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# 69 •OCTOBER 5 , 2015
vent of iconology in the
first half of the twentieth
century, was strongly appreciated thanks to the
iconographical tools that
allowed us to establish
that all the clues in the
scene are domestic, but
they also talk about family
and love; and even the history of costume comes to
help us understand that
the white handkerchief,
the dog and the doves are
feminine attributes that
relate to conjugal love, as
well as the myrtle and passionate pomegranate.
valley", where in a wide
panorama of the Venetian
lagoon, is described the
hunting of seabirds by a
bow and arrows over light
boats.
By overlaying "The hunting in the valley" to "Courtesans" you get a definitive
new reading of the work.
The measures of the two
paintings match, and not
only that. In the second
picture you find the continuation of the stem of the
flower into the ceramic
vase in the first picture,
which will later be proved
Even the string of pearls to be a lily, symbol of puriaccording to the sumptuary laws in force in Venice at that time, could only
be worn by noble married
ladies, therefore not involved in prostitution. The
noble family in question is
the Torella family, whose
coat of arms is represented on the ceramic pot
between the doves.
This analysis, much more
relevant than the first rash
description of Ruskin, was
confirmed in the 90s of
last century. Aside of Carpaccio's painting of the
Correr Museum was put
a painting housed at the
Getty Museum in Los Angeles: "The hunting in the
ty in close connection with
the handkerchief of the
lady leaning on the railing,
then permanently canceling the first hypothesis on
the social status of the two
women in the foreground.
Now we know that it actually is a panel of a cabinet or
a dark decoration of a window, due to to the presence of the hinges at the top
of the table: and in fact
the formal construction
of the figures, portends a
continuation of the scene to the left, in which the
dog, the pageboy, the balustrade and the left-most
boat may be present and
can be defined in a complementary door.
This is an emblematic
story for many reasons: for
the mistakes of the 800's
critics that so much has
diverted the art history of
twentieth century; for the
iconography, a discipline
that is younger than 100
years and has helped to
interpret in the right way a
lot of paintings; and especially for the readers of this
magazine, which as the picture of Carpaccio are "divided" between Italy and
the United States.
WE THE ITALIANS | 23
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