Nymph and Satyr

In 1675 the men going through Cardinal Leopoldo de' Medici's collection wrote this canvas down as a Schiavone. Sixteen years later, in the inventory of 1691, it had become a Giorgione, and a Giorgione it stayed through two centuries of gallery catalogues. Adolfo Venturi gave it to Dosso Dossi in 1885 and scholarship has followed him since.

The confusion is easy to follow. The state catalogue dates the picture to about 1508 to 1512, at the very start of Dosso's career, when he was still working close to the Venetian manner Giorgione had made fashionable.

The canvas is small and the subject is old. A nymph and a satyr, both wrapped in animal skins, she wearing rings and a necklace, he crowned with leaves. An engraving was made after it in the 19th century for the illustrated volumes on the Pitti gallery, and those plates went out into the world with Giorgione's name under them.