VERONESE, Paolo

The Chapel of Our Lady of the Rosary was destroyed by fire in 1867. The restored chapel was reopened only in 1959. The new carved ceiling of the nave continues to the presbytery and includes other paintings by Veronese. In the centre, there is the quatrefoil Adoration of the Magi, at the sides the Four Evangelists. These paintings come from the deconsecrated church of Nicolò in Lattuga.

Sumptuous fabrics, Eastern costumes, outlandish animals - all the typical attributes of medieval and Renaissance compositions of the Adoration of the Magi - were known to Veronese not just from his predecessors’ works. Venice in its golden age was Europe’s richest commercial port and abounded in exotica. In Veronese’s painting, its joyous motley was reflected more brightly than in the works of his great contemporaries, Titian, Tintoretto and the rest: it passed directly into his palette.

The Chapel of Our Lady of the Rosary was destroyed by fire in 1867. The restored chapel was reopened only in 1959. In the new carved ceiling of the nave, three oval paintings by Veronese, which were once in the deconsecrated church of the Umiltà on the Zattere, were inset: the Adoration of the Shepherds, the Assumption, and the Annunciation. They are works of very high chromatic quality and great inventiveness of composition, and can be considered to be on the same level as the scenes he painted for the ceiling of the nave in San Sebastiano.

The Chapel of Our Lady of the Rosary was destroyed by fire in 1867. The restored chapel was reopened only in 1959. In the new carved ceiling of the nave, three oval paintings by Veronese, which were once in the deconsecrated church of the Umiltà on the Zattere, were inset: the Adoration of the Shepherds, the Assumption, and the Annunciation. They are works of very high chromatic quality and great inventiveness of composition, and can be considered to be on the same level as the scenes he painted for the ceiling of the nave in San Sebastiano.

In addition to the oval ceiling painting Adoration of the Shepherds, another, rectangular version of the same subject by Veronese is displayed on the end wall of the Chapel of Our Lady of the Rosary.

The painting is on the altar of the main chapel of the church of San Giuseppe di Castello.

This oval painting is on the left of the main picture (Jupiter Hurling Thunderbolts at the Vices) on the ceiling of the Sala del Consiglio dei Dieci in the Palazzo Ducale.

For the Venetian painter Palma il Giovane, it was a masterpiece of painting: in this, he considered Veronese had achieved something extraordinary, successfully blending the greatest advances made in antiquity with his own maniera. The subject of the picture is not known, the modern name being just for convenience. The bearded old man, sunk in thought on the ruins of ancient architecture, may have reminded Palma of pictures of classical philosophers.

There are many interpretative cruxes in the introspective allegory, whose subject is as obscure as its colour is bright: Youth and Old Age, or Venice and the East, or Venus and Saturn.

This canvas is one of a series of four evidently representing various attributes of love, or perhaps different stages of love culminating in happy union. They were clearly designed as compartments of a decorated ceiling and might conceivably relate to a nuptial bedchamber. Veronese used this type of ‘oblique perspective’ for ceiling decorations in Venice: the angle of foreshortening corresponds to a viewpoint obliquely beneath the painting, avoiding the extreme distortion of figures imagined as directly above the viewer’s head. By 1637 the four allegories, now all in the National Gallery, were recorded in the collection at Prague of the Emperor Rudolph II, the great art patron of his age, who probably commissioned them.

The appearance of all four paintings has been badly affected by the irreversible discoloration of the smalt - a comparatively cheap blue pigment made from pulverised glass coloured with cobalt oxide - used to paint the sky, which now gives it a pale grey tinge instead of its original warm blue. With age, some of the green copper resinates of the foliage have oxidised to brown. In most respects this is the best preserved of the four pictures, and the one where Veronese’s own hand, as opposed to his workshop assistants’, is most visible.

In the 1570s, Veronese did not confine his attention to religious subjects. He was also intensively active in the field of profane painting, often with an erotic content. The series of the so-called Allegories of Love in the National Gallery in London belongs to the latter group. The four painting, which were probably originally intended to decorate the ceiling of a single room, were in the eighteenth century entitled Infidelity, Disillusionment, Respect, and Happy Union. However, since then the paintings have been given differing interpretations. The most widely accepted hypothesis is that they represent the sorrows and pleasures of love in contrasting pairs - joy and disenchantment, faithfulness and unfaithfulness.

Wisdom, personified by a female figure, looks upward to heaven, standing over a globe symbolizing the world. Below her are crowns, scepters, jewels, coins, and military banners. Cupid sits on the right, while Hercules with his lion’s skin stands as a symbol of power.

The Announcing Angel and the Virgin of the Annunciation, with their limpid colours and iridescent vibrations, are painted on the pendentives of the triumphal arch that leads into the presbytery.

The Chapel of Our Lady of the Rosary was destroyed by fire in 1867. The restored chapel was reopened only in 1959. In the new carved ceiling of the nave, three oval paintings by Veronese, which were once in the deconsecrated church of the Umiltà on the Zattere, were inset: the Adoration of the Shepherds, the Assumption, and the Annunciation. They are works of very high chromatic quality and great inventiveness of composition, and can be considered to be on the same level as the scenes he painted for the ceiling of the nave in San Sebastiano.

The Chapel of Our Lady of the Rosary was destroyed by fire in 1867. The restored chapel was reopened only in 1959. In the new carved ceiling of the nave, three oval paintings by Veronese, which were once in the deconsecrated church of the Umiltà on the Zattere, were inset: the Adoration of the Shepherds, the Assumption, and the Annunciation. They are works of very high chromatic quality and great inventiveness of composition, and can be considered to be on the same level as the scenes he painted for the ceiling of the nave in San Sebastiano.

In this painting the space is divided into two distinct fields. The foreground, where the Annunciation is taking place, is demarcated by the patterned tiling on the floor.. Where this floor ends, we encounter a space open to the light, in which stands an ensemble of monumental architecture offering a glimpse of countryside through an arch.

This painting was commissioned by the Venetian government for the ceiling of the Sala del Maggior Consiglio of the Palazzo Ducale. It is one of the thirty five panels on the ceiling.

Rising above the bank of clouds, the royally garbed personification of Venice sits enthroned between the twin towers of the city’s Arsenal, about to be crowned with laurel by flying victories. Arrayed at her feet and offering her wise counsel are personifications of peace, abundance, fame, happiness, honour, security, and freedom. An especially splendid triumphal arch, fronted by twisting columns, marks the top of an enormous balcony which seems to burst through the ceiling into the ether beyond in order to accommodate the multitudes of celebrating people stipulated in the commission. At the base, Venice’s smiling subjects seem undisturbed by the enormous size and energy of careening horsemen in their midst reminder of Venice’s considerable military might. Illusionistic foreshortenings and dramatic light effects serve to give political allegory a previously unimagined dynamism and visual excitement.

As one of the three great pictures for the ceiling of the Sala del Maggior Consiglio, this crowded scene glorifies the enthroned personification of Venetia among the gods of Olympus as a symbol of eternal rule. Bold foreshortened perspectives catch the viewer’s eye as much as the variety of figures and splendour of the painted architecture.

This painting was commissioned by the Venetian government for the ceiling of the Sala del Maggior Consiglio of the Palazzo Ducale. It is one of the thirty five panels on the ceiling.

Of the numerous paintings in the Sala del Maggior Consiglio, Veronese’s is the one that best fits into the complicated set of frames in the Mannerist style: in fact the grandiose painted architecture, with cornices and terraces supported by imposing spiral columns, seems to be a continuation of the structures outside the picture itself. Venice is enthroned on a cloud, ringed by a large number of deities representing her economic and political power, forming an opulent court of beautiful naked women and elegantly dressed lords. Lower down, numerous equally elegantly attired Venetian ladies and several prelates look out from a balcony, while on the lowest level we see the Venetian people and a number of warriors, mounted on sturdy horses.

The wooden ceiling of the Salon of the Biblioteca (Libreria) Marciana contains twenty-one canvases painted between 1556 and 1559 by seven different artists, chosen, according to the records, by Jacopo Sansovino and Titian. The side walls are also richly decorated with canvases by various hands representing the Philosophers. Paolo Veronese did the two beside the portal, Plato and Aristotle.

The Chapel of Our Lady of the Rosary was destroyed by fire in 1867. The restored chapel was reopened only in 1959. In the new carved ceiling of the nave, three oval paintings by Veronese, which were once in the deconsecrated church of the Umiltà on the Zattere, were inset: the Adoration of the Shepherds, the Assumption, and the Annunciation. They are works of very high chromatic quality and great inventiveness of composition, and can be considered to be on the same level as the scenes he painted for the ceiling of the nave in San Sebastiano.

The Chapel of Our Lady of the Rosary was destroyed by fire in 1867. The restored chapel was reopened only in 1959. In the new carved ceiling of the nave, three oval paintings by Veronese, which were once in the deconsecrated church of the Umiltà on the Zattere, were inset: the Adoration of the Shepherds, the Assumption, and the Annunciation.

This big canvas - among other paintings by the Veronese workshop - once embellished the ceiling of the refectory in the now-destroyed San Giacomo Monastery on the Giudecca. If the Assumption derived from a joint effort, as sources indicate, Veronese himself is certainly responsible for the overall conception, which is clearly Mannerist and much indebted to the schools of Correggio and Parmigianino.

Veronese represented the subject of the Assumption of the Virgin several times in his late works, with intimate and suggestive accents. The version in the Gallerie dell’Accademia in Venice was painted for the church of Santa Maria Maggiore. It depicts the ecstatic figures of the apostles looking on in devout wonder as the Virgin ascends into heaven, accompanied by two large winged angels and surrounded by a glory of cherubs that give off a great light, while the clouds on the right are rent to reveal a celestial group of angels playing music.

In the northern lunette of the Sala dell’Olimpo Bacchus and Ceres personify summer and autumn. Ceres, the goddess who taught the human race agriculture, is easy to recognize by the shafts of wheat in her hand and in her hair. The juice that Bacchus squeezes from a bunch of grapes is caught in a bowl by Ceres. The pair is surrounded by four additional figures, perhaps the Hours.

This ceiling fresco, which has lent its name to the room (Stanza di Bacco), has been variously interpreted. As a symbol of all-creative Nature, the vegetation god Bacchus, who is pressing the juice from grapes into a chalice, refers to the agricultural use of the villa. However, the combination with Saturn is unusual. Together with Bacchus, who appears here in the form of Apollo as leader of the muses, the old Roman god, lost in reverie as he listens to the music, seems to be an allusion to the harmony of the spheres.

The painting was formerly in the church of S. Nicolò ai Frari, Venice, which has been destroyed.

The painting is organized as a continuous narration. On the left is the baptism, a theme usually handled statically by Veronese but here so animated that the action almost explodes around the dove of the Holy Ghost. On the right is the Temptation, with Christ being offered the possession of the kingdoms of the earth. Airy architecture dominates the landscape, into which the cities of the world have been crowded. The fabulous, invented Oriental architecture anticipates Borromini and Guarini.

Baptism of Christ is the only Veronese’s painting in Santissimo Redentore in Venice. It stands in the Sacristy of the church.

This small painting, originally placed on the left of the altar of the Rosary in the church of St. Peter Martyr on Murano, is probably an ex-voto commissioned by Pietro Giustinian of Murano who took part in the naval battle at Lepanto on October 7th 1571 when the Turkish fleet was defeated thanks mainly to the Venetian ships. The play of tone and light in the lower part depicting the battle is masterly. In the top part, above a curtain of cloud, the Saints Peter, Roch, Justine and Mark implore the Virgin to grant victory to the Christian fleet. In answer to this an angel hurls burning arrows at the Turkish vessels.

Suggested listening (streaming mp3, 12 minutes):

Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber: The Battle, suite

In the sumptuous Salone, designed by Jacopo Sansovino, on the walls is the series of Philosophers by Titian, Veronese, and Andrea Schiavone. The rich ceiling with allegorical scenes is by seven painters chosen by Titian and Sansovino. The tondi with personifications of music and honour are by Paolo Veronese who with these paintings won the golden chain given as a competition prize by the two artists.

On the ceiling of the Stanza dell’Amore Coniugale (Room of Conjugal Love) is a scene that gives the room its name: Hymen between Juno and Venus with a Betrothed Couple. In the upper zone of the walls are other allegorical figures tied to the subject of matrimony.

The picture shows a detail of the ceiling decoration in the Stanza dell’Amore Coniugale.

The picture shows a detail of the ceiling decoration in the Stanza dell’Amore Coniugale.

The themes on the ceiling of the Sala del Collegio refer to the Virtues of the Republic and to the symbols of its dominion: the sea and military strength, together with Religion and Faith, Peace and Justice.

The picture shows a detail of the ceiling of the Sala del Collegio.

The picture shows a detail of the ceiling of the Sala del Collegio.

The picture shows a detail of the ceiling of the Sala del Collegio.

This detail of the ceiling of the Sala del Collegio represents Dialectics with the Spider Web.

This detail of the ceiling of the Sala del Collegio represents Meekness with the Lamb.

The wooden ceiling of the Sala del Consiglio dei Dieci (Council of Ten) is decorated with canvases by Paolo Veronese. The sumptuous pictorial decoration celebrates the glories and triumphs of Venice. Subjects include Juno Showering Gifts on Venetia, as well as the great oval with Jupiter Hurling Thunderbolts at the Vices (the latter is now in the Louvre, Paris and has been replaced by a 19th-century copy).

At the centre of the vault is an extremely luminous representation of Faith, shown in the act of pointing out to Charity, protector of the poor, a symbol of Eternity consisting of a circle formed by a snake biting its tail and enclosing the terretrial globe.

The colourful fresco decoration of the Villa Barbaro reaches its climax in the Sala dell’Olimpo. The ceiling shows Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Apollo, Venus, Mercury and Diana, the seven gods of the sky, gathered around the figure of a woman riding a headless snake, who has been interpreted, inter alia, as an allegory of divine wisdom. As Richard Cocke has explained, however, it could be Thalia, who in conjunction with the eight muses of the transept and the gods of the sky illustrates the real theme of the dome fresco, i.e. the harmony of the spheres. The adjacent pictorial fields in the octagon illustrate the elements of fire, earth, water and air, represented by figures of the gods Vulcan, Cybele, Neptune and Juno. In between, they include four allegories inscribed in cartouches.

The colourful fresco decoration of the Villa Barbaro reaches its climax in the Sala dell’Olimpo. The ceiling shows Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Apollo, Venus, Mercury and Diana, the seven gods of the sky, gathered around the figure of a woman riding a headless snake, who has been interpreted, inter alia, as an allegory of divine wisdom. As Richard Cocke has explained, however, it could be Thalia, who in conjunction with the eight muses of the transept and the gods of the sky illustrates the real theme of the dome fresco, i.e. the harmony of the spheres. The adjacent pictorial fields in the octagon illustrate the elements of fire, earth, water and air, represented by figures of the gods Vulcan, Cybele, Neptune and Juno. In between, they include four allegories inscribed in cartouches.

The fire in the Doges Palace in 1574 also destroyed the decoration in the Sala del Collegio. Restoration work commenced immediately, and Veronese was commissioned to do the ceiling paintings.

The picture shows paintings by Veronese in the gilt wooden ceiling of the Sala del Collegio.

The three central panels (Mars and Neptune; Faith and Religion; Venice Ruling with Justice and Peace) are surrounded by eight more canvases of alternating “T” and “L” shapes containing personifications of the Christian Virtues, interspersed on the longer sides by six more monochrome panels with Scenes from the Greek and Roman History. The allegorical program, the glorification of the “good governance” of the Venetian Republic, is clearly defined in the inscriptions that appear in the coffers next to the three biggest canvases: “Robur imperii” above Mars and Neptune, “Nunquam derelicta” and “Reipublicae fundamentum” above and below Faith and Religion and “Custodes libertatis” under Venice Ruling with Justice and Peace.

The eight figures of the Virtues can be identified by the attributes that accompany them: a dog for Fidelity, a lamb for Gentleness, an ermine for Purity, a die and a crown for Reward, an eagle for Moderation, a cobweb for Dialectics, a crane for Vigilance and a cornucopia for Prosperity. These sumptuous female figures dressed in silks and brocades, splendid in their precious and limpid decorative effects and wonderfully lustrous and transparent colours, almost cancel out the limits of the restricted space to which they are confined by their lavish gilded frames, for they are set against an architectural background that seems to extend from one panel to another, creating a marvelous unity of space. The three central panels on the contrary, though characterized by the same colorings as the individual figures, appear to be separate.

The fire in the Doges Palace in 1574 also destroyed the decoration in the Sala del Collegio. Restoration work commenced immediately, and Veronese was commissioned to do the ceiling paintings.

The picture shows paintings by Veronese in the gilt wooden ceiling of the Sala del Collegio.

The three central panels (Mars and Neptune; Faith and Religion; Venice Ruling with Justice and Peace) are surrounded by eight more canvases of alternating “T” and “L” shapes containing personifications of the Christian Virtues, interspersed on the longer sides by six more monochrome panels with Scenes from the Greek and Roman History. The allegorical program, the glorification of the “good governance” of the Venetian Republic, is clearly defined in the inscriptions that appear in the coffers next to the three biggest canvases: “Robur imperii” above Mars and Neptune, “Nunquam derelicta” and “Reipublicae fundamentum” above and below Faith and Religion and “Custodes libertatis” under Venice Ruling with Justice and Peace.

The eight figures of the Virtues can be identified by the attributes that accompany them: a dog for Fidelity, a lamb for Gentleness, an ermine for Purity, a die and a crown for Reward, an eagle for Moderation, a cobweb for Dialectics, a crane for Vigilance and a cornucopia for Prosperity. These sumptuous female figures dressed in silks and brocades, splendid in their precious and limpid decorative effects and wonderfully lustrous and transparent colours, almost cancel out the limits of the restricted space to which they are confined by their lavish gilded frames, for they are set against an architectural background that seems to extend from one panel to another, creating a marvelous unity of space. The three central panels on the contrary, though characterized by the same colorings as the individual figures, appear to be separate.

The picture shows paintings by Veronese in the gilt wooden ceiling of the Sala del Collegio.

A narrative scene painted on a wall as a framed picture was referred to as a “quadro riportato,” which to seventeenth-century thinking suggested that a framed panel painting had been translated into the medium of fresco. If a picture with the perspective of a panel painting is shifted to the ceiling, it is called a “quadro finto” (fictitious picture). In such a case the painted architectural framing is replaced by a painted or three-dimensional picture frame.

Another solution for ceiling decoration was realized by Veronese in the Palazzo Ducale in Venice. He simply inserted his complex program of pictures structured in different sizes and shapes into the massive coffering system as true canvases.

Immediately under the ceiling painting in the Stanza del Cane there are two allegorical pairs of figures, on one side the personification of Chance (another form of Fortune) crowning a sleeping man, on the other side Saturn (who was also understood as the personification of time) and Historia.

In the last decade of his life Veronese painted a major cycle of religious pictures made up of ten oblong canvases of equal size inspired by stories from the Old and New Testament, known to scholars as the Duke of Buckingham series, after the name of the nobleman who owned them in the early seventeenth century. The canvases, now divided among the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, which has seven of them, the National Gallery in Washington (one) and the Narodni Galerie in Prague (two), were probably intended for a convent. They are the following: Lot and his Daughters Leaving Sodom, Hagar in the Wilderness, Rebecca at the Well, Susanna and the Elders, Esther and Ahasver, Adoration of the Shepherds, Christ and the Centurion, Christ and the Adulteress, Christ and the Woman of Samaria, and Christ Washing the Feet of the Disciples.

The striking feature of the series, to which the canvas Christ Washing the Feet of the Disciples belongs, is the unusual monumentality of the figures, most of them located in the foreground.

The Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane was originally in the Santa Maria Maggiore in Venice. In this painting Veronese repeats the scheme of composition inaugurated in the baptism for San Nicolò, once again placing the figures of Christ and the great winged angel supporting him, caught in an unexpected gleam of light, on the left, while the figures of the sleeping apostles, much smaller in size, are arranged in a deeply shadowed landscape on the right.

On the ceiling decoration of the Sala del Maggior Consiglio great importance was given to the victories of the Venetian army in conquering the mainland; along the wall to the dispute between Alexander III and Frederick Barbarossa, who reached an agreement in Venice with the political mediation of Doge Sebastiano Ziani; and to the events of the Fourth Crusade, led by Doge Enrico Dandolo in the early years of the 13th century.

Veronese’s Conquest of Smyrna is one of the thirty five panels on the ceiling of the Sala del Maggior Consiglio. It depicts Pietro Mocenigo leading the attack on Smyrna.

The interpretation of the subject is controversial. The Magdalene’s usual attribute of a pot of ointment is missing, and therefore the crowded painting has been rather unconvincingly interpreted as Jesus and the Woman Taken in Adultery (St. John 8, 3 —11) or even The Healing of the Woman with the Issue of Blood {St. Mark 5, 25-34).

St Pantaleon was such a famous doctor that Emperor Diocletian himself chose him for his own doctor. Pantaleon was a Christian, but the bad influence from the pagan court caused him to give up his Christian faith entirely. A holy priest made him realize what a sin he had committed. Pantaleon listened to him, detested his sin and joined the Church once more. To make up for what he had done, he greatly desired to suffer and die for Jesus. In the meantime, he imitated Our Lord’s charity by taking care of poor sick people without any charge for his medical services.

When the Emperor Diocletian began his persecution, Pantaleon was accused of being a Christian. He was given the choice of denying his Faith or being put to death. No torture could force Pantaleon to deny his Faith.

In Veronese’s painting we have a challenging confrontation of human medicine with divine, and the healing of the body with the healing of the soul. The good parish priest solicitously support the poisoned youth and seems to reiterate that the illumination of grace does not exempt the believer from the duty to perform good works.

This ceiling painting in the sacristy of San Sebastiano has an unusual iconography compared with older depictions. Mary is being crowned by Christ, while God the Father touches His Son’s shoulder with his left hand. The date of completion of the ceiling painting is recorded in a book in one of the four corner tondos held by a winged angel. The inscription reads: M.D.L.V./ DIE XXIII/ NOVEMBER (November 23, 1555).

In the last decade of his life Veronese painted a large decorative cycle of eleven canvases for the Venetian church of San Nicolò dei Frari, popularly known as San Nicolò della Lattuga, which was stripped of its ornaments in 1806. Three of the paintings (Saint Nicholas named Bishop of Myra, Saint Francis receiving the Stigmata and the Crucifixion) are now in the Gallerie dell’Accademia in Venice. The Adoration of the Magi, surrounded by four figures of Evangelists, was adapted and mounted on the ceiling of the presbytery of the chapel of the Rosary in Santi Giovanni e Paolo in 1929. The large canvas depicting the Baptism and Temptations of Christ, formerly in the chancel of San Nicolò, was transferred to Brera in 1809. Finally, the two Prophets in monochrome that were originally located at the sides of the high altar are now in the Fondazione Cini in Venice.

In his narration of the episodes Veronese gave expression to a dramatic tension, an intensely emotional involvement that was certainly unprecedented in his earlier handling of similar subjects. To achieve this, he profoundly modified his normal modes of expression, creating new structures of composition that he would use frequently in his paintings from this moment on.

In the scene of the Crucifixion the figure of Christ is placed on the left-hand side of the picture and is given great prominence simply by its location. Similarly, the whole right-hand side of the painting is taken up by the landscape with numerous agitated figures of horsemen and bystanders in the foreground.

It is debatable whether this picture (which once belonged to the Cologne-born Paris banker Everard Jabach (1610-1695) but by 1683 at the latest was in the possession of the French king Louis XIV) is identical with a picture on the same subject described by Marco Boschini in the Casa Garzoni in Venice in 1660.

The arrangement of the crosses links the picture with an incomparably more dramatic Crucifixion painted for the Venetian church of San Nicolo della Lattuga (Gallerie dell’ Accademia, Venice). Both works display the same glowing colors and the occasional borrowing from Tintoretto. Particularly memorable is the shrouded figure in the yellow robe, which is often identified as Mary Magdalene, but is more probably Synagoga, the personification of Judaism.

Veronese painted numerous Crucifixions toward the end of his life. Only in the canvas now in the Louvre did he stick to the scheme used in the picture of the same subject painted for San Nicolò della Lattuga, placing the crosses of Christ and the thieves on the left and devoting the right-hand part of the painting to the figures of bystanders and the landscape. In the others (in the Venetian churches of San Sebastiano and San Lazzaro dei Mendicanti) he isolated Christ’s cross at the centre of the painting, placing the figures of mourners at its foot. Common to all these works is the dramatic intensity of the image, accentuated by luministic effects and by the presence of dark storm clouds and oppressive and vaporous landscapes. The presence of blood flowing freely over Christ’s body from the wounds in his side and hands is particularly significant, underlining the concept of the purification of humanity through the blood of the Redeemer.

This Crucifixion leads us through a long, episodic narrative held together by the view of Jerusalem in the background. It anticipates the landscape conventions of the succeeding century, especially in the huge repoussoir cavalry, as well as in the doleful, disorderly procession moving towards the starkly lit figure of Christ crucified.

Around 1560-61, Veronese was commissioned by Daniele Barbaro to provide the interior frescoes for Barbaro’s Palladian villa in Maser. The artist and his client had probably been acquainted since the early 1550s. A dating of 1556 has been suggested, based on Barbaro’s edition of Vitruvius published in 1556 and the two volumes of this edition lying on the table. However, in view of the rather more aged appearance of the subject, a dating to the first half of the 1560s looks preferable. The upended book in front of a globe depicts a small putto on the left pointing with a rod at a geometrical proportion drawing. As this figure appears in the corresponding illustration of the Vitruvius edition sideways on, slightly averted and also wholly without clothing, it might be presumed that it was Veronese himself who provided the drawing on which this illustration is based. Likewise, the volume on the table - the page open shows parts of the title page of the Dieci libri - alludes to the clerics real sphere of activity. Though he had been appointed Patriarch of Aquileia, he devoted himself mainly to humanistic studies and architectural theory. Veronese catches the physiognomy of the subject and his apparatus in paint with unusual precision. This was evidently a response to his client, whose interest lay in precision in his own field of activity.

Veronese’s images of the Lamentation (he painted several versions of this subject) often convey a haunting reminder of a happy world, thereby increasing the pathos of the Passion. In this painting the heightened sensibility is achieved by the shocking contrast between flashes of elegant drapery (the angels’ suavely tinted attire) and Christ still-beautiful, abused flesh. Such calculated inconsistency can make suffering far more moving than a more predictable, uniform pall.

Many of the Veronese’s paintings that can be dated to the period prior to 1550 contain typical Mannerist elements. Common to all these works are a graphic structure of evident Mannerist inspiration and the superb quality of the colour, characterized by the contrast of paler tones, enlivened by luminous reflections.

The eight figures of the Virtues can be identified by the attributes that accompany them: a dog for Fidelity, a lamb for Gentleness, an ermine for Purity, a die and a crown for Reward, an eagle for Moderation, a cobweb for Dialectics, a crane for Vigilance and a cornucopia for Prosperity. These sumptuous female figures dressed in silks and brocades, splendid in their precious and limpid decorative effects and wonderfully lustrous and transparent colours, almost cancel out the limits of the restricted space to which they are confined by their lavish gilded frames, for they are set against an architectural background that seems to extend from one panel to another, creating a marvelous unity of space.

This picture shows the Dialectics of “T” shape.

The end wall of the Stanze del Cane (Room of the Dog) is decorated with an illusionistic landscape. Above, in the lunette, the Holy Family with St Catherine and the Infant St John is depicted. The room received its name owing to the presence of a small dog curled up on one side of the room.

The end wall of the Stanze del Cane (Room of the Dog) is decorated with an illusionistic landscape. Above, in the lunette, the Holy Family with St Catherine and the Infant St John is depicted. The room received its name owing to the presence of a small dog curled up on one side of the room.

Paolo Veronese left his native Verona in 1553 to settle in Venice where he came under the influence of the Venetian figurative tradition and then Mannerism, in particular of Parmigianino and Giulio Romano. The rich and complex arrangement of his compositions is matched by a brilliant use of colour, characterized by the juxtaposition of complementary colours and a vibrant solar light. One of Veronese’s principal works of the 1560s, the ‘Enthroned Madonna and Child, with the Infant St John the Baptist and Saints’ was painted for the Sacristy of the Venetian Renaissance church of San Zaccaria (restored in 1562). It is a fine example of the early works of Veronese with its harmonious richness of colour.

The saints represented in this altarpiece (called Pala di San Zaccaria) are Joseph, Jerome, Justina of Padua and Francis. The young John the Baptist stands at the meeting point of the two compositional diagonals formed by the figures of St. Joseph, St Francis and St Jerome, who are invested with a look of detached spirituality. The colour is made vibrant by a continual juxtaposition of light and dark tones. Through an understanding of the interaction of colour every hue is intensified and enriched. The diapason of Veronesian colour is achieved in the portrayal of the Virgin and child set against the damask of the niche.

This altarpiece still shows the influence of Mannerist culture in the calculated asymmetry of the group of the Madonna and Child and the affected poses of some of the saints. Unfettered by convention, Veronese has placed the infant St John the Baptist half naked at the centre of the composition.

The picture shows one of the three large paintings on the ceiling of the nave of the church of San Sebastiano: Esther Crowned by Ahasuerus (rectangular, in the centre), The Triumph of Mordecai (oval), and The Banishment of Vashti (oval).

The strict diagonal composition offers a wealth of narrative detail, and like all other pictures in the series, takes into account the di sotto in su angle of vision, with its foreshortened perspectives, which pervades the space. The pictorial architecture provides a formal link between the pictorial fields. Columns, cornice and roof terraces form a continuous axis running through all three pictorial fields.

Technically, the light reflections on Haman’s armour are particularly delicate: on closer inspection, they break up into spots of paint.

This scene is on the side of the entablature in the Stanze del Cane.

Veronese’s biographer Ridolfi dates this painting to 1570. Until 1817, it hung in the dining room of the Jeronymite monastery of San Sebastiano in Venice. Weaknesses in the depiction of individual heads result from the involvement of assistants.

The picture intended for the refectory of the Venetian monastery of Santa Maria dei Servi forms a logical development of Veronese’s Feast at the House of Simon in the Pinacoteca di Brera in Milan. Magnificent architecture reminiscent of contemporary work by Palladio and Jacopo Sansovino frames and articulates the crowded scene. In the early 1660s, numerous princely collectors vied for the picture, which in 1664 was finally given by the Serenissima to the French King Louis XIV as a politically motivated gift.

Veronese’s biographer Ridolfi dates this painting to 1570. Until 1817, it hung in the dining room of the Jeronymite monastery of San Sebastiano in Venice. Weaknesses in the depiction of individual heads result from the involvement of assistants.

This work, painted for the Dominican order of SS. Giovanni e Paolo to replace an earlier work by Titian destroyed in the fire of 1571, is the last of the grandiose “suppers” painted by Veronese for the refectories of Venetian monasteries.

The sumptuous banquet scene is framed by the great arches of a portico. Against the pale green shotsilk effect of the background architecture, the figures on either side of Christ move in a turbulence of polychromatic splendour and interaction of pose and gesture. We seem to see here the sublime notions of form and colour of Piero della Francesca. The interaction of form and colour is calculated to contain the monumental figuration within the terms of a fascinating and imaginative decorative painting.

The expressive hedonism so alien to the religious context - the subject in fact appears to be a purely pagan one in exaltation of love of life in 16th century Venice - aroused the suspicions of the Inquisition. On July 18th 1573 Veronese was summoned by the Holy Office to appear before the Inquisition accused of heresy. If the questions of the inquisitors show the first signs of the rigours of the Counter-reformation, Veronese’s answers show clearly his unfailing faith in the creative imagination and artistic freedom. Not wishing to yield to the injunction of the Inquisition to eliminate the details which offended the religious theme of the Last Supper, he changed the title to “Feast in the House of Levi”, a subject which tolerated the presence of fools and armed men dressed up “alla tedesca”.

With his eloquent gesture the elegantly dressed Venetian accompanied by a page links the figures in the left arch with Christ as the focus of the picture, in terms of both form and content. Without being a self-portrait, the portrait-like, characteristic head with a high forehead and distinctive nose does not lack a certain resemblance to the portraits we have of Veronese himself.

The colourful dwarf jester with a parrot was among the motifs that the painter sought fruitlessly to justify to the Inquisition in 1573 by referring to the need to fill the canvas with decorative forms.

Commissioned by the Dominicans of SS. Giovanni e Paolo in Venice, the painting gets its present title from the painter’s brush with the Venetian Inquisition. Individual figures and motifs had caused offense, so that accusations of heresy were voiced aloud during the cross-examination.

The original subject of the enigmatic picture is controversial. Veronese himself added to the confusion in no small measure by saying that it was “… a picture with the supper that Jesus Christ celebrated with his disciples in the house of Simon.”

The two Landsknechte (German imperial mercenaries) were among the features in this painting that brought Veronese before the Inquisition in 1573. When asked whether it seemed appropriate to him to introduce jesters, hard-drinking soldiers, dwarfs and other follies (scurrilità) in a depiction of the Last Supper, Veronese repeatedly declared during the course of the cross-examination that the figures concerned were outside the place where the supper itself was taking place and had been shown at a proper distance from Christ. Unquestionably, for once, the architecture served the painter and pictorial architect more than as a means of distinction. With Christ as the dominant figure, the central arch of the loggia ennobles the centre of the picture. The subsidiary figures the Inquisition objected to are all confined to the steps at the sides. The size of the total canvas to be covered had made it necessary to introduce them, and Veronese himself was sure that he had acted in good faith and with a clear conscience.

Iconographically unusual is the gesture of the apostle bending over the balustrade on the right a long way from the main event, to distribute bread from the Lords table to the needy. This has been seen as an allusion to the distribution of the communion wafer at the Eucharist. The gesture seems to be intended to remind the Dominicans who commemorated the Last Supper during their shared daily meal in the refectory not to forget the obligation of charity.

Commissioned by the Dominicans of SS. Giovanni e Paolo in Venice, the painting gets its present title from the painter’s brush with the Venetian Inquisition. Individual figures and motifs had caused offense, so that accusations of heresy were voiced aloud during the cross-examination.

The original subject of the enigmatic picture is controversial. Veronese himself added to the confusion in no small measure by saying that it was “… a picture with the supper that Jesus Christ celebrated with his disciples in the house of Simon.”

The memorable head of the master steward suggests close study of the pseudo-classical Vitellius bust (Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Venice), which Cardinal Domenico Grimani sent to Venice from Rome in 1523. Like Tintoretto, Veronese had made a drawing of the bust (British Museum, London), which had been on display in the Doge’s Palace from 1525. There may have been a cast of the emperors bust among the plaster casts documented as being owned by Veronese’s heirs.

The magnificent decorative style, developed in the Villa Maser, was taken even further in the 1560s, in a series of large paintings on the common theme of suppers at which Christ was present. Veronese used the stories from the Gospels as an excuse to stage sumptuous feasts in sixteenth-century dress inside grandiose and theatrical architectural perspectives, producing realistic representations of social life at the highest level. The Supper in Emmaus (Louvre, Paris), the Supper in the House of Simon (Galleria Sabauda, Turin), and the Marriage at Cana (Louvre, Paris) belong to the series.

The magnificent decorative style, developed in the Villa Maser, was taken even further in the 1560s, in a series of large paintings on the common theme of suppers at which Christ was present. Veronese used the stories from the Gospels as an excuse to stage sumptuous feasts in sixteenth-century dress inside grandiose and theatrical architectural perspectives, producing realistic representations of social life at the highest level. The Supper in Emmaus (Louvre, Paris), the Supper in the House of Simon (Galleria Sabauda, Turin), and the Marriage at Cana (Louvre, Paris) belong to the series.

In contrast with the usual iconography, this banquet scene, originally painted for the dining room of the Benedictines in San Nazaro e Celso in Verona, is set not at the house of Simon but at the house of Lazarus and his sisters Martha and Mary (St. John 12, 1—11). The anointing of Jesus’s feet by Mary, and Judas Iscariot’s protest at the waste of the ointment form the dramatic poles between which Veronese’s narrative unfolds. It is a work of hitherto unparalleled richness of detail and density. The great painting is the first in a series of banquet scenes that the painter did in the early 1570s for various monasteries in Venice and Vicenza. Veronese’s biographer Carlo Ridolfi, who had copied the painting in 1629 as a study exercise, was commissioned to make another copy of it in 1650, when the Benedictines sold it to Giovanni Filippo Spinola from Genoa.

Pediments, colonnaded halls and roof terraces filled with onlookers are a notable feature of Veronese’s great feast scenes. The bearded oriental who points to the scene of Christ being anointed ensures the multiple interweaving and dovetailing of pictorial architecture and figurative staffage so typical of Veronese.

In the Sala dell’Olimpo, Veronese configured the lower part of the vault as a loggia, and standing the balustrade of this loggia are various figures dressed in contemporary clothing. The prevailing interpretation of the woman in patrician garb is that she is Giustinia Giustiniani, the wife of Marcantonio Barbaro; the simply dressed older woman next to her is then the wet nurse of Giustinina’s children. However, there are many arguments against this identification.

In the Sala dell’Olimpo, Veronese configured the lower part of the vault as a loggia, and standing the balustrade of this loggia are various figures dressed in contemporary clothing. The prevailing interpretation of the woman in patrician garb is that she is Giustiniana Giustiniani, the wife of Marcantonio Barbaro; the simply dressed older woman next to her is then the wet nurse of Giustiniana’s children. However, there are many arguments against this identification.

The ceiling painting in the Stanza del Cane shows that fortune cannot be obtained by force: a crowned figure accompanied by a lion tries to wrest the cornucopia from Fortune, who is seated on a globe, while a third figure turns aside, concealing a knife in her breast. A possible interpretation of these figures could be that they represent Pride and Deceit.

There are two scenes on the sides of the entablature. The first depicts Saturn and History (at top of this reproduction), the second, Fate Crowning a Sleeping Man (bottom).

The ceiling painting in the Stanza del Cane shows that fortune cannot be obtained by force: a crowned figure accompanied by a lion tries to wrest the cornucopia from Fortune, who is seated on a globe, while a third figure turns aside, concealing a knife in her breast. A possible interpretation of these figures could be that they represent Pride and Deceit.

There are two figures of young women on each wall of the Sala a Crociera, flanking four doors - two actual and two trompe l’oeil. A young girl looks out of one of the latter, while a young boy seems about to enter the hall from the other. It is thought that they are Francesco, the elder son of Marcantonio Barbaro and Giustiniana Giustiniani, and a younger daughter, whose name remains unknown.

This portrait shows the sitter, elegantly dressed in a loose cloak trimmed with brown fur, seated and leaning on a marble parapet.

The portrait was an artistic genre that Veronese had cultivated ever since the beginning of his career. He painted portraits while in Verona, then his contact with the Venetian world refined his portrait-painting skill. His portraits from the early 1560s are numerous and constitute one of the high points of sixteenth-century Venetian portraiture.