It’s always enlightening to get a private tour from an art curator. The other day, I was at Cincinnati Art Museum just as “La Vecchia” (Italian for “the old woman”) by Italian Renaissance painter Giorgione, was being unveiled following a major conservation. It will be on view through May 5.

Here are some thoughts about the painting from Peter Jonathan Bell, Cincinnati Art Museum associate curator of European paintings, sculpture and drawings:

“It’s both a portrait and an allegory. Giorgione is a foundational Renaissance artist, for the Venetian Renaissance in particular. It’s incredibly rare. There are by some counts only a couple dozen paintings that survived by him. He only had a career of about 15 years, around 1500. but because of him, Titian is who he is. Titian painted with Giorgione.

“His paintings are all shrouded in mystery in terms of subject matter, and this one more so than most. He was painting for a new class of private collectors, so many of his paintings have very complex layers of meaning.Read More »