royal mistress and tells her (October 1510) that the artist is just
dead, and that no such picture as she describes--viz. "Una Nocte"[A]--is
to be found among his effects. However, he goes on, Giorgione did paint
two such pictures, but these were not for sale, as they belonged to two
private owners who would not part with them. One of these pictures was
of better design and more highly finished than the other, the latter
being, in his opinion, not perfect enough for the royal collection. He
regrets accordingly that he is unable to obtain the picture which the
Marchioness requires.

If my conjecture be right, we have in the Beaumont and Vienna
"Nativities" the only two pictures of Giorgione to which allusion is
made in an absolutely contemporary document, and they thus become
authenticated material with which to start a study of the master.

The next picture, which Crowe and Cavalcaselle accept without question,
is the large "Judgment of Solomon," belonging to Mr. Bankes at Kingston
Lacy. The scene is a remarkable one, conceived in an absolutely unique
way; Solomon is here posed as a Roman Praetor giving judgment in the
Atrium, supported on each side by onlookers attired in fanciful costume
of the Venetian period, or suggestive of classical models. It is the
strangest possible medley of the Bellinesque and the antique, knit
together by harmonious colouring and a clever grouping of figures in a
triangular design. As an interpretation of a dramatic scene it is
singularly ineffective, partly because it is unfinished, some of the
elements of the tragedy being entirely wanting, partly because of an
obvious stageyness in the action of the figures taking part in the
scene. There is a want of dramatic unity in the whole; the figures are
introduced in an accidental way, and their relative proportion is not
accurately preserved; the executioner, for example, is head and