In the Doge’s Palace, a large retrospective exhibition of paintings and drawings by the master of the Venetian Renaissance, Vittore Carpaccio, whose works can also be seen on sacred buildings in Slovenia, was opened.
Pictures are included in the exhibition Massacre of innocent children and Presentation in the temple from the Church of the Assumption of Mary in Koper.
As announced by the Institute for the Protection of Cultural Heritage of Slovenia (ZVKDS), the two mentioned paintings used to decorate the door of the organ. According to the curators, they are extremely important for the exhibition, as they represent the last known works by Carpaccio, created in 1523. Both were conserved and restored at the ZVKDS Restoration Center.
On the website of the Doge’s Palace, one can read that Carpaccio’s paintings beautifully depict the city at the turn of the 15th century, when Venice controlled a vast maritime and trading empire and flourished as an important cultural center. Carpaccio, with a special sense of the poetic and fantastic, placed the biblical stories he created for different brotherhoods into the reality of the time. The pictures are enriched with many details and modern references to society and the surroundings of the city.
He created altarpieces, organ doors, images of Mary with Jesus, deep meditations on Christ’s suffering, and the like, as well as portraits, painted furniture, and more. Although Carpaccio was rediscovered by art history between the end of the 19th and the first half of the 20th century, he was once again pushed aside in the last half century. This is also evidenced by the fact that since 1963, when an exhibition dedicated to the artist was held in the Doge’s Palace, there has been no independent exhibition of Carpaccio’s works.
Especially after recent discoveries and new attributions, as well as after the restoration of the artist’s main narrative cycles, which are still preserved in Venice, a modern historical and critical reinterpretation of Carpaccio’s painting seemed necessary. The present exhibition is the result of cooperation between the Venice City Museums Foundation and the National Gallery of Art in Washington.
Thematically and chronologically, the exhibition follows the development of Carpaccio’s painting from a new perspective. It also includes the artist’s drawings, which bear witness to Carpaccio’s extraordinary imagination and his interest in perspective, nature and light, according to the Doge’s Palace website.
Carpaccio (1460–c. 1525) was born in Venice. He developed into a painter under the influence of Gentile Bellini and Antonella da Messina. Around 1490, he began to paint a series of motifs from the legend of St. Ursula for the Scuolo di Sanat Orsolo in Venice. At the invitation of the Koper diocese to paint an altar picture, he came to Koper, where he spent the last decade of his life. In addition to the altar painting Mary with Child and Saints for the Koper Cathedral, he also painted the aforementioned organ paintings in Koper. Most of his best works are kept in Venice.
The exhibition in the Doge’s Palace will be on view from Saturday until June 18.
Source: Rtvslo
