Holy Conversation
c. 1505
The Stories from the Life of St Ursula (1490-96)

by Vittore Carpaccio (b. 1472, Venezia, d. 1526, Capodistria)

Tempera on canvas, 92 x 126 cm
Musée du Petit Palais, Avignon

In a style which is more 15th- than 16th-century, in the Holy Conversation the figures are lined up on the proscenium, dotting with their bright colours and lights the sundrenched plateau, behind which, framed by the extraordinary bridge of rock, we find the landscape background, described in great detail, including hermits going about their daily occupations in natural and architectural settings.