The Tempest (Giorgione)

The Tempest is an oil-on-canvas painting by the Venetian Renaissance master Giorgione, created around 1506 to 1508 for the nobleman Gabriele Vendramin. It measures 83 by 73 centimeters and shows a landscape gathering toward a storm, with a woman nursing an infant on the right and a man holding a staff or pike on the left. Technical examination has shown that Giorgione originally painted a female nude in place of the male figure, evidence of a significant change of plan during the work's creation. Despite extensive scholarly study, the exact narrative the two figures are meant to enact remains unresolved, with proposals ranging from the biblical Flight into Egypt to classical myth to a purely atmospheric, non-narrative landscape; the painting is valued above all for its pioneering treatment of landscape and light. It is held in the Gallerie dell'Accademia in Venice. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/