Vittore Carpaccio
The Virgin Reading

This painting was first painted on wood and then transferred to canvas. The portrait format is almost 80 centimetres high and around 50 centimetres wide. It comes from the National Gallery of Art in Washington. 

The picture shows Mary sitting on a balcony parapet and looking into an open book. 

The balcony juts into the picture from the right and takes up almost the lower half of the painting. A blue cloak and a green-edged cloth with a golden-red pattern are draped over the white brick parapet that runs along the lower edge of the picture. Mary is sitting on it at the side. She is wearing a red dress with wide orange-coloured sleeves. The round neckline is framed by a wide silver border. A few short, wavy blonde strands of hair emerge from under the turban-like light brown scarf wrapped around her head. A transparent veil falls over the back of her head and neck down to her shoulders. A narrow, shiny golden halo surrounds Mary's head. 

She gazes intently at the pages of the small booklet in her hands. It has a red cover and a red ribbon marker hanging from it. 

The shoulder and toes of the infant Jesus, who is sitting and leaning against a cushion, and a tiny part of his halo can be seen on the balcony parapet on the left-hand edge of the picture. 

Behind the balcony is a meadow lined with bushes and shrubs, on which two trees stand. The tree on the left is almost bare, the one on the right is leafy. On the horizon is a coastal landscape with several hills in shades of green and blue. The hills slope gently from right to left towards the smooth surface of the water. To the right on the shore are a few buildings and a slender tower, which stand out brightly against a dark green hill.

At the top left of the picture, above the water surface, there are white and grey clouds. To the right, the sky clears.

Mary is reading a book, giving it all her attention and completely focused on the text. We're looking at her diagonally from the rear as she sits on a parapet. 

Unlike in traditional portrayals of the Virgin Mary, she's not wearing a red robe with a blue mantle, but a light red and orange dress with an elaborate border, reflecting Venetian fashion in around 1500. On her head, she sports a turban-like scarf and a translucent veil. The landscape behind her features a large body of water and a view of a city.

Originally, this was a larger painting, which included the baby Jesus; his left arm and foot can still be seen on the far left. However, the child was lost when the picture was later trimmed and reduced in size. 

What remained was Mary engaged in reading, an impressive, monumental figure. It is not unusual for the Virgin to be portrayed with a book in her hand. In the Roman Catholic Church, one of her devotional titles is "sedes sapientiae" – seat of divine wisdom. So the book is a common attribute. However, the fact that she's actively and intently reading this book is quite original.

So Carpaccio is showing Mary not just as a major figure of religious devotion. He dresses her in the fashion of the day, has her sit within a landscape reminiscent of Veneto, and elevates her as a role model of female education and a culture of reading – an identification figure.

In fact, women are unusually prominent in Carpaccio's paintings. Their demeanour is more self-confident than in the works of other Venetian painters of the period. By choosing the world of women – confined as they are to devotional reading – as the subject of his paintings, Carpaccio may have been addressing women specifically in his works... as viewers and perhaps even as patrons.

In this painting we see Mary from behind, sitting on a wall. She is reading a book, giving it all her attention. Mary is usually painted wearing a red dress. Here she is wearing an orange dress with decorations, which was fashionable in Carpaccio's time. On her head she wears a scarf with a veil. Behind her we see a landscape and a city.

The arm and foot of the baby Jesus can still be seen on the left edge of the picture. It was originally part of a larger picture. The picture was later trimmed and reduced in size, so the baby Jesus was lost. All that remained was Mary reading, which makes her more of a focal point.

Mary is often painted with a book. The book is therefore a well-known symbol. But it is rather rare to see her reading actively and with concentration. Carpaccio shows us Mary in the fashion of the time and in a landscape reminiscent of Venice. He paints her as a role model for educated women.

Women are depicted unusually often in Carpaccio's paintings. They appear more self-confident than in the paintings of other painters of the time. Carpaccio may have specifically addressed women with these paintings, both as viewers and possibly as clients.