The Stoning of St Stephen

The last canvas of the cycle, painted many years later as we can see from the date, 1520, on the scroll, shows the Stoning of St Stephen; it is now in the Staatsgalerie in Stuttgart. Here Carpaccio displays a totally mannered use of colour, bright and translucid in the scene of the martyrdom, and soft and veiled in the depiction of the mythical Jerusalem, enclosed by its high walls, each detail of its buildings described with care, and in the groups of figures themselves, patches of colour that shine in the light that varies according to the filtering action of the clouds in front of the sun.