Description of the painting by Giorgione “The Three Ages of Life”

Description of the painting by Giorgione The Three Ages of Life

Painted in oil on canvas in 1500-1501. (according to other versions, the interval from 1500 to 1510), is located horizontally, the size is 62 by 77.5 cm. It is located in Palazzo Pitti, Florence, Italy.

Giorgio Barbarelli da Castelfranco (full name of the artist) – the famous representative of the Venetian school, which was one of the main in Italy during the Renaissance. He specialized in portraiture, carefully drawing landscapes in the background. Unfortunately, he did not sign his works, and too little accurate information has been preserved since that time to find out the details of the creation or the names of the people drawn here.

The allegorical group portrait shows the different ages of the three men, or, more likely due to external similarity, the maturing of one of them, the oldest. In his wrinkles and lips compressed in a hard line, in the gaze directly facing the viewer, the lived through time and superiority over the other two are mixed with sadness and understanding of the inevitable approaching end. The old man seems to remember his past. In front of him, images of immature adolescence and maturity are resurrected, when the male mind and attractiveness manifest themselves in full force. A sheet of paper in the hands of a teenager at the same time resembles a symbol of study, knowledge gained long and useful for a long time, and a list of actions that two “generations” are trying to realize. After all, the pointing finger, so clearly highlighted by light, in art is a strong sign,

Black background and rich dark red create the mood of the picture. It makes you think, causes a lot of associations. I would like to look at artfully traced, gently glowing faces in the twilight and looking for similarities between them.


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Description of the painting by Giorgione “The Three Ages of Life”