劳拉

On the back of this small panel Giorgione, or someone close to him, noted the date, the first of June 1506. That makes Laura the only picture the Venetian master both signed and dated, which matters, because Giorgione died young a few years later and left almost nothing securely his. The woman has no recorded name. She is called Laura only for the laurel branches spread behind her head. She opens a fur-lined cloak to bare one breast, and scholars have argued ever since over what she is. A bride, since laurel can stand for marital virtue and constancy. A courtesan, since the gesture and the rich winter fur read that way in Venice. Or a poet's ideal, the laurel being Petrarch's own emblem for the Laura of his verse. The museum leans toward a bride. Nobody has settled it.