the old Greek myth in Venetian garb, just as Statius had done in the Latin.[16] The story is known to us only at second hand, and we are at liberty to choose Giorgione’s version in preference to that of the Roman poet; each is an independent translation of a common original, and certainly Giorgione’s is not the less poetical.  He has created a painted lyric which is not an illustration of, but a parallel presentation to the written poem of Statius.

Technically, the workmanship points to an earlier period than the Castelfranco Madonna, and there is an exuberance of fancy which points to a youthful origin.  The figures are of slight and graceful build, the composition easy and unstudied, with a tendency to adopt a triangular arrangement in the grouping, the apex being formed by the storm scene, to which the eye thus naturally reverts.  The figures and the landscape are brought into close relation by this subtle scheme, and the picture becomes, not figures with landscape background, but landscape with figures.

The reproduction unduly exaggerates the contrasts of light and shade, and conveys little of the mellowness and richness of atmospheric effect which characterise the original.  Unlike the brilliance of colouring in the Castelfranco picture, dark reds, browns, and greens here give a sombre tone which is accentuated by the dullness of surface due to old varnishes.

[Illustration:  Hanfstaengl photo.  Vienna Gallery

AENEAS, EVANDER, AND PALLAS]

“The Three Philosophers,” or “The Chaldean Sages,” as the picture at Vienna has long been strangely named, shows the artist again treating a classical story in his own fantastic way.  Virgil has enshrined in verse the legend of the arrival of the Trojan Aeneas in Italy,[17] and Giorgione depicts the moment when Evander, the aged seer-king, and his son Pallas point out to the wanderer the site of the future Capitol.  Again we find the same poetical presentation, not representation, of a legendary subject, again the same feeling for the beauties of nature.  How Giorgione has revelled in the glories of the setting sun, the long shadows of the evening twilight, the tall-stemmed trees, the moss-grown rock!  The figures are but a pretext, we feel, for an idyllic scene, where the story is subordinated to the expression of sensuous charm.

This work was seen by the Anonimo in 1525, in the house of Taddeo Contarini at Venice.  It was then believed to have been completed by Sebastiano del Piombo, Giorgione’s pupil.  If so,—­and there is no valid reason to doubt the statement,—­Giorgione left unfinished a picture on which he was at work some years before his death, for the style clearly indicates that the artist had not yet reached the maturity of his later period.  The figures still recall those of Bellini, the modelling is close and careful, the forms compact, and reminiscent of the quattrocento.  It is noticeable that the type of the Pallas is identical