Vittore Carpaccio: Master Storyteller of Renaissance Venice

Best known for his vast narrative cycle paintings for the Scuola di Sant’Orsola in Venice, Vittore Carpaccio is the subject of this exhibition at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. (20 November–12 February 2023) – the first outside Italy to focus on the artist, who studied with Gentile Bellini before becoming one of the leading lights of the Venetian Renaissance in the late 15th/early 16th century. Above all, the 45 paintings and 30 drawings on display reveal Carpaccio’s great gift for storytelling, with complex narratives unfolding across his compositions. Highlights include the two-sided panel work Fishing and Fowling on the Lagoon (recto); Letter Rack (verso) (c. 1492–94), which would have been used as a decorative window shutter; The Meditation on the Passion (c. 1490), which depicts Christ’s corpse laid across a broken throne in a bleak commentary on life and death; and the delicate painting The Virgin Reading (c. 1505) which has recently undergone conservation work. Find out more on the NGA’s website.

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A Young Knight (1510), Vittore Carpaccio. Photo: © Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid

Fishing and Fowling on the Lagoon (c. 1492–94), Vittore Carpaccio. J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles

Saint George and the Dragon (1516), Vittore Carpaccio. Courtesy Abbazia di San Giorgio Maggiore – Benediciti Claustra onlus

Virgin Reading (c. 1510), Vittore Carpaccio. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.