According to tradition, Carpaccio was a pupil of Gentile Bellini; later he was thought to have been a disciple of Lazzaro Bastiani, but recently the earlier tradition has been revived. Although his dated works begin only with 1490, other works have been identified as certainly earlier by stylistic characteristics. The polyptych in the cathedral of Zara, signed “Victoria Carpati veneti opus,” can be dated to 1480.
The Legend of St Ursula, based on the Golden Legend of Jacopo da Varagine, ranks among his most admired works. These paintings are preserved in the Accademia Gallery in Venice. The Arrival of St Ursula in Cologne belongs to 1490, the Dream of St Ursula and the Farewell of the Betrothed to their Relatives to 1495. The most celebrated of these paintings is the Dream of St Ursula, in which the delightful figure of the angel advancing in an almost incorporeal manner seems to skim the floor; striking is the contrast between the vast space flooded with clear light, the towering canopy over the bed, and the tiny figure of St Ursula lost in her calm virginal sleep.
To the same period as the Legend of St Ursula belongs the Miracle of the Cross (Venice, Accademia Gallery), dated to 1494, in which Carpaccio surpasses Gentile Bellini in the vividness of the architecture, the animation of the figures, and the use of sparkling, varied light effects. From 1502 are the Calling of St Matthew in S. Giorgio degli Schiavoni, a painting rich in contrasts of light and shadow, and the Death of St Jerome (there), which presents one of Carpaccio’s most picturesque views. Also in the same church is the famous canvas of St George Slaying the Dragon, where the cruel depiction of half-gnawed bodies forms the backdrop to an enchanting fairy-tale landscape.
In 1501 Carpaccio was paid for a painting in the Sala dei Pregadi; in 1507 he was associated with Giambellino in the works for the Sala del Maggior Consiglio. Meanwhile, beginning in 1504, dates the cycle of paintings depicting the Stories of the Virgin for the Scuola degli Albanesi in Venice, now divided between the Accademia in Bergamo, Brera, the Ca’ d’Oro, and the Louvre. The Presentation in the Temple, from S. Giobbe, now in the Accademia in Venice, dates to 1510 and shows Giorgionesque influences. In 1511 Carpaccio presented Francesco Gonzaga with a view of Jerusalem.
Other works include: The Virgin, St Vitalis and Other Saints in S. Vitale in Venice (1514); The Ten Thousand Martyrs of Ararat (Venice, Galleries, 1515), studied by Tintoretto; the Madonna Enthroned in the cathedral of Capodistria (1516); and the altarpiece in S. Francesco in Pirano (1518).
Carpaccio derived his earliest forms from Gentile Bellini, but soon abandoned them to give his style freer and more grandiose movement; his latest works are cinquecento in spirit as well. In the evolution of Venetian painting, Carpaccio, together with Giambellino, helped to create, through the new use of light, that sense of tonal harmony which underpins the entire art of Giorgione and Titian. V. Tav. LIII.