Vittore Carpaccio, Calling of St. Matthew, dated 1502, Venice
Painter: Vittore Carpaccio (Venice ca. 1455-1525)
Date: dated 1502
Original location: Scuola di San Giorgio degli Schiavoni, Venice
Medium and Size: tempera on canvas
141 x 115 cm
Literature: Web Gallery of Art
Notes: a depiction of almsgiving, as Christ calls Matthew, a tavern keeper and urserer, to give up his wordly goods and follow him. According to the WGA: 'There are also two paintings in the Scuola di San Giorgio degli Schiavoni that are not part of the cycle: the Agony in the Garden and the Calling of Matthew, dated 1502.
The Calling of Matthew is much closer to the last episodes of the St Ursula cycle than Agony in the Garden, especially in the precise construction of the colour planes within a composition that is almost exactly similar to that of Giovan Battista Cima's Miracle of St Mark, a work painted around 1499 and now in the Staatliche Museen in Berlin. The scene is not set in Capharnaum, but on the Venetian mainland, as we can see from the style of the gate and the buildings around the square, where Matthew, responding to the calling of Jesus Christ and the Apostles, abandons his post as tax-collector (the receipts attached to his worktable indicate that that was indeed his job). Notice the typical wooden parasols placed so as to keep the sunlight off the worktop. '
The Carpet Index
Lauren Arnold, last update 12/31/10
laurenarnold@cs.com
Vittore Carpaccio, Calling of St. Matthew, dated 1502, Venice
Painter: Vittore Carpaccio (Venice ca. 1455-1525)
Date: dated 1502
Original location: Scuola di San Giorgio degli Schiavoni, Venice
Medium and Size: tempera on canvas
141 x 115 cm
Literature: Web Gallery of Art
Notes: a depiction of almsgiving, as Christ calls Matthew, a tavern keeper and urserer, to give up his wordly goods and follow him. According to the WGA: 'There are also two paintings in the Scuola di San Giorgio degli Schiavoni that are not part of the cycle: the Agony in the Garden and the Calling of Matthew, dated 1502.
The Calling of Matthew is much closer to the last episodes of the St Ursula cycle than Agony in the Garden, especially in the precise construction of the colour planes within a composition that is almost exactly similar to that of Giovan Battista Cima's Miracle of St Mark, a work painted around 1499 and now in the Staatliche Museen in Berlin. The scene is not set in Capharnaum, but on the Venetian mainland, as we can see from the style of the gate and the buildings around the square, where Matthew, responding to the calling of Jesus Christ and the Apostles, abandons his post as tax-collector (the receipts attached to his worktable indicate that that was indeed his job). Notice the typical wooden parasols placed so as to keep the sunlight off the worktop. '
The Carpet Index
Lauren Arnold, last update 12/31/10
laurenarnold@cs.com