I therefore consider that Mr. Dickes' brilliant conjectures have much to
support them, and, so far as the authorship is concerned, I
unhesitatingly accept the view, which he was the first to express, that
Giorgione, and no other, is the painter. Our National Collection
therefore boasts, in my opinion, a masterpiece of his portraiture.
If it were not that Morelli, Mr. Berenson and others have recognised in
the "Portrait of a Gentleman," in the Querini-Stampalia Gallery in
Venice, the same hand as in the National Gallery picture, one might well
hesitate to claim it for Giorgione, so repainted is its present
condition. I make bold, however, to include it in my list, and the more
readily as Signor Venturi definitely assigns it to Giorgione himself,
whose name, moreover, it has always borne. This unfinished portrait is,
despite its repaint, extraordinarily attractive, the rich browns and
reds forming a colour-scheme of great beauty. It cannot compare,
however, in quality with our National Gallery highly-finished example,
to which it is also inferior in beauty of conception. These two
portraits illustrate the variableness of the painter; both were probably
done about the same time--the one seemingly _con amore_, the other left
unfinished, as though the artist or his sitter were dissatisfied.
Certainly the cause could not have been Giorgione's death, for the style
is obviously early, probably prior to 1500.
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