The Carpaccio Exhibition in Venice is Closing Soon, But the Artist’s Legacy Isn’t Going Anywhere

Fri, 06/09/2023 - 09:26

Vittore Carpaccio: Birth of the Virgin, ca. 1502/1503, oil on canvas, 128,5 × 127,5 cm. Bergamo, Accademia Carrara

Vittore Carpaccio: Birth of the Virgin, ca. 1502/1503, oil on canvas, 128,5 × 127,5 cm. Bergamo, Accademia Carrara

Of all the thousands of great paintings in Venice, the favorite of my grandchildren is Vittore Carpaccio’s Saint George and the Dragon in the Scuola San Giorgio degli Schiavoni. One of a series of three depicting the life of Saint George, it’s extremely gory, with half-chewed remains of bodies strewn around the ground.

A similar but rather less repellent work, Saint George and the Dragon and Four Scenes of His Martyrdom, from Venice’s Abbazia di San Giorgio Maggiore, can

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