[Illustration:  Dixon photo.  Collection of Mr. R.H.  Benson, London

MADONNA AND CHILD]

It is worthy of note that not a single “Madonna and Child” by Titian exists, except the little picture in Mr. Mond’s collection, painted quite in the artist’s old age.  Titian invariably paints “Madonna and Saints,” or a “Holy Family,” so that the three Madonna pictures I am claiming for Giorgione are marked off by this peculiarity from the bulk of Titian’s work.  This in itself is not enough to disqualify Titian, but it is a factor in that cumulative proof by which I hope Giorgione’s claim may be sustained.  The marble parapet again is a feature in Giorgione’s work, but not in Titian’s.  But the most convincing evidence to those who know the master lies in the composition, which forms an almost equilateral triangle, revealing Giorgione’s supreme sense of beauty in line.  The splendid curves made by the drapery, the pose of the Child, so as to obtain the same unbroken sweep of line, reveals the painter of the Dresden “Venus.”  The painting of the Child’s hand over the Madonna’s is precisely as in the Madrid picture, where, moreover, the pose of the Child is singularly alike.  The folds of drapery on the sleeve recur in the same picture, the landscape with the small figure seated beneath the tree is such as can be found in any Giorgione background.  The oval of the face and the delicacy of the features are thoroughly characteristic, as is the spirit of calm reverie and tender simplicity which Giorgione has breathed into his figures.

The second and third Madonna pictures—­viz. the one at Bergamo, and its counterpart in Mr. Benson’s collection—­appear to be somewhat later in date of execution, but reveal many points in common with the “Gipsy Madonna.”  The beauty of line is here equally conspicuous; the way the drapery is carried out beyond the elbow so as to form one long unbroken curve, the triangular composition, the marble parapet, are so many proofs of Giorgione’s hand.  Moreover, we find in Mr. Benson’s picture the characteristic tree-trunks, so suggestive of solemn grandeur,[129] and the striped scarf,[130] so cunningly disposed to give more flowing line and break the stiffness of contour.

The Bergamo picture closely resembles Mr. Benson’s “Madonna,” from which, indeed, it varies chiefly in the pose of the Child (whose left leg here sticks straight out), whilst the landscape is seen on the left side, and there are no tree-trunks.  I cannot find that any writer has made allusion to this little gem, which hangs high up on the end wall of the Lochis section of the gallery (No. 232); I hope others will examine this new-found work at a less inconvenient height, as I have done, and that their opinion will coincide with mine that the same hand painted the Benson “Madonna,” and that that hand is Giorgione’s.