Stories from the Life of St Stephen (1511-20)

In the decade during which Titian replaced Giovanni Bellini as the major protagonist of the Renaissance in Venice, Vittore Carpaccio carried out his last important commission, apparently with little help from assistants. This makes the cycle the best text through which to study Carpaccio's development in his last period. Once again, it was the decoration commissioned by a minor Scuola. The Confraternity of St Stephen (Scuola dei Lanieri a Santo Stefano), which in 1476 had enlarged its headquarters right near the church consecrated to the saint, on a piece of land belonging to the Augustinians, called on Carpaccio, who was obviously considered the specialist in pictorial cycles of this kind; he was commissioned five canvases illustrating episodes from the life of their patron saint.

The series was broken up in 1806, when the religious houses were suppressed, and has been scattered between various museums. The St Stephen Being Consecrated Deacon by St Peter is in the Staatliche Museen, Berlin; the Sermon of St Stephen in the Louvre, Paris; the Disputation of St Stephen in the Brera, Milan; the Stoning of St Stephen in the Staatsgalerie, Stuttgart. The fifth painting, the Trial of St Stephen is lost, but it is known through a copy and some drawings.