Detailed evidence for Giorgione 's life and work is transcribed in Pignatti, Giorgione, and it is Pignatti who points the paradoxical lack of information and agreement about a painter universally agreed to be a major importance:
There can be no doubt that his work represented a completely new figurative approach, even against the exceptionally varied background of Venetian painting at the turn of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Contemporary writers from Vasari onwards were aware of this; and none of the artists who had the good fortune to know Giorgione attempted or wanted to, escape from his rejuvenating influence, whether they were young like Titian, Sebastiano, or Palma, or revered figures like [Giovanni] Bellini. But it is surprising that a fame that was so widespread was not accompanied by any clear idea of his painted work, on which a reconstruction of the real character of his art could be founded. ( Pignatti, Giorgione, p. 24)