om 1496-98.

2. (On same canvas) Ursula discusses the proposal with her
father. 1496-98.

3. The King of Brittany dismisses the ambassadors. 1496-98.

4. The ambassadors return to the King of England. 1496-98.

5. An angel appears to Ursula in her sleep. 1492.

6, 7, 8. The betrothed couple take leave of their respective
parents, and the Prince meets Ursula. 1495.

9. The betrothed couple and the 11,000 virgins meet the Pope.
1492.

10. They arrive at Cologne. 1490.

11, 12. The massacre by the Huns. The Funeral. 1495.

13. The saint appears in glory, with the palm of martyrdom,
venerated by the 11,000 virgins and received in heaven by the
Eternal Father. 1491.

No. 10 is a small canvas, such as might naturally have been chosen for a
first experiment. The heads are large with coarse features, and the
proportions of the figures are poor. The face of the saint in glory (No.
13), plump and without much expression, is of the type of Bastiani's
saints. It may be assumed that such a great scheme of decoration would
not have been entrusted to any one who was not already well known as an
independent master, but perhaps Carpaccio, who would have been about
thirty when the work was begun, was still principally engrossed with the
conventional, ecclesiastical subject. The heads of the virgins pressing
round the saint appear to be portraits, and were very possibly those of
the wives and daughters of members of the confraternity.

The improvement that takes place is so rapid that we can guess how
congenial the painter found the task and how quickly he adapted his
already trained talent. In No. 5 he takes delight in the opportunity for
painting a little domestic scene,--the bedroom of a young Venetian girl,
perhaps a sister of his own. The comfortable bed, the dainty furniture,
are carefully drawn. The clear morning light streams into the room. The
saint lies peacefully asleep, her hand under her head, her long
eyelashes resting upon her cheek: the whole is an idyll, full of insight
into girlish life. The tiny slippers made, no doubt, one of the details
that caught his eye. The crown lying on the ledge of the bed is an
arbitrary introduction, as naif as the angel. In the funeral scene the
luminous light is diffused over all, the young saint lies upon her bier
and is followed by priest and deacon, the crowd is composed with truth
to nature, the draperies