Focus on this artwork and analyze the Cultural references and reception.
This was Lord Byron's favorite painting because the ambiguity of both its subject matter and symbolism allowed viewers to make up their own tale.Jan Morris wrote that the picture changed the way she looked at painting. She was fascinated with the subject and "its sense of permanently suspended enigma", and calls it a "haunted picture", inhabited by the actual presence of the artist.Hugues Dufourt composed a musical piece called La Tempesta d'après Giorgione where he wanted to "strip the timbre away from its subordinate or anecdotal character, like what Giorgione has done in terms of colour".Czech poet Ladislav Novák wrote a poem called Giorgione's Tempest where Meister Eckhart explains its symbolism in a wealthy man's study. According to him, the man is a shepherd who represents Giorgione and the lady is a woman the painter loves, without hoping his love will be requited.In Mark Helprin's 1991 novel A Soldier of the Great War the protagonist claims the painting as his favorite and it plays a central role in the plot. It is viewed by the main characters who visit the painting in Venice and is referred to several times throughout the novel.
The painting is at the centre of the plot in the novel La tempestad (English translation The Tempest, 2004) by the Spanish author Juan Manuel de Prada, winner of the 1997 Premio Planeta de Novela.
In Geoff Dyer's 2009 novel Jeff in Venice, Death in Varanasi, the protagonist, Jeff Atman, visits the Gallerie dell'Accademia specifically to view the painting, having read a description of it in Mary McCarthy's Venice Observed. 
In The Wake, by Neil Gaiman, the painting is depicted hanging in the dining room of the Dream King.
In A Book of Liszts: Variations on the Theme of Franz Liszt, by John Spurling, a fictionalized Franz Liszt and Marie d'Agoult discuss the meaning of The Tempest, which the narrator of the scene calls The Family of the Painter (pp. 94-96).
Jan Morris Neil Gaiman poet John Spurling A Soldier of the Great War Premio Planeta de Novela Ladislav Novák Hugues Dufourt Franz Liszt Czech Lord Byron Mary McCarthy Meister Eckhart Mark Helprin Gallerie dell'Accademia Geoff Dyer Venice Giorgione Marie d'Agoult Juan Manuel de Prada The Wake