Carpaccio, Vittore

(active c. 1488-1526)

   Carpaccio may have studied with Gentile Bellini in Venice and, like Gentile, he catered mainly to the Venetian scuole (confraternities) and used a journalistic approach. His greatest achievement is the series he created for the meeting hall of the Confraternity of St. Ursula in Venice in c. 1495-1496. The source for these paintings was Jacobus da Voragine's Golden Legend where St. Ursula, daughter of the king of Brittany and betrothed to the pagan prince of Britain, asks her father for a postponement of the wedding to travel to Rome in a pilgrimage and effect her future husband's conversion. Her father agrees and they set out with 10 of her ladies in waiting, each accompanied by 1,000 maidens. On their return from Rome, they are captured by the Huns in Cologne and, when Ursula refuses to marry their king, she and the maidens are martyred. Carpaccio related the story in nine large paintings, now housed in the Galleria dell' Accademia, Venice. He situated the scenes in his own city by including figures in contemporary costumes, canals in the background, and Venetian-styled buildings. In the Departure of the Prince from Britain, His Arrival in Brittany, and Departure of the Betrothed Couple for Rome, the Venetian naval fleet is rendered on the Grand Canal, and the forts of Rhodes and Candia, at the time two of Venice's fortresses, also appear. Carpaccio's other works include the Vision of St. Augustine, part of a series for the Scuola di San Giorgio degli Schiavoni, Venice (1502), the Meditation on the Passion (c. 1510; New York, Metropolitan Museum), the Sermon of St. Stephen (1514; Paris, Louvre) from the series for the Scuola dei Lanieri a Santo Stefano, and the Dead Christ (c. 1520; Berlin, Staatliche Museen). These works are permeated with a stillness characteristic of Carpaccio's style, a brilliant palette, and emphasis on detailed description.