Venice pays homage to magical realism and psychological portraits of Carpaccio

The painting 'Two Ladies', by Vittore Carpaccio.Dennis Cecchin

Sitting on a balcony, two noblemen, very bored, wait for their husbands to return from a day of hunting, in the lagoon of Venice. They dress to the latest fashion of the fifteenth century: round neckline with very high waist, tight sleeves and platform shoes. For decades it was thought that the protagonists of Two Ladies, by Vittore Carpaccio (1465–1526, Venice) were two high-level prostitutes or courtesans, waiting for their lovers. "The most beautiful work in the world," according to writer and art critic John Ruskin, sparked one of the most interesting events in the history of Renaissance painting. Together with Hunting in the lagoon they formed a single work, until, at the end of the eighteenth century, someone divided it into two parts in circumstances worthy of a detective novel.

It is possible to admire them together – until June 18 – as Carpaccio had conceived them, in the retrospective Vittore Carpaccio. Paintings and drawings, in the Doge's Palace of Venice, absolute jewel of Gothic architecture. Organized by the Civic Museums Foundation of Venice and the National Gallery of Art of Washington, the exhibition brings together 70 works by the artist, including 42 paintings and 28 drawings by the Renaissance master. Thanks to Carpaccio's sharp description of eyewitness testimony, the exhibition constitutes an extraordinary journey into the daily and sacred life of fifteenth-century Venice, when the city was a grandiose, cosmopolitan cultural center, with streets full of merchants from all over Europe and the Middle East.

'Hunting in the Lagoon' by Vittore Carpaccio (1460-1526). The J. Paul Getty Museum

One of his greatest masterpieces, Two Ladies – barely 94.5 centimeters by 63.5 centimeters – left the artist's workshop around 1492-1494. For many years its whereabouts are unknown, until in 1830 it emerges in the collection of the Venetian nobleman Teodoro Correr, who, after his death, donates his rich heritage to the city of Venice. For its part, Hunting in the lagoon immortalizes fishing and bird prey. There are seven small boats, each with four passengers: nobles and African oarsmen. The lagoon is a blanket of placid water. In the background, the Dolomites and a small island with three huts. The painting, as they say in Italy, has wheels: after the Second World War, the painting appears in the showcase of a Roman antique dealer. Later, it leaves the Bel paese clandestinely, to fall into the hands of a Swiss collector; since 1972 it has been owned by the Getty Museum in Los Angeles.

The riddle is solved between 1991–1992, when both paintings were restored separately. Andrea Bellieni, curator of the exhibition and director of the Correr Museum, summarizes the conclusions of the team involved in the restoration: "Look at this lily. The two scenes are linked by him: the elongated stem coming out of the vase, leaning on the parapet, belongs to the same white, solitary lily that appears in the hunting scene. Moreover, the background of the balcony of Two Ladies is the same as that of the lagoon."

It remains to be resolved why the head of the hunting dog, at the feet of the eldest woman of Two Ladies, has been violently decapitated. Recent studies, continues Bellieni, indicate that both paintings were part of a folding door that led to an intimate space; But there are no clues of the two remaining pieces that composed it. Beyond the bizarre story, Bellieni highlights Carpaccio's ability to create the psychological state that afflicts both young and older females. "He captures with great sensitivity and extraordinary imagination the mysterious gaze of both women, that indefinite and indecipherable direction of their eyes, between loneliness and boredom. It is of a shocking modernity."

The reconstruction of 'Two ladies' together with the 'Hunting in the lagoon' by Vittore Carpaccio.Milena Fernández

Great storyteller

This work is just one of the countless examples of Carpaccio's narrative ability, a reliable testimony of the history and customs of the Venetian of his time. The artist, like many Venetians of his time, was an assiduous reader of omnipresent travel chronicles in a merchant city. The eye of the locals, like that of the creator, had become accustomed to distinguishing materials, colors and even the quality of habits, social conditions, gestures, as well as the expressions of rich and poor. And architecture, of course.

So the keen spirit of observation of the author of narrative sets such as the Cycle of the Life of Saint Ursula translates into a magical realism, full of anecdotes, convincing us that his sacred stories, set in Venice occurred as he imagined them. "Carpaccio is a painter-scenographer that we all feel close. It has no filters. It squeezes feelings, with absolute simplicity. Giovanni Bellini, his teacher, is very deep, but apathetic; we feel his Madonnas far away," Bellieni says. The curator stops in front of one of the most beautiful Madonnas in the history of art, exhibited here: Madonna with Child and St. John, preserved in the Stadel Museum in Frankfurt. It is the closest thing to an intimate scene of a mother and her son in a domestic environment of a wealthy Venetian family. The Child does not appear naked, as tradition suggests, rather wearing a tunic, flirtatious red shoes, a cap, a necklace and a coral bracelet, while holding a tiny book in his hands. For many years it was thought that the painting was fake, until in 2003, a restoration brought to light the signature of the author, which in itself always transmits a message: write his name, as if to underline its legitimacy, and not his assistants. Signature in Latin, as "Victorius Carpathius, Venetia, Opus" (work of Vittore Carpaccio of Venice). His surname was translated to Carpaccio after his death.

The painting 'Madonna with Child and St. John' by Vittore CarpaccioVittore Carpaccio

In a Venice in which artists of the stature of Tiziano Vecellio or Jacopo Tintoretto made their way, Carpaccio's painting, little by little, was losing interest. Therefore, he was not the center of an anthology in his hometown since 1963. Gabriella Belli, promoter of the exhibition and former director of the Civic Museums Foundation of Venice, should be asked, why have six decades passed to honor such an important painter? "Carpaccio's detailed visual style eventually ceased to be the epicenter of international criticism. A modernist line has triumphed, the painting of movement, of energy, two characteristics that are very familiar to contemporary art," he says. However, he continues, the time has come to read his painting with different eyes: "Carpaccio's simplicity, his scenes with few lights and shadows, without depth of field, create psychological situations, suspended in space and time. His paintings are full of metaphysical meanings. He is certainly a very modern artist. On the other hand, it was necessary to reread the evolution of his work from the historical-critical point of view".

The man who best told the life of Venice in the fifteenth century, son of a merchant of furs and leather, died with barely 60 years. His two sons continued to copy their father's works, but without much fortune.

Subscribe to continue reading

Read without limits

Read more

I'm already a subscriber