WTI Magazine #3    2013 Nov, 1

Author : Enrico De Iulis      Translation by:

The story of the painting of Vittore Carpaccio known as "courtesans" is somewhat emblematic and interesting because it is source of many misunderstandings and interpretations. In the nineteenth century, John Ruskin gave this table oil painted between 1490 and 1495 title "courtesans".

The painting was showing two women immersed in the afternoon boredom, surrounded by pets and a series of objects regarding an homely ambient and very relevant to the current fashion.

There are doves on the balustrade, a lapwing near a pageboy, a parrot and two dogs. The women are seated. The youngest, with her his arm to the balcony, has a white handkerchief in her hand and a pomegranate close to her, with comfortable velvety shoes at her feet. She has a bored look, maybe thoughtfully and lost in the void.
The second courtesan is closer to the viewer, she plays with the dogs, she is older than the first while they very much look alike.

As often, this picture has been misinterpreted during the 1800s and its reputation has remained imprisoned by the wrong title.

The whole scene we described, since the advent 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. Even the string of pearls according 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 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 to be a lily, symbol of purity 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.