"Presentation," the priest and maiden, are excellent. A child at the
side of the steps, leading a unicorn, emblem of chastity, shows once
more what a hold this use of a figure had taken of him. In the
"Visitation" the figures are too much scattered, and the fantastic
buildings attract more attention than the women. He still produced
altarpieces, and the Presentation of the Infant Christ in the Temple,
which he was called upon to paint for San Giobbe, where one of Bellini's
most famous altarpieces stood, challenged him to put forth all his
strength. He never produced anything more simple and noble or more
worthy of the cinque-cento than this altarpiece (now in the Academy). It
surpasses Bellini's arrangement in the way in which the personages are
raised upon a step, while the dome overhead and the angel musicians
below give them height and dignity. The contrast between the infant and
the youthful woman and the old men is purposely marked. Such a contrast
between youth and age is a very favourite one. Bellini, in the same
church, draws it between SS. Sebastian and Job, and Alvise Vivarini, in
his last painting, balances a very youthful Sebastian with St. Jerome.
This is the most grandiose, the least of a _genre_ picture of all
Carpaccio's creations, although he does make Simeon into a pontiff with
attendant cardinals bearing his train. One of his last works is the S.
Vitale over the high altar of the church of that name, where we forgive
the wooden appearance of the horse which the saint rides for the sake of
the simple dignity of the rider and the airy effect given by the balcony
overhead. Nor must we forget that study of the "Two Courtesans" in the
Museo Civico, full of the sarcasm of a deep realism. It conveys to us
the matter-of-fact monotony of the long, hot days, and the women and the
animals with which they are beguiling their idle hours are painted with
the greatest intelligence. It carries us back to another phase of life
in Carpaccio's Venice, seen through his observant, humorous eyes, and if
there is nothing in his colour distinctive of the impending Venetian
richness, it is still arresting in its brilliant limpidity; it seems
drawn straight from the transparent canals and radiant lagoons.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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