Three ages of man

Giorgione (1477-1510)


Item type:
painting
Date of creation:
early 16th century
Height:
62.0 cm  (24 7/16 in.)
Width:
78.0 cm  (30 11/16 in.)
Technique / Medium:
oil on panel

    Item location

  • Galleria Palatina (Firenze)
    [Museum inv. no.: 110]

Description

In this painting the physical characteristics of the three ages, Giorgione positions each character in his painting on the continuum of time according to his relationship to music. A young boy is placed in the pedagogical position, holding in his hand a sheet of mensural notation and a man in the prime touches both music and time symbolically, through marking the tactus.

Iconclass

31D1
the ages of man

Musical works

illegible music notation

RIdIM images


Image URLs

image link 1
Scroll down page for image on right side
image link 2
Wikimedia Commons image

Bibliographic references

Hatter, Jane. “Col tempo: Musical time, aging and sexuality in 16th-Century Venetian paintings”, Early music 39/1 (May 2011) 3-14, illus. 4a. RILM 2011-33897. DOI: 10.1093/em/caq110

RIdIM record id

4274