Carpaccio

The pageantry of Renaissance Venice unfolds in the luminous and meticulous paintings of Vittore Carpaccio (ca. 1455-1525), a fur dealer's son who studied with Giovanni Bellini and became ``the most cultured and intellectual painter of the Venetian fifteenth century,'' in Sgarbi's assessment. This Italian art historian sees Carpaccio as a deeply humanistic metaphysician, more learned and literate than his mentor, and ``always engaged in a programmatic search for the archetype of a gesture.'' This ravishing monograph combines an erudite text with scores of full-page, color reproductions, a mini-essay on each painting, plus a black-and-white illustrated catalogue of the complete works. Beautiful reproductions of the Legend of St. Ursula cycle, as well as famous pictures like Agony in the Garden and Triumph of St. George, often accompanied by generous enlargements, take us inside Carpaccio's visual universe. (Sept.)