Synopses & Reviews
The Tempest is Giorgione's most enigmatic painting. It is a depiction of Giorgione's own family, of the "family of man" tale from Boccaccio, or of the myth of Apollo's birth? In this remarkable study, Salvatore Settis uses the mystery of the painting to shed light on the relationship between artist, patron, work, and critic. The result is a brilliant piece of detective work in the history and sociology of culture that stresses the function of Giorgione's art for the emerging, classically educated connoisseur elite of sixteenth-century Venice.
Table of Contents
List of Illustrations
Translator's Acknowledgement
Preface
1. Subject and Not-subject
2. The Three Philosophers
3. The Interpreters' Workshop
Fire and mystery
'Family' and music
The search for a subject
An X-ray and a pentimento
The rules of the jigsaw
4. Interpreting The Tempest
5. The Hidden Subject
Notes
Index