The arrival of the British ambassadors to the court of King Brittany

The canvas was commissioned by the brotherhood of St. Ursula (Scuola Sant Orsola) in Venice, was the first in a series of 9 paintings dedicated to Saint Ursula , a young Christian daughter of King Brittany of Macarus, who was killed in Cologne , returning from a pilgrimage to Rome . Dedicated to the arrival of the English ambassadors to the court of the ruler of Brittany to ask for the hand of his daughter for Prince Conon. On the right side of the picture, separated by an architectural design, is shown the king-father, who consults with the future bride.

In the " Golden Legend " of Jacob Voraginsky (XIII century), it is a question of his father's doubts about the need to marry the princess to a pagan, but he considered it impossible to neglect such a strong ally as England . Ursula agreed to accept the offer only if the conditions were met (in the picture she lists them, bending her fingers), asking to equip a ship for pilgrimage to Rome with a retinue of ten virgins, each of which in turn should be accompanied by another thousand virgins. The prince was supposed to adopt Christianity.

Detail. Ambassadors pass the marriage proposal to King Brittany

The painting is divided into three main scenes, separated by architectural elements. On the left is a scene depicting the arrival of the British ambassadors to the court of Brittany; the central scene depicts ambassadors transmitting to the king a marriage proposal from the English Prince Conon; on the right is Ursula, who announces to her father her conditions regarding this marriage, and her nanny sits on the stairs.

The composition is dominated by an episode of a ceremonial state reception, which takes place in an open hall on the background of a typical Venetian landscape. The picture is built on the basis of an impeccable perspective, from within which the details of the second plan seem clear and vivid, despite the fact that they are spelled out without special care: the patrons and members of the customer-fraternity are depicted with great reliability. The architectural decoration, in which the scene is developed, built on the background of the square, behind it you can see the water surface, the ship, the city with the campaniles and fortifications. The octagonal temple recalls the search by the Renaissance architects for ideal proportions, promising studios that were popular at that time with architects and painters. It is as if the artist invites the viewer to join the action, which takes place on the canvas, opening the gates of the enclosing lattice. He deliberately violates the boundary of the foreground of the scene, creating the illusion of presence, and takes out into the hall not only a decorative column , but also secondary characters - an elderly woman sitting on the stairs and a man in red clothes in the far left corner.

In the process of the last restoration , the face of a young page was found in the foreground of the central stage, which was probably closed in the middle of the 17th century , when the canvas was partially cut in the lower part. The cut off part from the bottom of the canvas corresponded to the doorway in the real interior where the cycle was located.

• “Gallery of the Academy. Venice". Edited by Lucia Impelluso. = Gallerie Dell'accademia: Venezia. - / Per. with it. - M .: BMM, 2006 .-- 160 p. - (Great museums of the world). - 3000 copies. - ISBN 5-88353-246-2 .
• N. Netashvili, L. Chechik. VOLUME 14. // “Gallery of the Academy. Venezіya ". - K .: PrAT Komsomolska Pravda - Ukraine, 2012. - 96 p. - ("The Great Museum of Light"). - 7000 copies. - ISBN 978-966-2492-95-8 .
• Linda Borean. Carpaccio . - Skira , 2010 .-- 95 p. - (SkiraMiniArtBooks). - ISBN 978-88-572-0549-6 . Archived on October 16, 2014. Archived October 16, 2014 on the Wayback Machine

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