Castelfranco Madonna
| Madonna and Child Between St. Francis and St. Nicasius | |
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| Artist | Giorgione |
| Year | c. 1503/04 |
| Medium | oil on panel |
| Dimensions | 200,5 cm × 144,5 cm (789 in × 569 in) |
| Location | Cathedral of Castelfranco Veneto |
The Madonna and Child Between St. Francis and St. Nicasius, also known as Castelfranco Madonna, is a painting by the Italian Renaissance artist Giorgione executed around 1504. It remains in the equivalent of its original setting, in a side-chapel of the Cathedral of Castelfranco Veneto, Giorgione's native city, in Veneto, northern Italy, although the present church dates to the 18th century.
The picture has all the elements of a typical sacra conversazione, with the Madonna enthroned with the Child with St. Francis to the right and St. Nicasius to the left. However, the exteme height of the throne is most unusual and creates a very different effect from the pictures of this type by Giovanni Bellini and other painters, where the throne is only slightly raised and the figures are at roughly the same level.
It is one of a handful - perhaps three - of paintings which can be very firmly attributed to Giorgione.
The armored figure has formerly been identified as the fighting saint St. George or St. Liberalis, patron of Castelfranco. Matteo and his brother Bruto Muzio were members of the Knights of Rhodes, whose ensign is borne by St. Nicasius (a martyred saint who had also belonged to the Hospitallier order). The traditional scheme of composition is lightened by the novel use of such elements as the throne and the landscape, which takes up a good portion of the background. Noteworthy is also the absence of any reference to ecclesiastical elements of architecture.
The technique of painting is an example of what Vasari called pittura sanza disegno (painting without drawing). This was a new approach to painting which revolutionised the Venetian school and is famously used in The Tempest. Titian, a pupil of Giorgione, later became one of the most important exponents of this style. The figure of St. Francis is very similar to that in Giovanni Bellini's San Giobbe Altarpiece (c. 1487).
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