The Three Philosophers by Giorgione (Italian, 1477 1510) in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna and St. Francis in the Desert by Giovanni Bellini (ca. 1424/35 1516) in The Frick Collection, New York, are two of the most celebrated paintings of the Venetian Renaissance. Between at least 1525 and 1556 the two paintings were displayed together in the same house in Venice, the palazzo of Taddeo Contarini (ca. 1466 1540), a member of one of Venice's wealthiest patrician families. For the first time in more than four hundred years, these two masterpieces will be reunited. Accompanying their display at the Frick, this book explores the origins of the paintings and re-evaluates their shared histories in the collection of Taddeo Contarini. AUTHOR: Xavier F. Salomon is the deputy director and Peter Jay Sharp Chief Curator at the Frick Collection in New York. SELLING POINTS: . Reunites two Italian Renaissance masterpieces after more than four centuries apart, affording a re-examination of their joint history 35 colour illustrations