Picture of Vittore Carpaccio “Meeting of Saint Ursula and pilgrims with the Roman Pope Kyriak”. The size of the canvas is 281 x 307 cm, canvas, tempera.
A picture from the cycle “The Life of Saint Ursula”. According to legend, Ursula was the daughter of the British King Maura, famous for its beauty and intelligence.
The English king asked for her hand for his son, but Ursula’s father, a Christian, did not want to give his daughter for a pagan. But Ursula herself convinced her father to accept the offer, foreseeing the conversion of her fiance to Christianity. And it happened. Ursula, accompanied by the groom and girlfriends, visited the Pope.
On the way back, they stopped at Cologne, which at that time was attacked by the Huns. Here, the saint and her friends suffered martyrdom for their faith. On this canvas, the solemn moment of the meeting between Ursula and the pope was recorded.