Vittore Carpaccio, 'The Departure of Ceyx', probably about 1502-7

The Departure of Ceyx

Vittore Carpaccio

Not on display

About the work

Overview

This panel shows the first part of the story of Alcyone and her husband Ceyx from the Metamorphoses, a poem by the Roman writer Ovid. It is continued in another panel, made as its pair (now in the Philadelphia Museum of Art).

A boat waits to take Ceyx to the large wooden ship in the distance, upon which he will sail to the oracle at Claros. An oracle was a divinely inspired priest or priestess who would offer advice and answer questions. Alcyone, who had a premonition of a violent storm at sea, is on her knees begging Ceyx not to go.

Alcyone’s prediction came true. The Philadelphia panel shows Ceyx’s drowned body and Alcyone, appalled at the sight of it, launching herself into the sea. Their tragic end provoked a god to spare them both, transforming them into birds which appear to the left of the Philadelphia panel.

In-depth

Carpaccio specialised in narrative scenes, often illustrating official events and ceremonies of the Venetian Republic. Here he tells a story from the Metamorphoses, a poem by the Roman writer Ovid which dramatically recounts legends of transformations. It is that of Alcyone and her husband Ceyx, which is continued in another panel made as its pair (now in the Philadelphia Museum of Art).

A rowing boat waits to take Ceyx to the large ship in the distance. He was headed to the oracle at the sanctuary of the god Apollo at Claros, intending to ask about the death of his brother. An oracle was a divinely inspired priest or priestess who would offer advice and answer questions. A tree divides the world that Ceyx is leaving, inhabited by elegantly dressed figures and graceful architecture, from his destiny, the wooden boat isolated in the sea.

Alcyone and Ceyx are shown in the middle of a lengthy goodbye: Alcyone, who had a premonition of a violent storm at sea, begs her husband not to go. But determined and unwary of the threat, he places his hand on her face to reassure her. Her prediction came true: the Philadelphia panel shows Ceyx’s drowned body and Alcyone, appalled at the sight of it, launching herself into the sea. Their tragic end provoked a god to spare them both, transforming them into birds which appear to the left of the Philadelphia panel. Alcyone’s father was Aeolus, the god of the winds, and after her transformation he calmed the winds for seven days to allow her to lay her eggs – the origin of the saying ‘Halcyon days’.

We do not know who Carpaccio made the pictures for, nor their original destination, but each was once owned by a renowned nineteenth-century scholar – ours by Henry Layard, the archaeologist and National Gallery trustee, and the other by the writer, painter and critic John Ruskin. Our painting was once in the Manfrin Collection, a highly esteemed private collection in Venice that was sold during the second part of the nineteenth century.

Key facts

Details

Full title: The Departure of Ceyx
Artist: Vittore Carpaccio
Artist dates: active 1490; died 1525/6
Date made: probably about 1502-7
Medium and support: oil on wood
Dimensions: 74.9 × 88.9 cm
Acquisition credit: Layard Bequest, 1916
Inventory number: NG3085
Location: Not on display
Collection: Main Collection
Previous owners: Sir Austen Henry Layard

Provenance

Bought from the Manfrin Collection, Venice, ca. 1862 by Sir A. H. Layard; exhibited at Leeds, 1868 (No. 72), and at South Kensington, 1869 (No. 14); Layard Bequest, 1916.

Additional information

Text extracted from the ‘Provenance’ section of the catalogue entry in Martin Davies, ‘National Gallery Catalogues: The Earlier Italian Schools’, London 1986; for further information, see the full catalogue entry.

Exhibition history

2022

Vittore Carpaccio: Paintings and Drawings

National Gallery of Art (Washington DC)

20 November 2022 - 12 February 2023

Palazzo Ducale (Venice)

18 March 2023 - 18 June 2023

Bibliography

1852

P. Selvatico and V. Lazari, Guida di Venezia, Venice 1852
1856

Palazzo Manfrin, Catalogo dei quadri esistenti nella Galleria Manfrin in Venezia, n.p. 1856
1856

F. Zanotto, Guida di Venezia, Venice 1856
1868

Anon., 'Solomon and the Queen of Sheba', The Athenaeum, XLI/2, 1868
1871

J.A. Crowe and G.B. Cavalcaselle, A History of Painting in North Italy: Venice, Padua, Vicenza, Verona, Ferrara, Milan, Friuli, Brescia, from the Fourteenth to the Sixteenth Century, 2 vols, London 1871
1894

B. Berenson, The Venetian Painters of the Renaissance, with an Index to Their Works, New York 1894
1895

G. Lafenestre and E. Richtenberger, Venise, Paris 1895
1896

G. Frizzoni, 'La Galerie Layard', Gazette des beaux-arts, II, 1896, pp. 455-76
1901

A. Venturi, Storia dell'arte italiana, 11 vols, Milan 1901
1907

G. Ludwig and P. Molmenti, The Life and Works of Vittorio Carpaccio, trans. R.H.H. Cust, London 1907
1907

L. Venturi, Le origini della pittura veneziana 1300-1500, Venice 1907
1912

J.A. Crowe and G.B. Cavalcaselle, A History of Painting in North Italy: Venice, Padua, Vicenza, Verona, Ferrara, Milan, Friuli, Brescia, from the Fourteenth to the Sixteenth Century, ed. T. Borenius, 2nd edn, 3 vols, London 1912
1912

A. Venturi, 'La formazione della Galleria Layard a Venezia', L'arte, XV, 1912, pp. 449-62
1912

D. von Hadeln, 'Carpaccio', in U. Thieme and F. Becker (eds), Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart, Leipzig 1912, vol. 6
1923

R. van Marle, The Development of the Italian Schools of Painting, 19 vols, The Hague 1923
1923

P. Schubring, 'Cassone Pictures in America', Art in America, XI, 1923, pp. 231-43
1931

G. Fiocco, Carpaccio, Rome 1931
1931

G. de Tervarent, La légende de Sainte Ursule dans la literature et l'art du Moyen-Âge, Paris 1931
1931

M. Dobroklonsky, 'Unbekannte Frühvenezianische Zeichnungen der Ermitage', Belvedere, X, 1931
1932

B. Berenson, Italian Pictures of the Renaissance: A List of the Principal Artists and Their Works, with an Index of Places, Oxford 1932
1936

B. Berenson, Pitture italiane del Rinascimento: Catalogo dei principali artisti e delle loro opere con un indice dei luoghi, Milan 1936
1944

H. Tietze and E. Tietze-Conrat, The Drawings of the Venetian Painters in the 15th and 16th Centuries, New York 1944
1951

Davies, Martin, National Gallery Catalogues: The Earlier Italian Schools, London 1951
1952

L. Vertova, Carpaccio, Milan 1952
1953

G. Robertson, Vittore Carpaccio. Lecture Delivered at the Courtauld Institute of Art, London 1953
1955

T. Pignatti, Carpaccio, Milan 1955
1957

B. Berenson, Italian Pictures of the Renaissance: A List of the Principal Artists and Their Works, with an Index of Places: Venetian School, 2 vols, London 1957
1958

G. Fiocco, Carpaccio, Novara 1958
1960

G. Perocco, Tutta la pittura del Carpaccio, Milan 1960
1961

R. Pallucchini, I teleri del Carpaccio in San Giorgio degli Schiavoni, Milan 1961
1962

J. Lauts, Carpaccio, Paintings and Drawings, London 1962
1963

F. Heinemann, 'Vittore Carpaccio: Zur Ausstellung im Dogenpalast in Venedig, 15 Juni - 6 Oktober 1963', Kunstchronik, 1963, pp. 237-46
1963

P. Zampetti, Vittorio Carpaccio (exh. cat. Doge’s Palace, 15 June - 6 October 1963), Venice 1963
1966

M. Muraro, Carpaccio, Floence 1966
1966

W. Pokorny, 'Carpaccio's Alcyone Cycle', The Burlington Magazine, CVIII, 1966, pp. 418-21
1967

M. Cancogni and G. Perocco, L'opera completa del Carpaccio, Milan 1967
1977

M. Muraro, I disegni di Vittore Carpaccio, Florence 1977
1979

V. Sgarbi, Carpaccio, Bologna 1979
1980

G.R. Goldner, 'A Late Fifteenth Century Venetian Painting of a Bird Hunt', J. Paul Getty Museum Journal, VIII, 1980, pp. 23-32
1986

Davies, Martin, National Gallery Catalogues: The Earlier Italian Schools, revised edn, London 1986
1991

P. Humfrey, Carpaccio, Florence 1991
1993

M. Lennon, 'Morelli and the Layard Collection: Influence as Intellectual Exchange', in G. Agosti (ed.), Giovanni Morelli e la Cultura dei Conoscitori: Atti del Convegno Internazionale, June 1987, Bergamo 1993, pp. 242-52
1994

V. Sgarbi, Carpaccio, New York 1994
1994

A. Thomas, An Illustrated Dictionary of Narrative Painting, London 1994
1994

L. Borean, 'Storie della Vergine di Carpaccio nella Scuola degli Albanesi', Saggi et memorie di storia dell'arte, 1994, pp. 23-72
1997

G. Riley, A Feast for the Eyes, London 1997
1998

L.C. Matthew, 'The Painter's Presence: Signatures in Venetian Renaissance Pictures', Art Bulletin, LXXX/4, 1998, pp. 616-48
2001

C. Baker and T. Henry, The National Gallery: Complete Illustrated Catalogue, London 2001

About this record

If you know more about this painting or have spotted an error, please contact us. Please note that exhibition histories are listed from 2009 onwards. Bibliographies may not be complete; more comprehensive information is available in the National Gallery Library.