Elizabeth Huff’s Blog

I just got back from visiting the Scuola di San Giorgio degli Schiavonni. It is one of the few remaining scuole from the 15th century that still exist today because the majority of them, like the Scuola di San’ Orsola, were suppressed under Napoleonic Rule. The narratives of the lives of St. George, St. Jerome, and St. Tryphon, which make up a total of nine paintings were painted by Carpaccio between 1502-1507. It is interesting to see how Carpaccio’s painting has matured since he painted the narrative cycle of St. Ursula. The way he depicts narrative, the figures themselves, the textile designs, and even the way he goes about depicting the horses are just some of the ways in which his style has matured. He also includes a lot of Near Eastern influences in the works– an obvious reaction to Carpaccio’s exposure to the far off culture due to the the large amount of trade that were taking place between Venice and the East during the time. In a few of the paintings he incorporates a number of structures that can be linked to well known buildings in such places as Jerusalem, but he gives them some Venetian flare with the use of different colored marble. In the last painting—St. Jerome/ St. Augustine in his Study you can see the influence of Jan van Eyck with the use of depicting small specific objects such as the little dog in the center of the painting or books ect…These nine paintings are smaller in size then those of St. Ursula but you can see how the ones of St. Ursula would have been displayed– high up on the wall almost at the ceiling. Below them are wooden benches that scuole members would have sat on when coming together as a large group. The ceiling itself of the first floor room was ornately decorated with paint.

There was a small room to the right with a few paintings by later artists and then to the left of the main first floor room was a stair case up to the main second floor room. Like the downstairs room there were paintings that decorated the walls of the room– only these contained obvious portraits of the scuola members.

I really enjoyed going to go see this because, even though very small in size, it has a lot of cultural significance because it is so unique. It is definitely something that people should go see when visiting Venice if they have the time.