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| Vittore Carpaccio Sermon of St Stephen 1514 oil on canvas Musée du Louvre |
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| Vittore Carpaccio Sermon of St Stephen (detail with Greeks and Muslims) 1514 oil on canvas Musée du Louvre |
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| Vittore Carpaccio Sermon of St Stephen (detail with minarets) 1514 oil on canvas Musée du Louvre |
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| Vittore Carpaccio Sermon of St Stephen (detail with distant figures and animals) 1514 oil on canvas Musée du Louvre |
The Protomartyr
This picture belongs to a cycle representing important moments in the life of St Stephen, the first deacon and first martyr. The Acts of the Apostles gives a detailed account of one of his sermons in which he retraced the captivity of the Hebrews in Egypt between the time of Joseph and that of Moses. His name, Stephanos, means crown – which would come to be equated with the haloes of the martyrs.
Venice and the Orient
An Oriental atmosphere is characteristic of Venetian painting in the 16th and early 17th centuries, stemming from commercial relationships maintained by Venice with Constantinople, renamed Istanbul in 1453. The Ottoman Empire succeeds the Byzantine Empire. The result is an initial decline followed by a species of Turkish Muslim efflorescence. Gentile Bellini, brother of Giovanni, paints the portrait of Mehmed II. Carpaccio places Stephen in a Jerusalem composed of superimpositions, where distinctive Roman elements such as the triumphal arch in the center of the background mingle with Italian Renaissance architecture as well as minarets too distinctive to be mistaken for bell towers. The viewer observes turbans, Oriental garments, veiled women and black-hatted Greeks. We witness a meeting-place, just such as Venice had become.
The New Harmony
Remote, diminutive figures are represented as if detached from a carved frieze. The play of Oriental textiles against white stone surfaces in this background forms small pictures that breathe serenity. Animals are perceived to be moving about at liberty. Such images hint at a return of the earthly paradise. Thanks to the sermon of Stephen, Jerusalem has become heavenly.
The city mounts in stages toward the sky, while the words of Stephen descend upon the auditors to baptize them. The presence of minarets demonstrates that worthy things should be retained from the culture of the despised Muslims. They need to hear our preaching, but they also have things to teach us – not only the knowledge of the ancient Greeks, but also perhaps their own spiritual practices. If God permitted the Ottomans to conquer Constantinople, it was in order that ecumenicism might be allowed to restore peace.
– translated and adapted from Le Musée imaginaire de Michel Butor: 105 œuvres décisives de la peinture occidentale (Paris: Flammarion, 2019)