Heritage Malta has loaned Vittore Carpaccio’s study ‘Standing Male Figure’ for an exhibition being held first in Washington, DC and then in Venice, Italy.

The drawing, in chalk and charcoal on paper, dates to the late 1490s and forms part of the national collection at MUŻA.

Vittore Carpaccio (c. 1460/1466 – 1525/1526) was a leading figure in the Renaissance art scene of Venice and is best known for his large, spectacular narrative paintings that brought sacred history to life.

For centuries he has been loved and celebrated in his native city for his observant eye, fertile imagination and storytelling prowess, but this exhibition marks the first retrospective of the artist ever held outside Italy.

The exhibition ‘Vittore Carpaccio: Master Storyteller of Renaissance Venice’ is being organised by the National Gallery of Art, Washington, and the Fondazione Musei Civici di Venezia.

It will be hosted in two different museums – the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC, USA, between 20th November 2022 and 12th February 2023, and the Palazzo Ducale of Venice in Italy between 18th March 2023 and 18th June 2023.

The exhibition is made up of around 45 paintings and 30 drawings – large-scale canvases painted for charitable societies and smaller works that originally decorated the homes of prosperous Venetians.

The drawings, characterised by a marvellous freshness of invention, include sketches for complete compositions as well as meticulously observed studies for individual figures.

The drawing loaned by Heritage Malta was a study for the ‘Arrival of Ambassadors’ scene from the ‘Life of Santa Ursula’ cycle, a series of large wall-paintings on canvas commissioned by the Loredan family.

They were originally created for the Scuola di Sant’Orsola in Venice, which was under the patronage of the Loredan family, but today they can be admired at the Gallerie dell’Accademia in Venice.

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