Visitation

This meeting of two pregnant cousins, Mary and the older Elizabeth, has spent much of its life under other names. Early on it was given to Giorgione, then to the young Titian, before opinion moved to Sebastiano, and even now the museum labels it as attributed rather than certain. That uncertainty is the interesting part. Around 1509 these three Venetians painted so closely alike that a single hand is hard to separate out. The soft landscape carries the mood of Giorgione, with a sharper northern edge picked up from the prints of Albrecht Durer, then passing from hand to hand all over Venice. The panel also hides an old injury. In 1849 the head of Saint Joseph was cut out and stolen, never recovered, so what stands in its place today is entirely a restorer's repainting.