The Tempest by Giorgione
They are in love with art. Who are they? They are the Gypsies. They are considered to be charlatans, thieves, swindlers. The French government wants to expel them from the country. However, their world and their nomadic culture have inspired the greatest painters in art history. You would never have imagined, but it is true.
Let me start from the painting "The Tempest" by Giorgione because it is considered to be enigmatic. Its original title was "The Gypsy and the soldier." Why has the title of this picture been changed? There is no answer. Many have tried to describe, but their descriptions have left many doubts. Bruno Morelli, a Gypsy artist, tells a legend about this picture for the first time. It is a very famous legend among the Gypsies.
"... It is known as the story of Genevieve, the Gypsy who fell in love with a young nobleman. It was the feeling of impossible love, because of different family lineages the young soldier had to hide the object of shame. The girl became pregnant and gave birth to a son, which meant the reality "of the unacceptable" relationships.
She was hiding in the darkness of the forest where from time to time he came to see her, but then he forgot her. One day during a hunt the young noble heard a newborn baby crying, when he approached, he saw the woman he had loved and who had recently given birth to a child, she had miraculously survived from the cold and the dangers of the forest ... The story finished with a happy ending …"- from the thesis "The Gypsies in the Art" (I Rom nell’arte) by Bruno Morelli.
READ ALSO:
The Fortune-Teller by Caravaggio
The Sleeping Gypsy by Henri Rousseau
Gypsy with a cigarette by Edouard Manet
