Vittore Carpaccio
Birth of the Virgin

Vittore Carpaccio is considered a "master storyteller", one of the best of his day. And in this painting, he showcases that mastery. The painting shows the birth of Mary, later to become the Virgin Mary, in an affluent household. A wet nurse is getting ready to bathe the child in a shallow wooden tub, while a maidservant attends to Anne, who has just given birth. Right at the front, a woman has taken a seat on a low wall to wind a bandage. And in the rooms at the rear, two more servants can be seen going about household tasks. Only Joachim, the sole man in the picture, is idle. He's leaning on his stick and gazing pensively at the scene.

Carpaccio painted this picture as the prologue to a six-part series for the Scuola degli Albanesi, where Venice's Albanian community used to meet. He's set the scene in a wealthy Venetian household which he embellishes with numerous, seemingly incidental details. Take a moment to let your eye wander. You'll see a typical wooden beam ceiling, opulent wall decorations, vases and pots on a ledge and, last but not least, a panel inscribed with Hebrew characters on the wall.

Immediately before Carpaccio created his "Birth of the Virgin", a kind of primer of the Hebrew language had been published in Venice. The inscription, which is accurately reproduced, is from that book. However, Carpaccio wasn't interested in portraying the real life appearance of a Jewish household in Venice. Instead, he used the inscribed panel to link different time periods, setting the legend of Mary's birth (which actually took place in pre-Christian times) within a contemporary interior. It's unlikely his contemporaries were able to decipher the panel, but it highlights the historical divide – regardless of the topicality and the references to everyday life.

Before you move on, take another look at the seated female figure in the foreground on the right. You'll be seeing her again in the next room.