(piano playing) Steven: We're in the
Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna looking at Giorgione's
The Three Philosophers. But that title is provisional
because we really have no idea what this painting is about. Beth: These figures clearly
represent something. They're each so very distinct in their
gestures and the way that they look and how they're dressed and what
they hold, that there must be a key. But we don't know what it is. Steven: So let's take a look at
what Giorgione is offering us and see if we can't figure
this out at least a little bit. Their faces are beautifully illuminated
by that light just before dusk, when the sun is low in the sky. But the figure seated,
the youngest of the three, is wearing this green and brilliant white. He holds in his hand a
compass and a right angle. The standing figure next to him,
red and blue wearing a turban, seems to be gesturing over to the
oldest figure on the extreme right side, who is himself dressed
in these rich golds. He holds a compass in his left
hand and a drawing in his right. Beth: And that drawing seems to
have on it a sun, perhaps a moon, some geometric diagrams so perhaps he is
a ancient philosopher or mathematician. Steven: So this is esoteric knowledge. It is knowledge that
perhaps has been lost to us. Beth: And he's the oldest of the
three figures and he seems to look, if anything, inward. The figure next to him,
by contrast, looks down. Steven: That's the
standing man in middle age. Beth: And then the youngest
figure seems to look up. Steven: But look what he's looking at. Beth: Into the darkness,
into this cave form. Steven: He seems to be trying to measure
not only the physical world around him, in contrast to the old man on the
right who seems to be measuring the cosmos in some way, but he
seems to be trying to understand and draw out something
factual, something actual, from a space that he can't really see
or at least that we can't really see. Beth: It's very complicated
and the most recent theory matches what we're describing
ourselves as we stand and look at it, which is that the figure on the left
represents the era that Giorgione lived in of this new humanist interest
in the world around us. That the figure in the center who looks
like he's wearing foreign clothing may represent the Islamic world
and the way that they preserved ancient Greek and Roman knowledge,
and the figure on the far right may represent that philosophy
of ancient Greece and Rome. Steven: Other competing
theories take these figures as the three great monotheistic religions:
Christianity, Islam and Judaism. Beth: Another theory is that they
represent three specific philosophers, we really don't know. We know that Giorgione did work
for aristocratic patrons in Venice and they seemed to have
preferred a new type of subject and often we really can't
determine what those were. They're not the standard
Christian subjects. Steven: Well right, they're
not enacting a narrative. They're not enacting a biblical
story, they're not representations of mythic figures. In a sense they seem to be
referencing a set of ideas and that is more elusive
and thus it's lost to us. Beth: So even though we can't
determine the specific meaning we can still really enjoy the painting. Steven: The composition is so
interesting because they are pushed over to the right, they occupy
less than half the canvas. But they're perfectly
balanced by the darkness, the mass of the cave on the left. Beth: And then between those
groups a really beautiful landscape that, to me, looks very Venetian. Steven: Well look at that atmospheric
perspective as we move back. The hillside becomes bluer and
bluer and then that's played against the golden light of that setting sun. Beth: And that golden light is the
environment for all of the figures. That's one of the wonderful things
about Giorgione and Venetian painting is that there's a real sense
of atmosphere, of time of day, of a soft glowing light
that envelops the landscape and that also envelops the figures. Steven: It creates a mood
for the entire painting which is soft and contemplative
and really does underscore the idea that something
profound is taking place. (piano playing)