Vittore Carpaccio and the Art of Storytelling

Vittore Carpaccio stands at the head of the younger generation of painters formed under the influence of the Bellini. His gift for narrative painting — rich in detail, vivid in observation, and marked by a charming simplicity — has never been surpassed in Venetian art.

His celebrated cycle for the Guild of St Ursula (1490–1495) remains essential not only for its artistic merit but also as an unrivalled visual record of contemporary Venetian costume and architecture. Smaller in scale, yet equally engaging, are the St George and the Dragon and St Jerome series in the lower hall of S. Giorgio degli Schiavoni, as well as the St George and the Dragon in the Sala del Conclave at the Salute.

Carpaccio’s Presentation at the Temple (1510, Accademia, No. 44) reveals a clear debt to Giovanni Bellini. His later works — including the altar-piece in S. Vitale (1514) and three paintings in the Accademia (Nos. 89–91, 1515) — sadly reveal a decline in creative power.

Little is known of Carpaccio’s life. He travelled in the East, was active in Venice by 1479, and died in 1525.

Lesser Masters of the Bellini Circle

Lazzaro Bastiani

A contemporary of Carpaccio, Lazzaro Bastiani collaborated with Gentile Bellini, Benedetto Diana, and Mansueti on the decoration of the Guild of St John the Evangelist. His Offering of the Relic to the Brotherhood (Accademia, No. 561) is his most notable surviving work.

His oeuvre is small: three paintings in the Accademia, a Pietà in S. Antonino, strongly influenced by Squarcione, and a more pleasing St Donato in Murano. In 1508 Giovanni Bellini entrusted him with the valuation of Giorgione’s frescoes on the Fondaco dei Tedeschi. Bastiani died in 1512.

Mansueti and Benedetto Diana

Mansueti contributed two paintings to the cycle of the Guild of St John, rich in architectural and costume detail, as well as two scenes from the life of St Mark, now in Room XV of the Accademia.

His colleague Benedetto Diana, also influenced by Gentile Bellini and Carpaccio, painted one of the legends of the Holy Cross. His masterpiece, the early Virgin Enthroned (Accademia, No. 82), remains his most secure attribution. Both artists are imperfectly known: Mansueti died in 1530, Diana in 1525.

From the Mainland to Venice: New Voices

Marco Marziale

A follower of Carpaccio, Marco Marziale absorbed the influence of Albrecht Dürer during the latter’s stay in Venice. This is evident in the Supper at Emmaus (Accademia, No. 76), his only surviving work there. He was active in the Ducal Palace in 1492 and still alive in 1507.

Cima da Conegliano

Giovanni Battista Cima, known as Cima da Conegliano, was a pupil of Alvise Vivarini and one of the most lyrical colourists of the Bellini school. His art combines rich colour with a profound love of landscape.

His altar-piece in Madonna dell’Orto, though technically immature, is among the most enchanting works of Venetian art. Mountain backgrounds, dignified saints, and romantic architecture softened by vegetation create a poetry unique to his hand. Mature works appear in S. Giovanni in Bragora and the Carmine, while the Accademia holds seven of his paintings.

Born in 1460, Cima settled in Venice in 1490 and died around 1517. His Virgin and Child with St Michael and St Andrew, now in Parma, was long admired by Leonardo da Vinci.

Followers of Bellini: Strengths and Limits

Marco Basaiti

A pupil of Alvise Vivarini, Marco Basaiti was a competent colourist with a fondness for landscape, but his work lacks refinement and depth of character. His Agony in the Garden (Accademia, No. 69) is his finest work. He was active between 1490 and 1521.

Vincenzo Catena

Vincenzo Catena, another member of Giovanni Bellini’s circle, was a painter of grace and sweetness. His early Martyrdom of St Cristina in S. Maria Mater Domini is particularly charming. Several works by him survive in Venice, though many of his finest paintings were long misattributed to Bellini or Giorgione. He worked between 1495 and 1531.

Andrea Previtali

Andrea Previtali of Bergamo, drawn to Venice by the fame of the Bellini, favoured landscape and classical detail. The Accademia owns two of his works. His Marriage of St Catherine in S. Giobbe, once attributed to Giovanni Bellini, is an early and notable example. He died in 1525.

Pier Francesco Bissolo

The last important painter of the Bellini school, Pier Francesco Bissolo, was a capable and conscientious artist. His finest work, Christ Offering the Crown of Thorns to St Catherine (Accademia, No. 79), was long confused with Bellini’s work. He died in 1554.

Giorgione: The Birth of Venetian Poetry

The appearance of Giorgione (Giorgio Barbarelli) marks a turning point in Venetian painting. In a tragically short life, he lifted the art of Venice to a new realm of poetic mystery and technical perfection, shaping its future course more profoundly than any of his contemporaries.

Authentic works by Giorgione are exceedingly rare. Only the Castelfranco Altarpiece is universally accepted, and even that has suffered from restoration. Attribution remains uncertain and often controversial, as illustrated by the shifting opinions surrounding the Miracle of St Mark (Accademia, No. 516).

More secure is the Gipsy and Soldier in the Giovanelli Palace, a composition unrivalled in originality, grace, and romantic beauty. Of his many frescoes, once adorning Venetian palaces and famously praised by Vasari, only a fragment survives.

Giorgione died in 1510, likely from plague or heartbreak, at little more than thirty years of age. Born around 1478, passionately devoted to music and poetry, his art marked the true birth of romantic painting in Venice — distinct from the purely ecclesiastical tradition and filled with inward emotion and atmospheric beauty.