Detroit Trio

Giorgione died young in 1510, one of the victims of plague in Venice, and he left behind a handful of pictures whose meaning nobody has ever pinned down. This is one of the puzzles. An old inscription on the back names three hands, Sebastiano del Piombo, Giorgione and Titian, which fits a common story that Giorgione began the canvas and his two younger studio companions finished it after his death. The subject is a genuine mystery: three figures leaning in, one man's beret marked with the letters A, C and H, read by some as words for love, concord and honour. Scholars still argue whether it is even a Venetian original at all. It carries the plain nickname of its home, the Detroit Institute of Arts.