Madona de Castelfranco

This altarpiece was born out of a death. In 1499 Matteo Costanzo, a young soldier fighting for Venice, died of fever, and his father Tuzio, a mercenary captain, commissioned Giorgione to paint this Madonna for the family chapel in their home town of Castelfranco Veneto, with Matteo's tomb set directly below it. That is why the young armoured saint on the left, holding a banner, reads almost as a memorial to the dead son. It is one of the very few works securely by Giorgione, who died young and left little behind. The Virgin sits high on a tall throne, above a low wall, with a calm landscape opening behind the two saints. The painting still hangs in a chapel of the town's cathedral, close to where it was always meant to be.