The artist of the present drawing copied individual figures from three of the paintings in Vittore Carpaccio’s Saint Ursula cycle of the mid-1490s 1, comprising nine canvases (now in the Accademia, Venice) commissioned by the Scuola di Sant’ Orsola to commemorate the life of the confraternity’s patron saint. From left to right, the first four figures are taken from the Return of the Ambassadors to the King of England of ca. 1496 (Lauts 1962, no. 36); the next two from the Engaged Couple Being Greeted by the Pope in Rome of ca. 1492-94 (Lauts 1962, no. 18); the last figure is copied from the group of spectators in the extreme upper right of Saint Ursula and the Prince Taking Leave of their Parents of 1495 (Lauts 1962, no. 26). Although scholarship has continued to include the Morgan Library sheet in Carpaccio’s oeuvre, there can be no doubt that it is by a later artist and not by Carpaccio himself or even by an artist working under his tutelage.
Footnotes:
- The first canvas, Arrival of Saint Ursula at Cologne, is dated 1490 and is Carpaccio’s earliest dated work. Other paintings in the cycle are dated 1491, 1493, and 1495 and later. The paintings passed to the Accademia in 1810.
Watermark: none visible through lining.
Individual figures copied from the painting, "Return of the Ambassadors to the King Of England" from the St. Ursula Cycle in the Accademia, Venice.
Inscribed on a piece of paper pasted onto verso, in graphite, "Lgruner".
Anonymous, Italian School, 16th cent., Formerly attributed to.
Robinson, J. C. (John Charles), Sir, 1824-1913, former owner.
Gruner, L., former owner.
Moukhanoff, former owner.
Scholz, János, former owner.
Philadelphia 1950-51, no. 17; Montreal 1953, no. 17; Fiocco 1958, no. 118/B; Bloomington 1958, no. 8; Oakland and San Francisco 1959, no. 16; Detroit 1960, 15, no. 20; Hamburg and Cologne 1963-64, no. 29; Ames 1964, no. 4; Milwaukee 1964, no. 11; Los Angeles and elsewhere 1967-68, no. 10; London 1968, no. 18; Middletown 1969, no. 7; New York 1971, no. 21; Muraro 1977, 65.
Twentieth report to the Fellows of the Pierpont Morgan Library, 1981-1983 / edited by Charles Ryskamp. New York : The Library, 1984, p. 247.
Italian Drawings from the Collection of Janos Scholz. London : Art Council Gallery, 1968, no.18 (includes previous bibliography and exhibitions).
Italian Master Drawings from the Collection of Janos Scholz. Middletown, Conn. : Davison Art Center, Wesleyan University, 1969, no. 7.
One Hundred Italian Drawings from the 14th to the 18th Centuries from the Janos Scholz Collection. New York : New School Art Center, 1971, no. 21, repr.