24/08/20 - Between 1503 and 1509, Giorgio o Zorzi da Castelfranco, known as Giorgione (Italy, 1478- 1511), paints The Tempest (La Tempesta), an artwork commissioned by Gabriele Vendramin. In it we see his skill at representing Nature, which, according to Giorgio Vasari in "Lives of the artists", was the characteristic that rendered him popular in his time. Giorgione admired the work of Leonardo Da Vinci, specially for his use of shadows and landscape composition. There are no clear explanations for The Tempest, nor it is known the meaning of both figures: the naked woman breastfeeding and the watching peasant. Maybe it meant something to the commissioner, but there are no records about it. The entire composition is strange and hard to understand.

Giorgione lived only 34 years and died in1511 due to the Black Plague, caused by a bacterial infection vectored by rats.

The Tempest (La Tempesta), by Giorgione

Technique: oil on canvas / Measures: 82 x 73 cm

Gallerie della’Accademia, Venice

The Tempest (La Tempesta), by Giorgione - Detail

Technique: oil on canvas / Measures: 82 x 73 cm

Gallerie della’Accademia, Venice

However, what interests us today is the lightning in the background. This detail is the reason for the name to the artwork and it's the focus of light in the entire composition, allowing the chiaroscuros that build the volumes in the clouds and figures.  

In the house of Gabriel Baggio's grandparents there was a copy of Giorgione's artwork. The mysterious painting was always an enigma to Baggio (Argentina, 1974),  but it was the lightning what kept catching his eyes. So he finally reproduced it, just like in the painting, but with another material and no Nature, no architecture or people around it. Just the lightning, a twisted silver line, hanging from the wall of the gallery in which it is exhibited. And thus ends the story of this particular lightning that travelled from the 16th to the 21st Century.