Explore the Subject and historical misidentification of this artwork, St. Augustine in His Study (Carpaccio).
This work was painted by Vittore Carpaccio for the Scuola di San Giorgio degli Schiavoni in 1502. Renaissance Venice had many confraternities, religious guilds or corporations, that functioned as charitable organizations. The Scuola di San Giorgio degli Schiavoni was founded in 1451 by a group of Dalmatian immigrants from the region of Dalmatia and known locally as the schiavoni ("Slavs"). Their confraternity was dedicated to St. George and St. Tryphon, and later St. Jerome. Vittore Carpaccio was commissioned to create a cycle of nine paintings that illustrate four separate narratives stories about the lives of Christ and Saints Jerome, George, and Tryphon. The majority of scholars agree that the entire cycle of paintings was begun in 1502 and was complete by 1507.The painting of St. Augustine in his Study is a part of three canvases that narrate important scenes from the life of St.Jerome (c. 342-420 CE), who was born in Stridon, a province of Dalmatia and one of the Catholic Church Fathers. For centuries, the painting was mistakenly thought to be an image of St. Jerome until 1959, when Helen Roberts connected the imagery of the scene to a legend based on a set of three late thirteenth-century apocryphal letters written St Augustine (354-430 CE), who was St. Jerome's younger contemporary. The alleged letter was said to be written by St. Augustine, in which he narrates a moment when he was sitting in a study writing a letter to St. Jerome when he was interrupted with vision. These letters of St. Augustine were inserted into several manuscripts and printed books that were dedicated to the life of St. Jerome and therefore became entwined with his story.
St. George confraternities Scuola di San Giorgio degli Schiavoni St. Jerome Stridon Carpaccio Church Fathers St Augustine Jerome apocryphal Venice Vittore Carpaccio St. Tryphon schiavoni St.Jerome vision