Carpaccio the artist now getting his due

When most people think of "carpaccio," they think of the thinly sliced raw beef appetizer made famous by Venice's iconic Harry's Bar. Few people know that the dish is named for a lesser-known Venetian, the Renaissance painter Vittore Carpaccio, because of the intense red hues he favored.

Carpaccio the painter has recently received more attention outside his native Venice. In November, the National Gallery in Washington inaugurated the first retrospective exhibit of his work outside Italy. The show, "Vittore Carpaccio: Master Storyteller of Renaissance Venice," is set to move to Venice's showcase Palazzo Ducale on March 18.

The Washington exhibit includes two Carpaccio paintings that left Venice for the first time in more than 500 years.

"At first, we were a bit hesitant, because allowing these masterpieces to leave their natural habitat is always a risk," said Piergiorgio Millich, the grand guardian of the Scuola di San Giorgio degli Schiavon fraternity.

The Venice institution, also known as the Scuola Dalmata, or Dalmatian School, has 10 Carpaccio paintings, the most still under the roof of the same place that originally commissioned the artist's work.

Art conservator Valentina Piovan analyzed the works and undertook a yearlong restoration before she convinced the institution that some of the canvases could safely make the journey to Washington.

Piovan is now working on restoration of several other Carpaccios in the headquarters of the fraternity, which was founded in 1451 by a group of Venetians as a social center providing medical and spiritual support for members mostly sailors in the republic's naval fleet. When the fleet defeated the Ottomans in the Ottoman -Venetian wars, they were paid handsomely.

As a...