.. gazing out with a
dreamy, yearning expression, as if seeking to descry one whom she
awaits."
Licinio, whose name has been proposed as the painter, did indeed follow
out this particular vein of Giorgione's portraiture, so that "Style of
Licinio" is not an altogether inapt attribution; but there is just that
difference of quality between the one man's work and the other, which
distinguishes any great man from his followers, whether in literature or
in art. How near (and yet how far!) Licinio came to his great prototype
is best seen in Lady Ashburton's "Portrait of a Young Man,"[40] but that
he could have produced the Borghese "Lady" presupposes qualities he
never possessed. "To Giorgione alone was it given to produce portraits
of such astonishing simplicity, yet so deeply significant, and capable,
by their mystic charm, of appealing to our imagination in the highest
degree."[41]
The actual condition of this portrait is highly unsatisfactory, and is
adduced by some as a reason for condemning it. Yet the spirit of the
master seems still to breathe through the ruin, and to justify Morelli's
ascription, if not the enthusiastic language in which he writes.
[Illustration: _Anderson photo. Seminario, Venice_
APOLLO AND DAPHNE]
With the fourth addition on Morelli's list we pass into a totally
different sphere of art--the decoration of _cassoni_, and other pieces
of furniture. We have seen Giorgione at work on legendary stories or
classic myths, creating out of these materials pages of beauty and
romance in the form of easel paintings, and now we have the same thing
as applied art--that is, art used for purely decorative purposes.
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