the Cross,” lately in the Casa Loschi at Vicenza.[121] It is noteworthy, all the same, that scarcely any “Madonna” picture exists to which his name still attaches, and only one “Holy Family,” so far as I am aware, is credibly reputed to be his work.  This is Mr. Benson’s little picture, in all respects a worthy companion to the Beaumont and National Gallery