This work is one of the mysteries of European painting: in spite of its undeniable quality and epochal importance, opinions are divergent concerning both its creator and its theme. It is the outstanding masterpiece of the Venetian Renaissance, the summit of Giorgione's creative career, so much so that according to some it may have been painted, or at least finished, by Titian rather than Giorgione.
The painting has been interpreted as an allegory of Nature, similar to Giorgione's Storm, which was undeniably painted by him; it was even viewed as the first example of the modern herdsman genre. Its message must be more complex than this. It is likely that the master consciously unified several themes in this painting, and the deciphering of symbols required a degree of erudition even at the time of its creation. During the eighteenth century the painting was known by the simple name of "Pastorale" and only subsequently was it given the title "Fête champêtre" or "Concert champêtre", owing to its festive mood. Modern research has pointed out that the composition is in fact an allegory of poetry.
The female figures in the foreground are probably the Muses of poetry, their nakedness reveals their divine being. The standing figure pouring water from a glass jar represents the superior tragic poetry, while the seated one holding a flute is the Muse of the less prestigious comedy or pastoral poetry. The well-dressed youth who is playing a lute is the poet of exalted lyricism, while the bareheaded one is an ordinary lyricist. The painter based this differentiation on Aristotle's "Poetica".
The scenery is characterized by a duality. Between the elegant, slim trees on the left, we see a multi-levelled villa, while on the right, in a lush grove, we see a shepherd playing a bagpipe. Yet the effect is completely unified. The very presence of the beautiful, mature Muses provides inspiration; the harmony of scenery and figures, colours and forms proclaims the close interrelationship between man and nature, poetry and music.
The Pastoral Concert, Fête champêtre or Le Concert champêtre is an oil painting of c. 1509 attributed to either of the Italian Renaissance masters, Titian (more usually today) or Giorgione. It is in the Musée du Louvre in Paris.
The painting was originally attributed to Giorgione, but modern critics assign it more likely to the slightly younger Titian, as the figures' robustness is thought more typical of his style. It is also possible that Giorgione (whose works included elements such as music, pastoral subjects and the simultaneous representation of the visible and invisible) began the work, and then, after his death in 1510, it was finished by Titian.
The work was owned by the Gonzaga family, perhaps inherited from Isabella d'Este: it was later sold to Charles I of England. When the English royal collections were dispersed following,the revolution of 1649, the painting was sold at auction to the German banker and art collector, Eberhard Jabach, who, in turn, sold it to Louis XIV in 1671.
The painting was also attributed to Palma the Elder and Sebastiano del Piombo.
Édouard Manet conceived his Le déjeuner sur l'herbe (1863) after viewing the Pastoral Concert in a visit to the Louvre museum.
The painting portrays three young people on a lawn, playing with each other, while next to them a standing woman is pouring water from a marble basin. Both the women are naked apart from drapes that have fallen to their legs; the two men are dressed in contemporary costume. In the wide background is a shepherd and a landscape.
The subject was perhaps the allegory of poetry and music: the two women would be an imaginary apparition representing the ideal beauty, stemming from the two men's fantasy and inspiration. The woman with the glass vase would be the muse of tragic poetry, while the other one would be that of the pastoral poetry. Of the two playing men, the one with the lute would represent the exalted lyric poetry, the other being an ordinary lyricist, according to the distinction made by Aristotle in his Poetics. Another interpretation suggests that the painting is an evocation of the four elements of the natural world (water, fire, earth and air) and their harmonic relationship.
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