(Venice 1450–1522) and (Venice 1490–1572 Istria)
The Madonna and Child with Saint John the Baptist and Saint Jerome,
oil on panel, 53 x 76.5 cm, framed

Provenance:
Aprosio collection, Montecarlo;
sale, Christie’s, London, 30 November 1973, lot 6 (as Vittore Carpaccio);
Private collection, Switzerland

Literature:
G. Fiocco (ed.), Carpaccio, Novara 1958, p. 32, no. 9, fig. 13b (as Vittore Carpaccio);
P. Zampetti (ed.), Vittore Carpaccio, exhibition catalogue, Venice 1963, p. 281, no. 65, fig. 65 (as ‘doubtfully Vittore Carpaccio’);
M. Muraro, Carpaccio, Florence 1966, p. 92 (as ‘Attributed to Vittore’);
G. Perocco (ed.), L’opera completa del Carpaccio, Milan 1967, p. 116, no. 129 (under ‘Ulteriori attribuzioni al Carpaccio’);
G. Fossaluzza (ed.), Vittore Carpaccio a Pozzale di Cadore. 1519. Le ultime opere per Venezia, Istria e Cadore, Treviso 2012, pp. 183, 185, fig. 99, p. 230, note 110 (as Vittore Carpaccio and workshop [Benedetto])

The present painting is registered in the Fototeca Zeri under no. 24382 (as Benedetto Carpaccio).

This painting represents the Madonna and Child with Saint John the Baptist and Saint Jerome; the figures occupying the foreground are shown half-length. The ‘tendaletto d’omore’ or cloth of honour hangs behind the Madonna, while to each side are narrow openings onto the landscape depicting an expanse of water, possibly the Venetian lagoon.

The work is included among those by Vittore Carpaccio completed with the assistance of his son Benedetto. This collaborative practice evolved from around 1515 and based on its style and composition, this panel is datable to around this time. It can be compared to other paintings made by the two painters working together in this period, including the Madonna and Child with Saints Catherine of Alexandria and George, formerly in the Mullaly collection (see G. Fossaluzza, Vittore Carpaccio a Pozzale di Cadore. 1519. Le ultime opere per Venezia, Istria e Cadore, Treviso 2012, p.167, 183, fig. 74) in which the perspective is similar, as are the poses of the figures, while the profile of Saint Catherine, with her down-turned gaze is seemingly redeployed by the painter for the features of the Madonna in the present painting. This work, which was begun by Vittore and completed by Benedetto, reveals a formalism in its technical execution, emphasising the volume of the figures and a controlled rendering of light with a bright, compact and polished application of the media. These qualities are also evident in another work executed in collaboration by father and son formerly in the Nicholson collection, London (see Fossaluzza, op. cit., 2012, pp. 182, 185, fig. 98).

Vittore Carpaccio’s first signed painting dates to 1490 and is executed on canvas, depicting the Arrival in Cologne from the cycle of The Legend of Saint Ursula, today conserved in the Gallerie dell’Accademia, Venice (inv. no. 578). Although Carpaccio was considered to be a talented portraitist and known for his magnificent altarpieces in many churches, he is best remembered for his narrative cycles commissioned to decorate the gathering halls of the ‘Scuole’, the various charitable lay confraternities dedicated to individual saints, such as his above-mentioned canvases for the Scuola di Sant’Orsola.

Vittore had two sons, Benedetto and Piero; Benedetto is the better known of the two and he began his career as a painter working as his father’s assistant. Later in life he moved to Capodistria, now Slovenia, where he worked for numerous churches in the city, and where a Madonna enthroned with Saint Nicholas and John the Baptist remains in the Cathedral of the Assumption and Saint Nazario. His works can also be found at Piran and Trieste (see Fossaluzza, op. cit., 2012, pp. 189–199).