Stories of Art taster: Giorgione

Join us for this free session with tutor Siân Walters to gain a taste of our upcoming 'Stories of Art: 1500–1600' course. Get to know the course content and your expert tutor, and experience a session before you choose to enrol and dive into the full paid course schedule.

Giorgione, born in Castelfranco in the Veneto, was a renowned yet enigmatic painter. Alongside his occasional collaborator Titian, he transformed the stylistic evolution of Venetian art during the early 16th century. He composed a small number of beautiful, intimate and atmospheric paintings with lyrical overtones which were much sought after by a newly emerging Venetian class, interested in poetry and music. These include ‘The Tempest’ (Gallerie dell’Accademia, Venice) and the National Gallery’s ‘Il Tramonto (The Sunset)’.

Yet few painters have been the subject of such intense debate as ‘Zorzi’, or ‘Big George’ as he was familiarly known. Virtually none of his works are dated or signed, and there are few contemporary documents or reliable sources that tell us about the artist and his paintings. Giorgione died young, in his early 30s, and only a few works by him survive. The attributions of those that do has been hotly debated, an intriguing question which is also addressed during the lecture, inviting you to join in the debate.

Siân Walters is an art historian and the director of Art History in Focus. She studied at Selwyn College, University of Cambridge, and has been a lecturer at the National Gallery for over 20 years. Her specialist areas of research are Italian painting, Spanish art and architecture, Flemish and Dutch painting and the relationship between dance and art. Siân also lectures for The Arts Society and leads specialist art tours abroad. She was a lecturer at University of Surrey for many years and has lived and worked in France and Venice. She is currently writing a book on still-life paintings in the National Gallery Collection.

Can't make the session but don't want to miss out? No problem, you can watch again.

The session is recorded and made available to you for 2 weeks.

A video of the week's lecture will be uploaded and available for you to watch via your National Gallery account on Thursday.

This is an online ticketed course hosted on Zoom. Please book a ticket to access the course.

Only one ticket can be booked per account.

You will be emailed an E-ticket with instructions on how to access the course via your National Gallery account. All course information including your Zoom link, weekly handouts, and recordings will be available here.