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In the early 1510s, Carpaccio began to experiment with other formats, particularly altarpieces and other devotional works on a smaller scale. However, he experienced less success upon the rise of younger artists, such as Titian, Giorgione, and Lorenzo Lotto, whose innovative styles challenged his conservative values. Nonetheless, he designed various altarpieces for Venetian churches, including St. Thomas Aquinas Enthroned (1507), Presentation of Christ in the Temple (1510), and Martyrdom of the Ten Thousand (1515), while he also continued to paint for a more modest community of provincial patrons. |
Between 1511 and 1520 he finished five pictures on the Life of St. Stephen for the Scuola di Santo Stefano. One of those paintings, The Ordination of Saint Stephen (1511), an oil on canvas, is located today in the Gemäldegalerie, Berlin. |
Carpaccio's Saint George and the Dragon (1516), an oil on canvas painting located in the Abbazia di San Giorgio Maggiore, Benedicti Claustra Onlus, (Venice), positions St. George as the dragon-slayer to symbolize the triumph of Christian values over the devil (represented as a dragon). Although uncommon in the iconographic depictions of St. George, St. George Baptizing the Selenites offers a good example of the type of oriental (eastern) subjects that were popular in Venice at the time: great care and attention is given to the foreign costumes, and hats are especially significant in indicating the European construction of the exotic. In The Baptism scene, one of the recent converts has placed his elaborate red-and-white, jewel-tipped turban on the ground in order to receive the sacrament. Fortini Brown argues that this increased interest in exotic eastern subject matter was a result of worsening relations between Venice and the Ottoman Turks: "as it became more of a threat, it also became more of an obsession.": 69 |
In 1516, he painted a Sacra Conversatione painting in the then-Venetian town of Capo d'Istria (now Koper in Slovenia), which is hanging in its Cathedral of the Assumption. Carpaccio created several more works in Capo d'Istria, where he spent the last years of his life and also died. |
Narrative cycles and Altarpieces |
The Legend of Saint Ursula Cycle |
In 1490, Carpaccio began The Legend of Saint Ursula, a series of paintings executed for the Scuola di Sant'Orsola depicting the life of the confraternity's patron saint. The Scuola di Sant'Orsola was a well-established confraternity where many individuals across the social spectrum would come together and engage in civic-oriented work. This cycle has led scholars to describe him as a "master visual storyteller," since the large-scale paintings were installed in large open spaces, like a reception or audience hall, allowing spectators to take in the scenes, similar to animation storyboards. |
The subject of Carpaccio's paintings, which are housed in the Gallerie dell'Accademia, was drawn from the Golden Legend of Jacopo da Varagine. The legend revolves around St. Ursula and her companions in Cologne where tradition relates that in the year 385, a legion of eleven thousand virgins professing their faith to Christ, with Ursula at their head and twenty thousand Christians by their side, would be massacred by the Germans upon their arrival in Cologne after coming from the island of Britain. Carpaccio was greatly inspired by the legend, especially its themes of massacre and chronology that brought the story to life. |
The cycle of paintings expresses a fantastical tone that is reminiscent of Giovanni Bellini and Gentile Bellini. It would take Carpaccio about seven years to complete all nine paintings and over the course of the seven years his artistic style would mature. Carpaccio's use of perspective, depth, and dimension were key points of improvement throughout his series, as observed by various art historians. One of the most notable paintings in The Legend of Saint Ursula series is the Arrival of St. Ursula at Cologne (1490), which recalls the work of Jacopo Bellini in its elemental treatment of light and atmosphere. In the Dream of St. Ursula (1490), Carpaccio paints the story of heavenly love where St. Ursula is visited by an angel in her dream informing her that she will die and become a martyr of Christ. By 1495, in the Departure of St. Ursula, the largest canvas of the series, his treatment of color, geometric perspective, and figural composition would reflect his careful study and mastery over Venetian narrative art form. The piece illustrates a town teeming with people, while simultaneously flaunting splendor by including marbles, expensive fabrics, and architecture inspired by the eastern Mediterranean. |
The Schiavoni and Albanesi Cycles |
In the opening decade of the sixteenth century, Carpaccio embarked on works that scholars have argued made him one of the foremost orientalist painters of his age.: 69 From 1502 to 1507 Carpaccio executed another notable cycle of panels for the Scuola di San Giorgio degli Schiavoni which served one of Venice's immigrant communities (Schiavoni meaning "Slavs" in the Venetian dialect). Unlike the use of a continuous narrative sequence found in the St. Ursula series, wherein the main characters appear multiple times within each canvas, each work in the Schiavoni cycle concentrates on a single episode in the lives of Dalmatia's three patron saints: St. Jerome, St. George and St. Trifon. In the painting, Jerome Leading the Lion into the Monastery (1509), introduces a humorous, intimate mood. These works are thought of as "orientalist" because they offer evidence of a fascination with the Levant: a distinctly Middle Eastern-looking landscape takes an increasing role in the images as the backdrop to the religious scenes. Moreover, several of the scenes deal directly with cross-cultural issues, such as translation and conversion. |
The painting cycle of Life of the Virgin for Scuola degli Albanesi dates to 1504–1508 and was largely executed by Carpaccio's assistants. The images are now divided among the Accademia Carrara of Bergamo, the Pinacoteca di Brera in Milan, and the Ca' d'Oro in Venice. |
Altarpieces |
In 1491, Carpaccio completed the Glory of St. Ursula altarpiece, a large scale detachable wall-painting painted for the hall of one of the Venetian scuole, which were charitable and social confraternities. Three years later he took part in the decoration of the Scuola Grande di San Giovanni Evangelista, painting the Miracle of the Relic of the Cross at the Ponte di Rialto (1496). Other altarpieces that Carpaccio created, like St. Thomas Aquinas Enthroned (1507), Presentation of Christ in the Temple (1510), and Martyrdom of the Ten Thousand (1515), were commissioned by Venice churches. The church-patron of St. Thomas Aquinas Enthroned (1507) remains unknown; however, Presentation of Christ in the Temple (1510) was commissioned by the church of San Giobbe, and Martyrdom of the Ten Thousand (1515) by the church of San Giorgio Maggiore. After 1510, he painted for patrons in his province, sending his altarpieces to patrons in cities across the country. It has been argued that his altarpieces were not his best works, as they appeared unnatural and lacked fluidity when compared to the most influential altarpieces of the time. |
Artistic decline and death (1520s) |
Towards the end of his life, the quality of his art began to decline, specifically following his Schiavoni pieces. The change in quality was remarked upon by the artistic community then and now. By contrast, the Italian Renaissance painter Giorgione made innovations in the field that Carpaccio was simply unable to match. The expectations and artistic demands had changed, resulting in Carpaccio's style seeming outmoded in comparison. He never altered his style to keep up with these new innovations. Carpaccio increasingly turned to the assistance of his sons Pietro and Benedetto, his principal pupils. However, he independently completed his final work, which consisted of decorating organ shutters for the Duomo at Capo d'Istria in 1523. |
Carpaccio's late works were mostly done in the Venetian mainland territories, and in collaboration with his sons Benedetto and Piero. One of his pupils was Marco Marziale. |
He spent his final years in this Slovenian town, where he died between 1525 and 1526. |
Style |
Carpaccio was one of the first artists to include a cartellino into his paintings; he inserted it into select pieces in a way that made it appear as if the artist had left it there without thought. |
In comparison to his mentor Giovanni Bellini, Carpaccio's works are overall less defined. Considered untraditional at the time, Carpaccio painted his altarpieces on canvas rather than on wood panel. In addition, he carried out thin priming, which resulted in a bolder look. |
Carpaccio was observed to have played with the vanishing point in his works. For example, in St. Jerome In His Study, the vanishing point is to the right of the center. While he did still employ the traditional use of having the vanishing point be in the center, at times Carpaccio added a second vanishing point. In The Death of St. Jerome (1502), a second vanishing point was included below the primary one on the body of the saint. The effect was that the primary vanishing point broadcast imagery away from the observer, while the vanishing point below brought the imagery towards the observer. |
Carpaccio paid special attention to architecture, depicting buildings precisely and accurately to ensure that his paintings reflected the new architectural elements in Venice. |
Legacy and influence |
Carpaccio transformed from being a member of a small furrier merchant family to being a prominent artist in Italy, with some scholars comparing his stature to Gentile Bellini. Unlike Bellini, Carpaccio worked mostly in what has been described as a more conservative-style of painting, a contrast to the growing humanist tendencies that were a prominent influence on other painters in Italy during his lifetime. His depiction of Venetian architecture and everyday life has greatly contributed to modern historians' conception of fifteenth-century Venetian culture. Most of Carpaccio's works have been relocated and are now displayed in the Gallerie dell'Accademia in Venice. Only one complete collection of paintings remains intact, which can be found along the walls of the Scuola di San Giorgio degli Schiavoni. |
Later artists produced various works in the aftermath of Carpaccio's death and were inspired by his oeuvre. For instance, Paris Bordone's The Presentation of the Ring (1534), an oil painting, echoed Carpaccio's broad compositions, accurate representation of textiles and fabrics, and representation of a gathering of a confraternity. Carpaccio also influenced the glassware industry of sixteenth-century Murano. For instance, collections of milk-glass tumblers, especially those depicting brides to celebrate engagements, drew heavily from his painting Two Venetian Ladies (c. 1490). |
Critical reception: then and now |
Carpaccio received modest acclaim during his lifetime, only occasionally creating works for the Venetian nobility. While regular employment was scarce, he primarily served a variety of working-class patrons that consisted of sailors, artisans, and tradesmen belonging to the scuole of the Albanesi and Schiavoni. He was also commissioned to create mainland works for Bergamo's parish church of Grumello de' Zanchi and a scuole in Udine. Outside of Venice, he received support from a few distinguished families, such as the della Rovere of Urbino. |
While assessments among historians and scholars vary, many identify Carpaccio as one of the most significant contemporaries of Giovanni Bellini. Despite residing in the shadows of his mentors, he received recognition from contemporary scholars, writers, and critics. In his accounts on perspective, the Italian diplomat and architect, Daniele Barbaro, referenced Carpaccio's works. Similarly, in Giorgio Vasari's 1568 series Le vite de' più eccellenti pittori, scultori e architettori (The Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects), Carpaccio appeared at the forefront of a list of Venetian painters. This decision distinguished his artistic reputation from other painters in northern Italy. |
Interest in Carpaccio resurged in the nineteenth century as English writer and art critic John Ruskin celebrated the Venetian painter's attention to detail. Ruskin likened Carpaccio's works to a "...magic mirror which flashes back instantly whatever it sees beautifully arranged ..." The nineteenth-century Italian painter Pompeo Marino Molmenti held a similarly high view, regarding Carpaccio as "...the most truthful chronicler of a people living in the full meridian of their glory." In the twentieth century, increased recognition of Carpaccio's works culminated in the 1963 retrospective exhibition that took place in the Doge's Palace in Venice. According to several scholars it was this exhibition in Venice that in turn inspired a local chef, Giuseppe Cipriani (founder of Harry's Bar in Venice), to name a dish (thinly sliced raw beef) after the painter and his use of vibrant reds. |
The first ever retrospective of his art outside of Italy, Vittore Carpaccio: Master Storyteller of Renaissance Venice was exhibited at Washington, D.C.'s National Gallery of Art, November 20, 2022 – February 12, 2023, with an accompanying exhibition catalog, Vittore Carpaccio: Paintings and Drawings. A comprehensive publication with the same title as the exhibition was simultaneously released. The exhibition brought together forty-five paintings and thirty drawings made by Carpaccio, including the NGA's Virgin Reading (c. 1505), which had recently undergone conservation work. It is planned for the exhibition to travel to the Palazzo Ducale, Venice, to be on view from March 18 to June 18, 2023. |
Gallery |
Vittore Carpaccio |
References |
Footnotes |
Citations |
Further reading |
Daniele Trucco, "Vittore Carpaccio e l'esasperazione dell'orrido nell'iconografia del Rinascimento", in «Letteratura & Arte», n. 12, 2014, pp. 9–23. |
Pompeo Molmenti, Gustav Ludwig, The Life and Works of Vittorio Carpaccio (London: John Murray, Albemarle Street, W., 1907) |
Humfrey, Peter, ed., Vittore Carpaccio: Master Storyteller of Renaissance Venice. Washington, D.C.: National Gallery of Art, 2022. ISBN 9780300254471. |
External links |
vittorecarpaccio.org (150 works by Vittore Carpaccio) |
Paintings by Vittore Carpaccio |
Web Gallery of Art |
Carpaccio500. Koper Regional Museum. |
Vittore Carpaccio: Master Storyteller of Renaissance Venice, Exhibition at the National Gallery of Art, November 20, 2022 – February 12, 2023. |
"Vittore Carpaccio: Master Storyteller of Renaissance Venice" Apollo, 11 November 2022. |
Willem Claeszoon Heda (December 14, 1593/1594 – c. 1680/1682) was a Dutch Golden Age artist from the city of Haarlem devoted exclusively to the painting of still life. He is known for his innovation of the late breakfast genre of still life painting. |
Early life |
Heda was born in Haarlem, the son of the Haarlem city architect Claes Pietersz. His mother Anna Claesdr was a member of the Heda family. His uncle was the painter Cornelis Claesz Heda. Heda's early life is all but unknown, with no surviving pieces dated to that period. Judging from his date of birth, scholars have speculated that Heda began painting around 1615. |
His earliest known work was a Vanitas which fit the monochromatic and skillful texturing of his later pieces, but portrayed a subject matter distinct from the depictions of more sumptuous objects in his later years. This Vanitas, and the two other breakfast pieces by Heda in the 1620s were known for their clear deviation from earlier breakfast-pieces. The objects in these works demonstrate greater special effect and maintain a sense of balance for the viewer despite the uneven and diagonal grouping of objects. Additionally, these works adopted the monochromatic style contrary to early breakfast-pieces. |
Heda's skill was recognized early on in his career by other notable figures in Haarlem, such as Samuel Ampzing, a Dutch minister and poet from Haarlem, who captured the city in poetry. Heda won enough local fame in his own day for Ampzing to praise him in the same breath with Salomon de Bray and Pieter Claesz in his 1628 Beschryvinge ende lof der stad Haerlem in Holland. "[I] ha[ve] to praise Heda with the banquet pieces of Solomon de bray and Pieter Claesz, their skill deserves to be mentioned in his poem." |
Following his support from Samuel Ampzing, Heda became a member of the Haarlem Guild of St. Luke. |
As evidenced by his signing of a new charter to regularize the affairs of the guild on May 22, 1631, Heda was an active member of the Haarlem Guild of St. Luke. |
Maturity |
Following his formative pieces of the 1620s, Heda reached his artistic maturity in the 1630s with pieces such as his 1631 still-life Breakfast table with blackberry pie and those of the "1639 group" sold to Vienna in the 1930s. These pieces contain perfectly draped fabric and assortments of fine glass and metal wares in addition to orderly-presented foodstuffs. This set of paintings is characterized by a sublime simplicity and order that few artists of his genre ever obtained. His coloration and illustration of light in the pieces, combined with fine additive brush strokes, results in an almost unbelievable level of realism. |
Heda's style continued to progress with his pieces of the 1640s developing a great simplicity founded upon a "firm construction built up on broad lines." In this time, he also began to incorporate the crinkled napkin and knocked-over vases to his set of objects. This new set of objects presented a challenge to the artist to maintain cohesion and order in a clearly disordered environment. Though remnants of his more intimate pieces remained in this period, Heda began to add more objects to his works, experimenting with modified compositional styles. |
The 1650s saw the introduction of a wider color-scheme. This change brought more fruit and curled leaves to his works, which combined with the crinkled napkins of the previous decade, resulted in a less firm character (in contrast to the glass and metal textures that he was previously known for). |
Final years |
Heda's final years saw the artist begin the transition from the late breakfast still-life paintings he helped create, to the pronk, or display, still-life pieces of Willem Kalf in Amsterdam. His last known works were painted in 1664 (Private collection, The Hague) and 1665 (Museum del Monte, Brussels), and contained the warmer pallette of browns associated with Kalf's pieces. |
Though he lived until the 1680s, Heda's last known paintings were created in the 1660s. Heda died in Haarlem in 1680 or 1682. |
Works |
Willem was a contemporary and comrade of Dirck Hals, akin to him in pictorial touch and technical execution. But Heda was more careful and finished than Hals, showing considerable skill and taste in the arrangement and colouring of his chased cups, beakers and tankards of both precious and inferior metals. Heda was also associated with the Haarlem artist and fellow still life painter, Floris van Dyck. In his work, Harlemias, the Dutch poet Theodorus Schrevelius acknowledged exceptional skill at his genre of painting. Heda and his contemporary and fellow still life painter, Floris van Dyck, were "held in high esteem by the community as the best at painting their genre." |
As a painter of "ontbijt" or breakfast pieces, he is often compared to his contemporary Pieter Claesz. |
Popularity |
Willem Claesz Heda's skill was recognized in his own time by Samuel Ampzing, the Haarlem Guild of St. Luke, and Theodorus Schrevelius. Though Heda would clearly not be included in Het schilder-boeck of Karel van Mander, as its 1604 publishing fell before his rise to prominence, it would be expected that he would be included in the work of the next great Dutch art biographer Arnold Houbraken. Houbraken briefly mentioned Heda in the third volume of his work based on the biography by Schrevelius. Houbraken's paltry inclusion of Heda in his Groote Schouburgh was probably due to nothing more than the lack of information about the artist. Houbraken's antiquarian approach to artists' biographies meant that he published all of the information he had on each individual, and had he seen one of Heda's pieces, he would have likely written more. |
Houbraken's scant mention of Heda was reflected in the works of his followers, Johan van Gool and Jacob Campo Weyerman. Neither of these individuals included Heda in their respective books. |
As a result of the decline of Dutch art after the Dutch Golden Age, many countries began to ignore Dutch artworks. Jean-Baptiste Descamps a French artist who briefly studied in Antwerp became the first among modern art writers outside of the Netherlands to acknowledge the nation's artistic importance. Although Descamps' writings included many inaccuracies, he described the Dutch masters, the van Eyck brothers among others, with personal observations that set him apart from many who ignored this genre. Following Descamps, Antoine-Nicolas Dezallier d'Argenville, a French writer and art connoisseur, cemented the shift in attitudes about the Dutch low genres. D'Argenville support for their unique style of genre painting. D'Argenville was in favor of treating all styles equally and believed that the preeminent artists of all fields should be valued for their skill over their subject matter. After attitudes towards genre paintings were changed, and Dutch art was once again in vogue, Willem Claesz Heda returned to prominence in the art world. |
Heda was rediscovered by the French art critic Théophile Thoré in the 1860s. After seeing an example of his work at the Boijmans Museum in Rotterdam, Thoré praised Heda's ability to make "petite nature into a splendid celebration of life." |
Legacy |
Heda died in his native city of Haarlem in 1680 or 1682. Heda's renewed popularity in the latter half of the 19th century resulted in the dissemination of his pieces throughout the world. His works can now be found on display in some of the world's most famous museums: the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam; the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the Louvre, Paris; the National Gallery, London; the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna; the Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg; the Prado Museum and the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, Madrid. |
As one of the most recognized Dutch masters and one of the signature artists of the still life genre, his paintings feature in general surveys of art history as some of the highlights of Dutch seventeenth-century painting. |
His pupils include Maerten Boelema de Stomme, Gerret Willemsz Heda, Hendrik Heerschop, and Arnold van Beresteijn. |
References |
Sources |
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Heda, Willem Claasz". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 13 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 196. |
External links |
Media related to Willem Claesz. Heda at Wikimedia Commons |
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