Although the dark clouds and the lightning in the distant sky suggest an imminent storm, the 'soldier' and the 'gypsy' with her baby remain calm and impassive. What this beautiful and curious picture means has yet to be discovered after having puzzled many a generation of connoisseurs and art historians since Michiel, who just described the scene instead of stating its subject. One thing seems to be certain: if this picture had been called prosaically 'Landscape with a gypsy and a soldier', it would not have become one of the most admired works of the Venetian School. The suggestive and somewhat incongruous title, The Tempest, gives it a sort of aura of mystery and helps contribute to stimulate the viewer's imagination.
    More than twenty interpretations have been offered since the 16th century concerning the meaning of The Tempest. Various biblical, mythological or allegorical characters have been tentatively connected to the couple in it. Recently some scholars have even suggested the possibility that it had no subject at all, and that the real intention of the artist was to create a beautiful picture full of poetic atmosphere, giving free rein to his imagination. In fact, an X-ray examination has revealed that Giorgione first painted another female nude where the man with a lance is standing now. It would have been impossible if he had a particular subject in mind. Moreover, when Marcantonio Michiel viewed it in Vendramin's house in 1530, it had been only twenty years since Giorgione's untimely death, and Gabriele Vendramin almost certainly bought it from the painter himself. If the painting had had the subject, Michiel could have easily learned it from the owner. According to one art historian, Giorgione intentionally painted an equivocal picture at the instigation of the patron, whose refined taste was not to be readily satisfied by easily fathomable conventional subjects(Note:7). At any rate, the range of subject-matter treated by artists began to expand greatly from the end of the 15th century. Along with altarpieces with the conventional subjects seen by the general public, more and more pictures with innovative subjects based on classical literature were painted for rich and cultured patrons who wanted to appreciate them privately. The novel genre of landscape, too, was cultivated mainly by painters from the north of the Alps like Bruegel. Not only in Venice but in all the major cities and the courts in Europe, the elite began to collect paintings and sculptures by famous artists, sometimes regardless of subject-matter, as long as the work was a fine specimen of some renowned master's art. For example, Michelangelo heard from Paris in 1519 that King François I 'has no greater wish than to have some work, even small, of yours'(Note:8). Writing or talking about art had become an important part of cultural activities of the happy few. What was discussed needed to be designated, and there appeared so many new subjects or new interpretations of traditional subjects. Titles to differentiate and explicate artworks started to develop.

IV

    Vasari's Lives and other writings in its wake surely disseminated knowledge of eminent Italian-Renaissance artists and their work among educated people all over Europe. But these early publications on art had no illustrations. Even if some of the works were described as graphically as possible, it must have been daunting for the readers to imagine the pictures mentioned in the text, unless they had already seen some examples of the work of the artists referred to, or had been supplied with some visual aid. That was where reproduction prints came in.

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Note:7
Ibid,. Ch. 5.

Note:8
John Shearman, Mannerism, Harmondsworth, 1967, p.44.