VITTORE CARPACCIO
CIRCA 1460/65-1525/26
10 Bishop Holding a Candle
r
Draped Legs
v
Brush and brown wash, white gouache heightening, and
black chalk on faded blue paper; H: 20.2 cm (yI5/i6 in.);
W: 11.1 cm (4^3 /sin.)
88.GG.8 9
MARKS AND INSCRIPTIONS: (Recto) on former mount,
inscribed S. V. N°:2() in brown ink; (verso) on mount,
inscribed S. V. N°:ij, Di mano di Gio. Bellino in brown
ink.
PROVENANCE: Sagredo collection(?), Venice; de Bois-
sieu collection, Lyons; sale, Hotel Drouot, Paris, May 23,
1986, lot 189; art market, Boston.
EXHIBITIONS: None.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: None.THE RECTO OF THIS SHEET WAS MADE AS A PREPARA-
tory study for the bishop holding a candle and ascending
the stairs in Carpaccio's painting of the martyrdom of
Saint Ursula, executed in 1493 for the Scuola di
Sant'Orsola, Venice (Venice, Accademia). The principal
changes from drawing to painting are that in the former
the bishop looks outward, whereas in the painting he
faces forward. The powerful rendering of drapery folds
reflects the precedent of Giovanni Bellini.
By contrast the verso is a fragmentary study related
to a much later picture. It is preparatory to the drapery
of the angel seated at the lower right in the Presentation in
the Temple, dated 1510 (Venice, Accademia), and may
have been drawn in relation to another lost or unexecuted
painting by Carpaccio, thereby accounting for the dis-
crepancy in date between the sheet's two sides. We know
from other instances that Carpaccio reused drawings,
sometimes at much later moments. An example is the
double-sided sheet in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford
(formerly Gathorne-Hardy collection), with studies of
female heads used for figures in the Glory of Saint Ursula
of 1491 (Accademia) and then in the abovementioned
Presentation in the Temple.38 ITALIAN SCHOOL - CARPACCIO