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The Metamorphosis of Alcyone

c. 1502-1507
Vittore Carpaccio (Italian (active Venice), first documented 1490, died 1523/26)

After learning that her husband had died at sea, Alcyone threw herself into the sea and drowned. The gods took pity on the couple and changed them into kingfishers.

John G. Johnson acquired this panel from the heirs of the great English critic John Ruskin, whose writing on Venetian art and architecture had a great influence on nineteenth-century connoisseurs and travelers.


Object Details

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