Art -- Italy -- Venice; Venice (Italy) -- Description and travel
In the next picture, reproduced opposite page 120, Ursula, in her nice
great bed, in what is perhaps the best-known bedroom in the world,
dreams of her martyrdom and sees an angel bringing her the rewards of
fortitude. The picture has pretty thoughts but poor colour. Where the
room is meant to be, I am not sure; but it is a very charming one. Note
her little library of big books, her writing desk and hour-glass, her
pen and ink. Carpaccio of course gives her a dog. Her slippers are
beside the bed and her little feet make a tiny hillock in the
bedclothes: Carpaccio was the man to think of that! The windows are
open and she has no mosquito net. Her princess's crown is at the foot of
the bed, or is it perchance her crown of glory?
We next see the shipload of bishops and virgins arriving at Cologne.
There are fewer Carpaccio touches here, but he has characteristically
put a mischievous youth at the end of a boom. There is also a dog on the
landing-stage and a bird in the tree. A comely tower is behind with
flags bearing three crowns. The next picture shows us, on the left, the
horrid massacre of all these nice young women by a brutal German
soldiery. Ursula herself is being shot by Julian, who is not more than
six feet distant; but she meets her fate with a composure as perfect as
if instead of the impending arrow it was a benediction. On the right is
her bier, under a very pretty canopy. Wild flowers spring from the
earth.
Now should come the apotheosis.
Carpaccio was not exactly a great painter, but he was human and
ingratiating beyond any other that Venice can show, and his pictures
here and at S. Giorgio degli Schiavoni make the city a sweeter and more
lovable place, Vasari is very brief with Vittore Scarpaccia, as he calls
him, and there are few known facts. Research has placed his birth at
Capo d'Istria about 1450. His earliest picture is dated 1490: his last
1521 or 1522. Gentile Bellini was his master.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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