Sleeping Venus by Giorgione on Ajman airmail stamp

This is a scan of the 1- Riyal AIRMAIL postage stamp of ‘AJMAN STATE AND ITS DEPENDENCIES’, on which the famous painting, Venus Dormida: Sleeping Venus’ by Giorgione (CLICK TO VIEW the original painting’s picture) is printed. It seems to be one of the commemorative stamps issued by AJMAN STATE to celebrate art by Western painters, with some of the best paintings included in the set of 16 stamps. Ajman is one of the seven emirates constituting the United Arab Emirates (UAE). CLICK TO VIEW THE FULL SET of similar stamps.

The Sleeping Venus, also known as the Dresden Venus, one of the last works by Giorgione, was incomplete at the time of Giorgione's death, and the landscape and sky were painted by Titian in 1510 to complete the work, which is currently in the Gemäldegalerie, Dresden, Germany.

Le Concert Champêtre

Painting: Le Concert Champêtre (Pastoral Concert), a work which the Louvre now attributes to Titian, and some others credit to Giorgione. Details: oil on canvas, dimensions 110 cm x 138 cm, location at Musée du Louvre, Paris.

The uncertainty in distinguishing between the paintings of Giorgione and Titian is most apparent in the case of the Concert Champêtre (Pastoral Concert) described in 2003 as ‘perhaps the most contentious problem of attribution in the whole of Italian Renaissance art’, but affects a large number of paintings possibly from Giorgione's last years. The Concert Champêtre is one of a group of paintings, which are very close in style and have been more and more frequently given to Titian. But no one has been able to create a coherent sequence of Titian's early works that includes these ones, in a way that commands general support, and fits the known facts of his career.

Venus Dormida: Sleeping Venus by Giorgione

Painting: Venus Dormida or Sleeping Venus (1501) by Giorgione, oil on canvas, dimensions 108.5 cm x 175 cm, current located at Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Dresden, Germany.

Giorgione (born Giorgio Barbarelli da Castelfranco; 1477/8-1510) was an Italian painter of the High Renaissance in Venice. Giorgione is known for the elusive poetic quality of his work, though only about six surviving paintings are acknowledged for certain to be his work. The resulting uncertainty about the identity and meaning of his art has made Giorgione one of the most mysterious figures in European painting.