PISANELLO TO CIMA DA CONEGLIANO 



Vittore Carpaccio did not stop at the delineation Carpaccio, 

 of everyday life. Dragons, basilisks, and unicorns 

 were commonplaces to him. To confine ourselves, 

 however, to creatures with which most of us are more 

 familiar : in the Baptisjn of the Princess in the St. 

 George series (Venice, San Giorgio degli Schiavoni), 

 is a large scarlet parrot which nibbles a plant in the 

 foreground, as well as a greyhound on leash, with elabo- 

 rate collar, sitting up facing the spectator. Some care 

 was evidently taken about the collar of a favourite dog : 

 with this may be compared that with hawk-bills on the 

 little dog which sits up to one of the courtesans in the 

 picture in the Correr Museum, Venice, and with that 

 on the hound in the right-hand foreground of Gentile 

 da Fabriano's Adoration, or on the large dog in 

 Veronese's Adoration in the National Gallery. 



In the scene where St. George kills the dragon, 

 everything is designed to emphasise the horror of the 

 fearsome creature's lair. Amongst the dead and dis- 

 membered bodies of unsuccessful champions are to be 

 seen snakes (one has caught a frog and is holding 

 it in his mouth), lizards, and a toad. The lizards 

 in particular are painted with sure observation of 

 their attitudes and of such points as the wrinkling 

 of the skin at the neck as the head is quickly turned. 



To represent one as gnawing at the body of the 



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