Two Venetian Ladies

For a long time these two richly dressed women, seated among their pets on a Venetian balcony with heavy-lidded, faraway looks, were taken for bored courtesans waiting on clients. Then in the 20th century a second panel came to light. It fits directly above this one, and it shows men out in flat boats hunting birds on the lagoon. The women are not idle. They are watching their own menfolk at the hunt, and the whole thing was probably the shutter of a window or a cabinet, later cut in two. Look at the small details Carpaccio loved, the lily in a majolica vase, the peacock, the two dogs, and a boy's red platform clogs left on the floor, which is what once helped brand these ladies as courtesans.