Vittore Carpaccio – Venice 1460ca, Koper 1526

Carpaccio Vittore was one of the protagonists as canvases painting in Venice between the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Nothing certain is known about his scholarship, perhaps accomplished in Venice in Gentile Bellini’s workshop. The first dated work by Vittore Carpaccio is the “Arrival of the Pilgrims at Cologne“, of 1490. This painting is part of the cycle of Saint Ursula’s life for the homonymous school in Venice. Composed of nine paintings, it was completed only eight years later (today at the Gallerie dell’Accademia).

Carpaccio in Venice

In 1494 Carpaccio worked with Gentile Bellini in the cycle of the Miracles of the Holy Cross to the Scuola Grande di San Giovanni Evangelista in Venice, which narrate the miracles performed in the town by the relic of the Cross. He realized “The Miracle of the Relic of the Cross at the Ponte di Rialto” today located at the Gallerie dell’Accademia. As an established painter among the Venetian artists, between 1502 and 1508 he executed another notable series of panels for the Scuola di San Giorgio degli Schiavoni. About the same period, he also took care of the cycle of Life of the Virgin for the Scuola degli Albanesi (now dispersed among various museums), largely executed by assistants of his workshop.

Altarpieces

Contemporary of Titian and Giorgione, in the last years the painter performs a series of altarpieces. The works are mainly designed for the Venetian hinterland, among which we mention the “St Thomas in Glory between St Mark and St Louis of Toulouse” (1507, Stuttgart, Staatsgalerie) and the “Presentation in the Temple” (1510, Venice, Gallerie dell’Accademia). As a portraitist, the “Portrait of a Knight” from the Thyssen Collection (Madrid) with a complex symbology remains as an example.

Some of Carpaccio’s works