Venice in the early 16th century was Europe s undisputed capital of culture: home to some of the finest artists of the Italian Renaissance whose importance stretched far beyond the region. The first great painter to emerge was also the most mysterious. Little is known about Giorgio Barbarelli da Castelfranco, known as Giorgione (c. 1477 1510), and few works have been attributed to him with certainty, yet he painted what is considered the first landscape in Western art history and his influence was profoundly felt by contemporaries including Lorenzo Lotto, Palma il Vecchio, Sebastiano del Piombo, and Titian. This sumptuous volume brings together many of the works attributed to Giorgione, along with other masterpieces of the Venetian school, demonstrating the extraordinary richness of color and mood for which these artists were famed. Published to accompany a major exhibition, this book brings to life an extraordinary moment in art history.