Vittore Carpaccio (c. 1460 – 1525/1526) was an Italian painter of the Venetian school, who studied under Gentile Bellini.
He is best known for a cycle of nine paintings, The Legend of Saint Ursula. His style was rather conservative, showing little influence from the Humanist trends that transformed Italian Renaissance painting during his lifetime. He was influenced by the style of Antonello da Messina and Early Netherlandish art. For this reason, and also because so much of his best work remains in Venice, his art has been rather neglected by comparison with other Venetian contemporaries.
His large scenes of Venetian city life give some of the best impressions of the city at the height of its power and wealth, and a strong sense of the civic pride of its citizens. In other paintings he shows a sense of fantasy that seems to look back to medieval romance, rather than sharing in the pastoral vision of the next generation.
Carpaccio was born in Venice, the son of Piero Scarpazza, a leather merchant. Few details of his life are known, but his principal works were executed between 1490 and 1519, ranking him among the early masters of the Venetian Renaissance. He is first mentioned in 1472 in a will of his uncle Fra Ilario. Upon entering the Humanist circles of Venice, he changed his family name to Carpaccio. - wikipedia
