Donors
In 2019, Save Venice launched a campaign to fund the on-site conservation treatment of nine canvases painted by Vittore Carpaccio (c. 1465–c. 1526) in the Scuola di San Giorgio degli Schiavoni in Venice, as well as a tenth painting, the Madonna and Child Enthroned altarpiece, which has been attributed to Carpaccio or his son Benedetto.
The Board of Directors of Save Venice has dedicated the conservation of Vittore Carpaccio’s masterpieces in the Scuola Dalmata di San Giorgio degli Schiavoni to art historian and Carpaccio expert Professor Patricia Fortini Brown.
Her landmark 1988 book on Venetian narrative painting transformed our understanding of Carpaccio and his contemporaries. She has since made a measurable impact on the field through many publications on Venice, training generations of young scholars, and nearly two decades of service to Save Venice. – Frederick Ilchman, Save Venice Chairman.
Restored in Honor of Patricia Fortini Brown.
MAJOR FUNDING
The Versailles Foundation, Inc.
LEAD SPONSORS
Estate of Charlotte Herrmann
Cultural Vision Fund
Anne H. Fitzpatrick in honor of Patricia Fortini Brown
PRINCIPAL SPONSORS
Mr. & Mrs. James Myers
The Thompson Family Foundation, Inc.
PATRONS
Jennifer Wade
Mary & Howard Frank in honor of Patricia Fortini Brown
Irina Tolstoy, Sarah Blake McHam, and Frederick Ilchman in honor of Patricia Fortini Brown
SUPPORTERS
Christopher Apostle in honor of Patricia Fortini Brown; Carter & Susan Emerson; Mitzi Mariani Rusconi; London Supporters of Save Venice; Martha Fleischman; American Foundation for the Courtauld Institute of Art; Warren Ilchman✝; Alice Pannill; Amy Gross in honor of Patricia Fortini Brown; and Francesca Stanfill & Richard Nye
Interior of the Scuola Dalmata, before conservation.
History
The Scuola Dalmata was founded in 1451 by the so-called Schiavoni, the Dalmatian community residing in Venice. On 19 May, the Consiglio dei Dieci approved the petition issued by “some Schiavoni sailors” to establish a Scuola Piccola dedicated to Saint George and Saint Tryphon, patron saints of, respectively, the Dalmatian cities of Antivari (today Bar) and Cattaro (today Kotor) from which many of the Scuola members had arrived. On 30 May 1451, the confraternity moved into a space formerly occupied by the Ospedale di Santa Caterina in a 14th-century building owned by the Priory of the Order of Saint John of Jerusalem. In 1452 the new Dalmatian Scuola transformed the ground floor into a chapel with an altar dedicated to Saint George and a polychrome ceiling with a central painted wood relief of Saint George and the Dragon (which now graces an altar on the second floor). Three years later, the upper floor was divided into two rooms in which the banca (the governing council of the Scuola) held its meetings and ran the confraternity.
In 1551, the centennial of the Scuola’s foundation, the Guardian Grande Giovanni da Lissa launched a campaign to renovate the building. The construction was supervised by the proto of the Arsenale, Giovanni de Zon. During that period, the sober 14th-century façade was also updated with an elaborate design, articulated with pilasters and decorated with ornamental reliefs, in the manner of Jacopo Sansovino. Pietro da Salò’s marble relief of Saint George and the Dragon was installed in the middle register of the façade. Dating to the period when the Ospedale di Santa Caterina was still active, a relief showing Madonna Enthroned with Saints Catherine, the Baptist, and a Jerusalemite Knight can still be seen today at the apex of the façade. Pietro Da Salò’s relief thus served to bridge the past and present of a building whose history spanned a century. Nowadays, the Scuola façade still welcomes visitors to one of the few Venetian scuole to survive more or less untouched by the spoliations of the Napoleonic era.
Vittore Carpaccio's Scenes from the Life of Saint George, before conservation.
Conservation Campaign
Prior to treatment, the nine paintings were in varying states of conservation. Most notable was their amber tone caused by discolored varnishes and chromatically altered overpainting from a previous restoration in the 1940s, distorting Carpaccio’s more vibrant color palette. Two of the scenes from the life of Saint George were also suffering from the detachment of the pictorial surface layer from their canvas support. Many of the paintings also had areas of lifting and flaking paint, as well as scratches and abrasions.
The conservation treatment led by Valentina Piovan is taking place on-site in the Scuola Dalmata and is addressing each of these issues, beginning with the gradual thinning and removal of the disfiguring non-original surface residues, before any small areas of loss to the pictorial surface are then integrated using removable conservation paints, and then a final layer of protective surface varnish is applied.
Expert art handlers move "The Calling of Saint Matthew" for conservation treatment.
Carpaccio's Narrative Cycle
Carpaccio’s activity in the Scuola probably dates to the period of 1501–1507/12, when he realized a cycle of paintings narrating the stories of the confraternity’s patron saints Jerome, George, and Tryphon. The original placement of the paintings is not known, nor is it clear whether the paintings were hung together in a single room or not. The total number of Carpaccio’s canvases is also uncertain, since a 1557 inventory lists far more paintings than those currently at the Scuola, whereas others in the room today are unexpectedly omitted. The surviving cycle has nine scenes: two paintings showing episodes from the Life of Christ, three from the Life of Saint Jerome, another three depicting Saint George, and one of Saint Tryphon. A tenth painting, the Madonna and Child Enthroned altarpiece, has been attributed to Vittore Carpaccio or his son Benedetto. The narrative cycle is admired by scholars and the public alike since it features some of the most famous masterpieces of Italian Renaissance painting, including Saint George and the Dragon and the Vision of Saint Augustine.
The paintings appear to have been inspired by a number of factors, including the Turkish-Venetian wars, to which the stories of Saint George and Jerome refer. The canvases dedicated to Saint Tryphon and the life of Christ evoke instead the virtues of personal sacrifice and charity generally embraced by all scuole. The unusual variety of themes and saints is best explained by the likely possibility that Carpaccio’s canvases were originally divided into four different micro-cycles that were displayed in two separate rooms on the upper floor of the Scuola. We should not, however, exclude the possibility that the paintings were originally distributed downstairs as well, possibly with the Christological scenes flanking the altar on the ground floor.
"Saint George and the Dragon," after conservation. (Photo: Matteo De Fina)
"Triumph of Saint George," before conservation.
"Saint George Baptizing the Selenites," before conservation.
"Saint Tryphon and the Basilisk," before conservation.
"The Agony in the Garden," before conservation.
"The Calling of Saint Matthew," after conservation (Photo: Matteo De Fina).
"Saint Jerome and the Lion," before conservation.
"The Funeral of Saint Jerome," before conservation.
"The Vision of Saint Augustine," after conservation (Photo: Matteo De Fina).
"Madonna and Child Enthroned," before conservation.
About the Artworks
Vittore Carpaccio (c. 1465 – c. 1526)
Saint George and the Dragon
c. 1501-1502, tempera and oil on canvas
141 x 360 cm
Vittore Carpaccio (c. 1465 – c. 1526)
The Triumph of Saint George
c. 1501-1502, tempera and oil on canvas
141 x 360 cm
Vittore Carpaccio (c. 1465 – c. 1526)
The Baptism of the Selenites
1506-1512, tempera and oil on canvas
141 x 360 cm
Vittore Carpaccio (c. 1465 – c. 1526)
St Tryphon and the Basilisk
1506-1512, tempera and oil on canvas
141 x 300 cm
Vittore Carpaccio (c. 1465 – c. 1526)
The Calling of Matthew
1502, tempera and oil on canvas
141 x 360 cm
Vittore Carpaccio (c. 1465 – c. 1526) [and workshop]
The Agony in the Garden
1502, tempera and oil on canvas
141 x 107 cm
Vittore Carpaccio (c. 1465 – c. 1526)
Saint Jerome and The Lion
1502, tempera and oil on canvas
141 x 211 cm
Vittore Carpaccio (c. 1465 – c. 1526)
The Funeral of Saint Jerome
1502, tempera and oil on canvas
141 x 211 cm
Vittore Carpaccio (c. 1465 – c. 1526)
The Vision of Saint Augustine
c. 1502-1503, tempera and oil on canvas
141 x 211 cm
Vittore Carpaccio (c. 1465 – c. 1526)
Madonna and Child Enthroned with Angels
c. 1501-1502, tempera and oil on canvas
138 x 71 cm
For Further Reading
Brooke, Caroline. Vittore Carpaccio’s Method of Composition in His Drawings for the Scuola di S. Giorgio Teleri. “Master Drawings,” 42 (2004): 302–314
Fortini Brown, Patricia. Venetian Narrative Painting in the Age of Carpaccio. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1988
Gentili, Augusto. Le storie di Carpaccio: Venezia, i Turchi, gli Ebrei. Venice: Marsilio, 1996
Matino, Gabriele. Standing in the Threshold: Carpaccio’s Calling of Saint
Matthew Reconsidered. “Confraternitas,” 32 (2021 [2022]): 55-79
Matino, Gabriele and Patricia Fortini Brown, eds. Carpaccio in Venice: A Guide. Venice: Marsilio, 2020
Perocco, Guido. Carpaccio nella Scuola di S. Giorgio degli Schiavoni. Venice: Ferdinando Ongania Editore, 1964
Piovan, Valentina with Stafania Randazzo and Melissa Conn. Carpaccio’s Original Painting Installation in the Scuola Dalmata: Where
and Why. “Confraternitas,” 32 (2021 [2022]): 6-25
Raby, Julian. Venice, Dürer and the Oriental Mode. London: Islamic Art Publication, 1982