St. Augustine in His Study

Carpaccio finished this around 1502 for a small Venetian confraternity of Dalmatian immigrants, part of a cycle on their patron saints. It shows Saint Augustine, the early Christian scholar, interrupted mid-letter: he was writing to his friend Jerome and looks up toward the window because he has just heard Jerome's voice telling him he has died. The strange thing is the room. It is not a study from around the year 400 but a bright, up-to-date Venetian scholar's studio of Carpaccio's own day, lined with books, an astrolabe, sheet music and scientific instruments. A little white dog sits on the floor watching its master, oblivious to the voice. For centuries the picture was thought to show Jerome himself, until scholars read the scene correctly.