Giorgione's Tempesta: a Virgilian pastoral

Abstract

This essay proposes to read Giorgione's Tempesta– including the pentimento– in terms of Virgil's first and fourth eclogues, which were widely read in Venice in the period of Giorgione. The landscape, as well as structural elements in the painting, is traced back to the first eclogue. The lower part of the painting depicts a pastoral idyll; the upper part, the threats posed to it by the city and unbridled natural forces. The male figure in the picture is identified as a Virgilian poet‐shepherd who, as in the fourth eclogue, has a vision of a virgin whose progeny will bring the golden age. Like the fourth eclogue, Giorgione's painting conflates the pastoral genre with the golden‐age myth. The relationship between the poet‐shepherd and his vision recalls Renaissance paintings in which human beings have a vision of the Virgin Mary. In addition, Renaissance renderings of the image of the Madonna of Humility are deconstructed and transformed in the painting. Giorgione's figures and setting are no longer reliably identifiable as Christian, yet they bear the imprint of the Christian repertoire. Thus, the traces on the right‐hand building are recognized to be an emblem of Jerusalem. Like Virgil's fourth eclogue, which has been read as a prophesy of the birth of Christ, Giorgione's Tempesta also allows for intertwined pagan and Christian interpretations.