The Tempest
c. 1506–1508 · Oil on canvas · Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice
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About this work
- Artist
- Giorgione (1478–1510)
- Year
- c. 1506–1508
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Original size
- 82 × 73 cm
- Collection
- Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice
- Movement
- Renaissance
In a green landscape before a small walled town, a young man in a red jacket and white shirt stands at the left holding a long staff, while across a stream a woman, almost naked under a white cloth, sits nursing a baby; between them stand two broken columns, and lightning flashes over the town in a darkening sky. The meaning has never been settled, despite many proposed readings from myth, the Bible and allegory. X-rays show that Giorgione first painted a nude woman bathing in place of the young man. The earliest record is from 1530, when Marcantonio Michiel saw it in the study of the Venetian collector Gabriele Vendramin and described it as a little landscape on canvas with the storm, the gypsy and the soldier, by Giorgione. Painted in about 1506–1508, it is one of the few works securely attributed to him, and its landscape and weather are as important as its figures. It stayed with Vendramin's heirs into the seventeenth century, later belonged to the Giovanelli family, and was bought by the Gallerie dell'Accademia in Venice in 1932.
This print reproduces the whole work, uncropped, from a high-resolution scan of the original. The original is in the public domain.
Where it works
A young man and a nursing mother in deep green landscape before a pale town under a lightning-lit sky, for a study, living room or bedroom at 16×24 in natural wood. A deep green, stone or warm white wall; it pairs with Et in Arcadia ego (The Arcadian Shepherds).
Style, size & framing detail
- Style
- Renaissance painting
- Era
- 16th century (c. 1506–1508)
- Orientation
- Portrait
- Mood
- calm
- Rooms
- living room, bedroom, study or library, dining room
- Good gift for
- housewarming, art lovers
Size. We'd hang this one at 16×24. Prints at 12×18, 16×24, 24×36 in — 12×18 for a shelf, desk or a gallery-wall grid; 16×24 above a desk, console or in a hallway; 24×36 as the statement piece above a sofa or bed.
Framing. The gallery ground is part of the print, so frame it without a mat — black suits the deep tones of this period; natural wood lightens it.
Pairing. Pairs as a set of three with other famous painting prints (10% off three or more).
Details & materials
Shipping & returns
Is this the whole painting, or a crop?
Is The Tempest in the public domain?
What is it printed on?
When was The Tempest painted, and in what medium?
What size works above a sofa or bed?
About this design
The Madten promise
An exhibition poster
The same artwork as a gallery exhibition poster — title, artist & date typeset beneath the image on a soft ground.
