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give at the same time such further particulars as may elucidate Ruskin’s writings on the subject.¹

It was, as we have seen, Burne-Jones who first called Ruskin’s particular attention to the work of Carpaccio at Venice, and it was in 1869 that Ruskin first fell under his sway.² Henceforth, the study of Carpaccio was his main preoccupation at Venice, and his interpretation of this painter was one of the things in which he took particular pride.³

Of Carpaccio’s life little is known. The date of his birth is unknown; his earliest dated work is 1490, and his latest, 1520, but his name occurs in later documents, and he probably died in 1525. He came from an ancient Venetian family, settled in the island of Mazzorbo.

The earliest of the productions attributed to him are a series of eight sketches illustrating Bible stories, executed, according to Ruskin, when he was but eight or ten years old. These are in the Church of San Alvise at Venice, and are described in St. Mark’s Rest, §§ 191-193. The attribution of them to Carpaccio is, however, not accepted by most critics, some attributing them to his master, Lazare Bastiani.

In 1479 the Doge Giovanni Mocenigo commissioned the large votive picture, which is now in the National Gallery (No. 750). It bears Carpaccio’s name and the date, but the authenticity of this inscription has been much questioned, and the picture is often attributed to the same Bastiani. It is not referred to by Ruskin.

The first perfectly authenticated works by Carpaccio are the “St. Ursula” Series now in the Venetian Academy. These were commissioned by the Confraternity of St. Ursula in 1489 to decorate their Scuola of SS. Giovanni e Paolo. Of these confraternities there were three kinds.⁴ Some were founded on a national basis to give mutual aid to compatriots; as, for instance, the School of the Sclavonians. Others were trade guilds; and a third class, to which the Confraternity of St. Ursula belonged, were devotional brotherhoods, banded together under the patronage of some favourite saint. The Guild of St. Ursula was founded in 1300, its school was built a few years later, and its first statutes (Mariegola) are dated 1359. It became rich, and possessed many precious relics, including the head of St. Ursula, and in 1489 it

¹ In addition to the notices of particular pictures, the following passages may be cited for general references to Carpaccio: Harbours of England (Vol. XIII. p. 34), on his boats; Laws of Fésole (Vol. XV. pp. 497-498), “the greatest master of gradation”; Verona, § 25 (Vol. XIX. p. 443), one of the representatives of “the Age of the Masters”; perfect in execution (ibid., § 24, and Vol. XIV. p. 301); one of the great teachers, with Plato, Dante, and others (Fors Clavigera, Letters 18, § 13; 70, § 12; and 71, § 1). For many other incidental references, see General Index.

² Vol. IV. p. 356 n.

³ See Vol. IV. p. 355, and Fors Clavigera, Letter 67, § 12.

⁴ See also Mr. Edward Cheney’s note in Fors Clavigera, Letter 75.

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