The Venetian Quattrocento, Vittore Carpaccio

Born Vittore Scarpazza, he was born in Venice, around 1460; he changes the surname of his father, Piero Scarpazza, to Carpaccio.

He is considered one of the best painters of the Italian Quatroccento, and one of the most prominent among the Venetians of the transition between the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.

He develops his own speech, staying out of the currents of the time.

There is little information about his training as a painter or about his early works, it is known that he carried out his apprenticeship in Venice, and has been placed in the Bellini environment although some recent studies indicate that he is a disciple scored by Lazzaro Bastiani.

He opened a prestigious workshop in which his sons Pietro and Benedetto, who are also painters, work.

Most of his recognized work of him dates from between 1490 to 1519.

The first mention we find of him is in the testament of his uncle, Fra Ilario.

He is influenced by Venetian painters, such as Antonello da Messina, Gentile Bellini, some from the Flemish School, Andrea Mantegna and Piero della Francesca.

The fundamental theme of it are laborious representations with a multitude of figures and buildings, all in the surroundings of Venice.

All of them recreate the exquisite world of what was then the Most Serene Republic in the Renaissance.

Some art historians point out that he was able to travel to the East because of the endless details that remind us of that part of the world, but there is nothing that can certify it.

His works are attributed to his early days Salvator Mundi, currently in a collection in Florence, and La Pietá, currently in the Palazo Pitti.

1490-1495 is the table Two Venetian Ladies, today in the Correr Museum in Venice, tables with the upper part missing from the Getty Museum in Los Angeles: Hunting, thus interpreting the work together: the two ladies were waiting for the men who were hunting.

1490-1496, there are nine canvases with representations of the life of Saint Ursula that evoke her story.

1494 painted for the brotherhood of San Juan Evangelista a series with stories of the Cross.

1501-1507, he works in the Doge’s Palace, together with Giovannni Bellini (Giambellino), on the decoration of the Sala del Maggior Consiglio, works that in 1577 were lost in a fire.

For the brotherhood of San Giorgio degli Schiavoni, he made a series of scenes of the three Dalmatian saints: Saint Jerome, Saint Trifone and Saint George.

Here, unlike in the scenes from the life of Saint Ursula, the compositions focus on a single episode with extraordinary meticulous detail, including fantastic themes.

1504-1508 with the help of painters from his workshop, he painted a cycle of six scenes from the life of the Virgin for the Brotherhood of Santa María de los Albaneses:

The Nativity of Mary, today at the Carrara Academy in Bergamo; the «Presentation of Mary in the temple and the Miracle of the flowery rod, in the Pinacoteca de Brera in Milan: the Annunciation, the Visitation and the Death of the Virgin, in the Ca’ d’Oro in Venice.

From 1510 are the tables Lamentations over the Dead Christ, in the Staatliche Museen in Berlin; the Meditation on the Passion of Christ at the Metropolitan Museum in New York.

And from that same year he is the Knight, at the Thyssen Bornemisza Museum in Madrid, considered the first full-length portrait painted in all of Europe; and the Presentation in the temple at the Academy of Venice.

The portraits of him also reach great prestige, crossing the Venetian borders, which leads him to receive commissions from the most important families in Italy.