VERONESE, PAOLO

Veronese, Paolo: translation

(Paolo Caliari; 1528-1588)

Master from the Venetian School who competed for commissions withTintorettoandTitian. Veronese was from the city of Verona, hence his surname, where he was trained by a local painter named Antonio Badile. In 1553, at 25, he moved toVenicewhere he became one of the city's leading and most innovative masters. Veronese particularly excelled at rendering illusionistic ceilings, as theTriumph of Mordecai(1556) at San Sebastiano and theTriumph of Venicein the Hall of the Great Council at theDoge's Palace(c. 1585) demonstrate. In 1560, the artist traveled toRomeand upon his return he received the commission to paint a series of allegorical and contemporary scenes in the Villa Barbaro at Maser for Marcantonio andDaniele Barbaro. These works show that Veronese closely studied Raphael'sfrescoesin theVilla Farnesina, Rome (1513-1518), as some of the figures are borrowed from that source. In 1563, Veronese worked on theMarriage at Canain therefectoryof the Benedictine Monastery of San Giorgio Maggiore, Venice, a scene that depicts Christ's first miracle as a contemporary Venetian banquet. The figures are dressed in sumptuous costumes and engaged in eating and conversation. In the foreground, the three musicians who entertain the crowd are portraits of the artists Jacopo Bassano, Titian, and Veronese himself. With this, Veronese compared the art of painting to music to argue for the placement of his craft, which until then was considered a manual labor, among the liberal arts.Veronese'sMarsandVenusUnited by Love(c. 1570; New York, Metropolitan Museum),Allegory of Love(1570; London, National Gallery), andRape of Europa(1580; Venice, Doge's Palace) exemplify his ability to render sensuous and luxurious mythological and allegorical scenes.

In 1573 Veronese painted theFeast in the House of Levi(Venice, Galleria dell' Accademia) for the refectory of theDominicanMonastery of Santi Giovanni e Paolo in Venice, for which he was summoned to the tribunal of the Inquisition. Its judges deemed the presence of buffoons, dwarfs, inebriated figures, and animals in the painting to be inappropriate for the depiction of the Lord'sLast Supper, the work's original subject. Veronese was able to avoid the charges of heresy levied against him simply by changing the painting's title.

Veronese'sdi sotto in sùexperiments had much to do with the development of illusionistic ceilings in Italy, as it paved the way for the grandBaroqueceiling frescoes ofGiovanni Lanfranco, Pietro da Cortona, and later Giovanni Battista Gauli and Andrea Pozzo. His mythologies, with their exceptional colorism, shimmering fabric effects, and lush brushwork, were also a major force, inspiring artists such asPeter Paul RubensandAnthony van Dyck.