Art -- Italy -- Venice; Venice (Italy) -- Description and travel
Carpaccio, it will be quickly seen, disregards certain details of this
version. For example, he makes Ursula's father a King of the Moors,
although there is nothing Moorish about either that monarch, his
daughter, or his city. The first picture, which has the best light in
it, shows the ambassadors from England craving the hand of the princess.
At the back is one of those octagonal buildings so dear to this painter,
also in the city. His affection for dogs, always noticeable, is to be
seen here again, for he has placed three hounds on the quay. A clock
somewhat like that of the Merceria is on the little tower. The English
ship has a red flag. On the right is the King pondering with Ursula over
his reply. In the next picture, No. 573, the ambassadors receive this
reply. In the next the ambassadors depart, with the condition that a
term of three years must first pass. They return to a strangely
unfamiliar England: an England in which Carpaccio himself must have been
living for some time in the role of architect. This--No. 574--is a
delightful and richly mellow scene of activity, and not the least
attractive feature of it is the little fiddling boy on the left.
Carpaccio has so enjoyed the pageantry and detail, even to frescoes on
the house, crowded bridges, and so forth, that his duty as a
story-teller has suffered. In the next picture, No. 575, which is really
two, divided by the flagstaff, we have on the left the departure of the
English prince from an English seaport (of a kind which alas! has
disappeared for ever) to join in his lady-love's pilgrimage to Rome. He
bids his father farewell. Nothing could be more fascinating than the
mountain town and its battlements, and every inch of the picture is
amusing and alive. Crowds of gay people assemble and a ship has run on
the rocks. On the right, the prince meets Ursula, who also has found a
very delectable embarking place. Here are more gay crowds and sumptuous
dresses, of which the King's flowered robe is not the least. Farther
still to the right the young couple kneel before the monarch. I
reproduce this.
The apotheosis of S. Ursula, No. 576, is here interposed, very
inappropriately, for she is not yet dead or a saint, merely a pious
princess.
The story is then resumed--in No. 577--with a scene at Rome, as we know
it to be by the castle of S. Angelo, in which Ursula and her prince are
being blessed by the Pope Cyriacus, while an unending file of virgins
extends into the distance.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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