The poem ‚Portrait of the Renaissance‘, published from Rilke’s estate, has so far received little attention. Its enigmatic imagery creates resistance for every interpretation. But the resistance dissolves when one brings the poem in connection with Giorgione’s ‚Giuditta‘, which Rilke has seen during a visit to the collections of Saint Petersburg. The elucidation of these connections does not only throw a new light on Rilke’s poetry around 1900, but also on art-historical disputes about the attribution of the image, which is one of the highlights of the Hermitage today.