End Notes
Carpaccio's Double Enigma
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1. Ian Chilvers, The Oxford Dictionary of Art, entry on Carpaccio.
2. George R Goldner, “A Late Fifteenth Century Venetian Painting of a Bird Hunt”, The J. Paul Getty Museum Journal, Vol. 8 (1980) 22. The separation must presumably have been done sometime before 1780; the reason for it is not clear, though it may possibly have been to multiply profits: Rebecca M Norris, “Carpaccio’s ‘Hunting on the Lagoon’ and ‘Two Venetian Ladies’: A Vignette of Fifteenth-Century Venetian Life”, Thesis, 2007, at 23 http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1185214455
3. Goldner, op cit.
4. Yvonne Szafran, “’Carpacio’s ‘Hunting on the Lagoon’; A New Perspective”, The Burlington Magazine Vol 137, No 1104 (Mar 1995) 148. See also the Getty Museum video at http://www.getty.edu/art/collection/video/134937/reconstruction-of-vittore-carpaccio's-hunting-on-the-lagoon/
5. Elfriede R Knauer, “Fishing with cormorants: a note on Vittore Carpaccio's Hunting on the Lagoon”, Apollo, 158 No 499 September 2003, 32.
6. Goldner, op cit at 27.
7. Goldner, op cit.
7A. The barriers, stakes and other structures indicate this this is a sort of fish farm, typically owned by noble families.
8. See generally Kate Lowe, “Visible Lives: Black Gondoliers and Other Black Africans in Renaissance Venice”, Renaissance Quarterly, Vol. 66, No. 2 (Summer 2013), 412.
9. Rose-Marie and Rainer Hagen, What Great Paintings Say, Vol 1, Taschen, Cologne, 2003 at 107.
10. This view is favoured by the Getty itself: see http://www.getty.edu/art/collection/objects/686/vittore-carpaccio-hunting-on-the-lagoon-recto-letter-rack-verso-italian-venetian-about-1490-1495/
11. Norris, op cit at 41-2; Arthur Graves Credland, “The Pellet Bow in Europe and the East,” Journal of the Society of Archer Antiquaries, Volume 18 (1975): 13 42.
12. Pierre Belon (1517-1564), L’histoire de la natvre des oyseavx, avec levrs descriptions, & naÏfs portraicts retirez du naturel: escrite en sept livres, Gilles Corrozet, Paris,1555 at 161; accessed at http://www.e-rara.ch/nev_r/oiseaux/content/titleinfo/1893429
13. James Howell, A survay of the signorie of Venice, of her admired policy, and method of government, &c. with a cohortation to all Christian princes to resent her dangerous condition at present, London 1651 at 188/9; accessed at: http://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/eebo/A44752.0001.001/1:10.2?rgn=div2;view=fulltext . Some of the spelling and grammar have been simplified for easier comprehension.
14. Knauer, op cit, though they are reputedly eaten in Norway.
15. Alan Davidson, Oxford Companion to Food, at 390.
16. Belon, op cit at 266.
17. Count de Buffon, Natural History General and Particular Vol IX (History of Birds), 1912 at 307.
18. Marcus Beike, “Phalacrocorax carbo sinensis in Europe – indigenous or introduced?” Ornis Fennica 91: 48, 2014 at 51.
19. Arrigo Cipriani, The Harry’s Bar Cookbook, Blake Publishing, 2000, at 216.
20. Jan Morris, Ciao Carpaccio! Liveright, London and New York, 2014 at 17.
21. I am indebted to Punia Jeffery for this suggestion. Many thanks also go to Louise Egerton, Rob Wall and Robin Hermans for their expertise.
22. In Japan, decoy birds were commonly used to lure cormorants to be used for training http://www.gifu-rc.jp/ukai/u_main.html.
23. Knauer, op cit. The practice possibly goes back to the tenth century in China and the seventh century in Japan. In Japan it is known as "ukai".
24. EW Gudger, “Fishing with the Cormorant: 1: In China”, The American Naturalist Vol. 60, No. 666 (Jan-Feb 1926), pp. 5-41; B. Laufer, The Domestication of the Cormorant in China and Japan (Field Museum of Natural History, Publication 300), Anthropological Series, vol. XVIII, no. 3, Chicago, 1931.
25. In China trained birds were restrained by cords or held in cages: Gudger, op cit.
26. Beike, op cit.
27. Gudger reports that in China any necessary “reminder” to the cormorants took the form of simply splashing the water with an oar, or tapping the birds on the head with a rod: Gudger op cit. Perhaps for the cormorant fishing theory to work we would need to postulate that the pellets are hollow in order for them to have the desired “friendly” effect.
28. And on some of the other boats.
29. In China, this enabled the fishing to go on for hours: Gudger, op cit.
30. As another variant of the cormorant fishing interpretation, it may be that the cormorants are being hunted so that they can later be used to train for fishing. This variant avoids the objection that the bird has no fish in its throat, and explains the penned birds on the reed island and the cormorants sitting on the gunwales. But it requires us to adopt the non-fatal pellet theory and raises the obvious issue -- if the object is only to capture the birds for training, where did the corpses come from?
31. Marcus Beike, “History of Cormorant Fishing in Europe”, Vogelwelt 133: 1-21 (2012).
32. See “Recovering traditional boats in Padua”http://squeropadovano.blogspot.com.au/.
33. Goldner, op cit.
34. The number and variety of birds spread over both panels is remarkable.
35. Lisa Boutin Vitela, “Passive Virtue and Active Valour: Carpaccio’s Two Ladies on an Altana above a Hunt”, Comitatus, 43 (2012) 133-146 at 137. See also Norris at 23.
36. Vitela, op cit at 139.
37. G Ludwig and P Molmenti, Vittore Carpaccio, La vita and le opere, Milano, 1906 282-83, cited in Simona Cohen, “The Enigma of Carpaccio’s Venetian Ladies”, Renaissance Studies Vol 19 No 2 p 150-184 April 2005.
38. Cohen, op cit.
39. John Ruskin, St Mark’s Rest, ch 10.
40. Quoted in E V Lucas, A Wanderer in Venice, 1914 at 137.
41. Lucas, op cit.
42. Barry Wills, Venice: Lion City, The Religion of Empire, Simon and Schuster, 2013 at 158-9.
43. Cohen, op cit; Vitela, op cit at 136. See also C M Schuler, “The Courtesan in Art”, in A R Edsy & Ors, Women’s Studies: Special Issue: Women in the Renaissance: An Interdisciplinary Forum (MLA 1989) at 210; Augusto Gentili, "Painting in Venice: 1490-1515", in Venice; Art and Architecture, Vol 1, Konemann, Cologne 1997 at 270 ff.
44. Vitela, op cit at 137; Norris, op cit at 65. In addition, a subject matter of courtesans might seem unlikely if the work was commissioned by the the patrician Mocenigo.
45. Cohen, op cit.
46. Vitela, op cit at 135.
47. Wills, op cit.
48. Gentili, op cit at 272 suggests that the panorama of activity in the lagoon was not intended to be a view from the balcony, but "an allegorical projection of [the women's] thoughts", which might explain their rather glazed expressions.
© Philip McCouat 2015, 2019
This article may be cited as Philip McCouat, “Carpaccio’s double enigma: Hunting on the Lagoon and the Two Venetian Ladies”, www.artinsociety.com
We welcome your comments on this article
Back to Home
1. Ian Chilvers, The Oxford Dictionary of Art, entry on Carpaccio.
2. George R Goldner, “A Late Fifteenth Century Venetian Painting of a Bird Hunt”, The J. Paul Getty Museum Journal, Vol. 8 (1980) 22. The separation must presumably have been done sometime before 1780; the reason for it is not clear, though it may possibly have been to multiply profits: Rebecca M Norris, “Carpaccio’s ‘Hunting on the Lagoon’ and ‘Two Venetian Ladies’: A Vignette of Fifteenth-Century Venetian Life”, Thesis, 2007, at 23 http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1185214455
3. Goldner, op cit.
4. Yvonne Szafran, “’Carpacio’s ‘Hunting on the Lagoon’; A New Perspective”, The Burlington Magazine Vol 137, No 1104 (Mar 1995) 148. See also the Getty Museum video at http://www.getty.edu/art/collection/video/134937/reconstruction-of-vittore-carpaccio's-hunting-on-the-lagoon/
5. Elfriede R Knauer, “Fishing with cormorants: a note on Vittore Carpaccio's Hunting on the Lagoon”, Apollo, 158 No 499 September 2003, 32.
6. Goldner, op cit at 27.
7. Goldner, op cit.
7A. The barriers, stakes and other structures indicate this this is a sort of fish farm, typically owned by noble families.
8. See generally Kate Lowe, “Visible Lives: Black Gondoliers and Other Black Africans in Renaissance Venice”, Renaissance Quarterly, Vol. 66, No. 2 (Summer 2013), 412.
9. Rose-Marie and Rainer Hagen, What Great Paintings Say, Vol 1, Taschen, Cologne, 2003 at 107.
10. This view is favoured by the Getty itself: see http://www.getty.edu/art/collection/objects/686/vittore-carpaccio-hunting-on-the-lagoon-recto-letter-rack-verso-italian-venetian-about-1490-1495/
11. Norris, op cit at 41-2; Arthur Graves Credland, “The Pellet Bow in Europe and the East,” Journal of the Society of Archer Antiquaries, Volume 18 (1975): 13 42.
12. Pierre Belon (1517-1564), L’histoire de la natvre des oyseavx, avec levrs descriptions, & naÏfs portraicts retirez du naturel: escrite en sept livres, Gilles Corrozet, Paris,1555 at 161; accessed at http://www.e-rara.ch/nev_r/oiseaux/content/titleinfo/1893429
13. James Howell, A survay of the signorie of Venice, of her admired policy, and method of government, &c. with a cohortation to all Christian princes to resent her dangerous condition at present, London 1651 at 188/9; accessed at: http://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/eebo/A44752.0001.001/1:10.2?rgn=div2;view=fulltext . Some of the spelling and grammar have been simplified for easier comprehension.
14. Knauer, op cit, though they are reputedly eaten in Norway.
15. Alan Davidson, Oxford Companion to Food, at 390.
16. Belon, op cit at 266.
17. Count de Buffon, Natural History General and Particular Vol IX (History of Birds), 1912 at 307.
18. Marcus Beike, “Phalacrocorax carbo sinensis in Europe – indigenous or introduced?” Ornis Fennica 91: 48, 2014 at 51.
19. Arrigo Cipriani, The Harry’s Bar Cookbook, Blake Publishing, 2000, at 216.
20. Jan Morris, Ciao Carpaccio! Liveright, London and New York, 2014 at 17.
21. I am indebted to Punia Jeffery for this suggestion. Many thanks also go to Louise Egerton, Rob Wall and Robin Hermans for their expertise.
22. In Japan, decoy birds were commonly used to lure cormorants to be used for training http://www.gifu-rc.jp/ukai/u_main.html.
23. Knauer, op cit. The practice possibly goes back to the tenth century in China and the seventh century in Japan. In Japan it is known as "ukai".
24. EW Gudger, “Fishing with the Cormorant: 1: In China”, The American Naturalist Vol. 60, No. 666 (Jan-Feb 1926), pp. 5-41; B. Laufer, The Domestication of the Cormorant in China and Japan (Field Museum of Natural History, Publication 300), Anthropological Series, vol. XVIII, no. 3, Chicago, 1931.
25. In China trained birds were restrained by cords or held in cages: Gudger, op cit.
26. Beike, op cit.
27. Gudger reports that in China any necessary “reminder” to the cormorants took the form of simply splashing the water with an oar, or tapping the birds on the head with a rod: Gudger op cit. Perhaps for the cormorant fishing theory to work we would need to postulate that the pellets are hollow in order for them to have the desired “friendly” effect.
28. And on some of the other boats.
29. In China, this enabled the fishing to go on for hours: Gudger, op cit.
30. As another variant of the cormorant fishing interpretation, it may be that the cormorants are being hunted so that they can later be used to train for fishing. This variant avoids the objection that the bird has no fish in its throat, and explains the penned birds on the reed island and the cormorants sitting on the gunwales. But it requires us to adopt the non-fatal pellet theory and raises the obvious issue -- if the object is only to capture the birds for training, where did the corpses come from?
31. Marcus Beike, “History of Cormorant Fishing in Europe”, Vogelwelt 133: 1-21 (2012).
32. See “Recovering traditional boats in Padua”http://squeropadovano.blogspot.com.au/.
33. Goldner, op cit.
34. The number and variety of birds spread over both panels is remarkable.
35. Lisa Boutin Vitela, “Passive Virtue and Active Valour: Carpaccio’s Two Ladies on an Altana above a Hunt”, Comitatus, 43 (2012) 133-146 at 137. See also Norris at 23.
36. Vitela, op cit at 139.
37. G Ludwig and P Molmenti, Vittore Carpaccio, La vita and le opere, Milano, 1906 282-83, cited in Simona Cohen, “The Enigma of Carpaccio’s Venetian Ladies”, Renaissance Studies Vol 19 No 2 p 150-184 April 2005.
38. Cohen, op cit.
39. John Ruskin, St Mark’s Rest, ch 10.
40. Quoted in E V Lucas, A Wanderer in Venice, 1914 at 137.
41. Lucas, op cit.
42. Barry Wills, Venice: Lion City, The Religion of Empire, Simon and Schuster, 2013 at 158-9.
43. Cohen, op cit; Vitela, op cit at 136. See also C M Schuler, “The Courtesan in Art”, in A R Edsy & Ors, Women’s Studies: Special Issue: Women in the Renaissance: An Interdisciplinary Forum (MLA 1989) at 210; Augusto Gentili, "Painting in Venice: 1490-1515", in Venice; Art and Architecture, Vol 1, Konemann, Cologne 1997 at 270 ff.
44. Vitela, op cit at 137; Norris, op cit at 65. In addition, a subject matter of courtesans might seem unlikely if the work was commissioned by the the patrician Mocenigo.
45. Cohen, op cit.
46. Vitela, op cit at 135.
47. Wills, op cit.
48. Gentili, op cit at 272 suggests that the panorama of activity in the lagoon was not intended to be a view from the balcony, but "an allegorical projection of [the women's] thoughts", which might explain their rather glazed expressions.
© Philip McCouat 2015, 2019
This article may be cited as Philip McCouat, “Carpaccio’s double enigma: Hunting on the Lagoon and the Two Venetian Ladies”, www.artinsociety.com
We welcome your comments on this article
Back to Home