VITTORE CARPACCIO. Paintings and drawings

Organized by: Fondazione Musei Civici di Venezia

In collaboration with: National Gallery of Art Washington

Curated by: Peter Humfrey with Andrea Bellieni and Gretchen Hirschauer

The paintings of Vittore Carpaccio (c. 1460/66 – c. 1525/26) splendidly celebrate Venice at the turn of the 15th century, when the Serenissima ruled a vast maritime and commercial empire and flourished as a major centre of culture. In fact, Carpaccio, a stage director and set designer with a particular flair for the poetic and fantastic, transported into real life the narrative cycles of the biblical and religious stories he created for various confraternities, designing fantastic scenarios enriched with endless details, together with contemporary references to the society and surroundings of his extraordinary city.

Perhaps even more than the work of other Venetian Renaissance artists, Carpaccio’s art replenishes us with the very essence of ‘Venetian-ness’, namely the pageantry and mythology of the Serenissima Republic at its economic and cultural peak.
Carpaccio was an inventive painter of religious subjects for public and private use (altar paintings, organ doors, Madonna and Child images, profound meditations on the Passion of Christ, etc.) but he also created works for institutional and domestic civic life (portraits, painted furniture and unusual furnishings, such as the folding door with the famous panel of the Due dame in the Correr Museum, which is on show, temporarily reunited with the Caccia in valle scene placed above, which completed it).
Although Carpaccio’s work was rediscovered and appreciated by art historians between the end of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century, during the last half-century it has been somewhat neglected by historiography, especially its place in the critical reconstruction of stylistic developments from Giovanni Bellini to Giorgione and Titian. This is confirmed by the fact that no solo exhibition of Carpaccio’s work has been held since 1963, the year of his historic exhibition at the Doge’s Palace.

Today, at last – especially following not only recent discoveries and new attributions, but also extraordinarily revealing restorations of the major narrative cycles still preserved in Venice – an up-to-date historical and critical reinterpretation of Carpaccio’s painting and its evolution is considered necessary. With these essential objectives in mind, the tried and tested collaboration between the Fondazione Musei Civici di Venezia and the National Gallery of Art Washington, under the direction of Peter Humfrey, an acknowledged scholar specialised in the painter and his context, has led to the creation of an exhibition in both Washington and Venice, based on a systematic selection of the artist’s best works.

The intention is to trace thematically and chronologically the rigorous development of Carpaccio’s painting from an updated perspective. In doing so, the exhibition also takes advantage of the existence of a substantial group of Carpaccio’s drawings, which represent the largest surviving corpus of early Renaissance drawing studies. They reveal Carpaccio’s unique imagination, the rigour of his technique, together with his interests in perspective, nature and light.

Paintings and drawings loaned from major museums and private collections in Europe and the United States, as well as ones from churches in Venice and the former territories of the Serenissima, conserved there since their creation, mean that slightly differentiated selections, organised in specific thematic groupings appear in each of the two venues.
Unlike the exhibition in Washington – the first dedicated to Carpaccio in the United States – the one in Venice will refer to the essential chapter of the great narrative cycles (St. Ursula in the Gallerie dell’Accademia, commissioned by the Scuola Dalmata dei Santi Giorgio e Trifone) and will attempt the temporary reconstruction of ones dispersed (the Stories of the Virgin, commissioned by the Scuola degli Albanesi). The Venetian exhibition focuses on a reconstruction of the painter’s artistic and creative journey from the earliest works of his youth to his finest mature works. Lastly, the exhibition will also attempt to evaluate more accurately the hitherto severely judged final period of his activity, which coincided with the emergence of the innovative tonal painting of Giorgione and Titian and their new aesthetic.

#Carpaccio2023

MUVE Education activities for the exhibition

On the occasion of the Vittore Carpaccio. Paintings and drawings exhibition hosted in the Doge’s Apartments in the Doge’s Palace from 18 March 2023, MUVE Education has planned a series of activities aimed at adults, schools and families. As is customary, these are proposals with different levels of in-depth study, methods and approaches, and are also created in relation to the different audiences and themes dealt with from time to time. The various proposals include a visit to the exhibition alone or a combined itinerary with the Doge’s Palace.

For adults

Guided tours

1. Guided tour of the exhibition
On the occasion of the exhibition on Vittore Carpaccio at the Doge’s Palace, organised in collaboration with the National Gallery of Art in Washington, a guided tour documents the artistic evolution and skilful painting technique of one of the greatest protagonists of Venetian painting, enabling visitors to immerse themselves in the grandeur and splendour of Renaissance Venice at the dawn of its Golden Age. Approximately forty paintings and a nucleus of drawings by the artist are on display, who is renowned above all for the narrative cycles produced for Venetian confraternities, such as those of Sant’Orsola, now in the Gallerie dell’Accademia, or those for the Scuola di San Giorgio degli Schiavoni. The exhibition gives an account of his extraordinary imaginative, narrative and descriptive capacity and includes a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity: the possibility of admiring two masterpieces that are exceptionally reunited here. These are the Fishing and fowling on the lagoon from the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles and the Two Venetian ladies from the Museo Correr and they were originally a single work, painted as a panel for a door. The exhibition also presents other works that have returned to the city where they were made for the first time in centuries.
Duration: 1h 30min
Languages: Italian, English, French

2. Guided tour museum (Doge’s Palace) + exhibition
This tour complements the visit to the Doge’s Palace with a focus on the Vittore Carpaccio. Paintings and Drawings exhibition in the Doge’s Apartments. The tour carries visitors into the pulsating ‘heart’ of the history and political life of the Serenissima, discovering the settings, architecture and symbols that recur in many of the paintings by the Venetian artist, who, for the Doge’s Palace, created a narrative cycle in 1507 that was later destroyed by a fire that affected parts of the palace in 1577.
Reduced admission thanks to the special 2 euro fee for the exhibition ticket reserved for those who purchase the museum ticket.
Duration: 2h 30min
Languages: Italian, English, French

For families

Guided tours

Carpaccio the ‘storyteller’
An entertaining and interactive visit to the exhibition dedicated to Vittore Carpaccio at the Doge’s Palace, giving an account of the artistic production of the artist who, thanks to the particular narrative style of his painting, was particularly well-adapted to depicting ‘stories’ with episodes dotted with fantastic elements, but also with details of everyday life. Carpaccio was indeed a true ‘storyteller’. The tour is accompanied by an activity book that offers games, clues to follow up, stories and insights, to provide insights into the artist’s work and his time.
For families with children aged 10 to 14
Duration: 1h 30min
Languages: Italian, English

For schools

SCHOOLS AT THE MUSEUM

Vittore Carpaccio. Paintings and drawings
Guided tours of the exhibition

1. The exhibition
On the occasion of the exhibition on Vittore Carpaccio at the Doge’s Palace, organised in collaboration with the National Gallery of Art in Washington, a guided tour aimed at secondary schools documents the artistic evolution and skilful painting technique of one of the greatest protagonists of Venetian painting, enabling visitors to immerse themselves in the grandeur and splendour of Renaissance Venice at the dawn of its Golden Age. Approximately forty paintings and a nucleus of drawings by the artist are on display, who is renowned above all for the narrative cycles produced for Venetian confraternities, such as those of Sant’Orsola, now in the Gallerie dell’Accademia, or those for the Scuola di San Giorgio degli Schiavoni. The exhibition gives an account of his extraordinary imaginative, narrative and descriptive capacity and includes a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity: the possibility of admiring two masterpieces that are exceptionally reunited here. These are the Fishing and fowling on the lagoon from the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles and the Two Venetian ladies from the Museo Correr and they were originally a single work, painted as a panel for a door. The exhibition also presents other works that have returned to the city where they were made for the first time in centuries.
Target: secondary schools, universities
Duration: 2h
Languages: Italian, English, French

2. Carpaccio the ‘storyteller’
Guided tour of the exhibition
Carpaccio, a Venetian artist who lived at the turn of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, is renowned above all as a great painter of ‘stories’, so much so that he could be defined as a true ‘storyteller’. The major exhibition at the Doge’s Palace, organised in collaboration with the National Gallery of Art in Washington, is dedicated to the artist, and illustrates his extraordinary imaginative, narrative and descriptive skills. Through the paintings and drawings on display, this guided tour aimed at schools intends to focus on some important aspects of his art with which portray the unforgettable image of a Venice at the height of its Renaissance splendour: packed with figures, cities, animals, plants, clothes, objects, as well as symbolic and fantastic elements. The activity is accompanied by an activity book with games, clues to resolve, stories, insights and hints for a full understanding of the artist’s work and his time.
Target: Class V of primary schools and first-grade secondary schools
Duration: 2h
Languages: Italian, English

3. Guided tour of the museum (Doge’s Palace) + exhibition
This tour complements the visit to the Doge’s Palace with a focus on the ‘Vittore Carpaccio. Paintings and Drawings’ exhibition in the Doge’s Apartments. The tour carries visitors into the pulsating ‘heart’ of the history and political life of the Serenissima, discovering the settings, architecture and symbols that recur in many of the paintings by the Venetian artist, who, for the Doge’s Palace, created a narrative cycle in 1507 that was later destroyed by a fire that affected parts of the palace in 1577.
Reduced admission thanks to the special 2 euro fee for the exhibition ticket reserved for those who purchase the museum ticket.
Target: Class V of primary schools and first and second-grade secondary schools, universities
Duration: 2h 30min
Languages: Italian, English, French

Other activities to learn more

In the last room of the exhibition (room 12), a multimedia station offers all visitors to the show an extraordinary, totally immersive 3D experience of the painting Fishing and fowling on the lagoon, the true ‘icon’ of the event. The masterpiece, on loan from the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, has been exceptionally reunited for the occasion with the Two Venetian ladies of the Museo Correr (the works were originally conceived as a single work, one of two panels for a door), also present in the exhibition. The interactive tour leads to the discovery of a work that, perhaps for the first time, depicts an old lagoon setting as it was at the end of the fifteenth century, and a traditional hunting activity, carried out with a bow and ball-tipped arrows. The activity will enable us to consider some aspects of the work that are as yet unpublished or little known, ranging from the purely artistic to the naturalistic and ethnographic: what birds are shown? How did one go about hunting with a bow and which species were targeted? What boats were used?
These and other questions will be explored with the help of a modern and spectacular digital tool.
Target: adults, schools of all levels, families

Choose and book

How to participate

Educational activities can be booked online

Costs

For adults
Guided tours
Carpaccio exhibition only: 100 euros up to 25 participants max
Combined Doge’s Palace + Carpaccio exhibition: 120 euros up to 25 participants max

Terms of admission
The group must purchase the exhibition entrance ticket + 1 euro per ticket for pre-sale rights via the Call Centre 848082000 (active every day from 9.00 to 13.00), indicating the booking code.
The integral Doge’s Palace + Carpaccio exhibition ticket includes the purchase of the Doge’s Palace at a reduced price + the exhibition entrance ticket for 2 euros.
Whisper service compulsory for groups of over 10 participants to be purchased separately, at the ticket office or through the call centre, at a cost of 1 euro per person (the service is free of charge for a maximum of 2 accompanying teachers and/or for any certified persons accompanying disabled visitors).

For schools
Active itineraries
Exhibition alone: 80 euros per class up to 25 pupils
Doge’s Palace + Carpaccio exhibition: 100 euros per class up to 25 pupils

Terms of admission
The school must purchase the exhibition entrance ticket at the reduced ’schools’ rate of 5 + 1 euro per ticket for pre-sale rights via the Call Centre 848082000 (active every day from 9.00 to 13.00), indicating the booking code.
Free admission for two teachers and certified persons accompanying disabled visitors.
Whisper service compulsory for groups of over 10 participants to be purchased separately, at the ticket office or through the call centre, at a cost of 1 euro per person (the service is free of charge for a maximum of 2 accompanying teachers and/or for any certified persons accompanying disabled visitors).

For families
80 euro for family groups of up to 10 people (of which min 1 and max 4 adults), including admission to the exhibition, but excluding admission to the Doge’s Palace.