Paolo Veronese

Italian painter

• Born: 1528
• Birthplace: Verona, Republic of Venice (now in Italy)
• Died: April 19, 1588
• Place of death: Venice, Republic of Venice (now in Italy)

Veronese was one of the greatest painters in sixteenth century Venice and, along with Titian and Tintoretto, was responsible for the countermannerist style of art. Veronese’s luminous colors and dynamic, decorative compositions foreshadow the artistic concerns of the painters of the seventeenth century.

Early Life

Paolo Veronese (PAH-loh vay-roh-NAY-zay) was born Paolo Caliari. His father, Gabriele di Piero Caliari, was a sculptor and stonecutter in that city, and in all likelihood Veronese received his earliest artistic instruction in his father’s studio, perhaps learning to model in clay. Further training came in the painting workshop of his uncle, Antonio Badile, and he may also have worked for a time with the painter and architect Giovanni Caroto.

Veronese appears to have remained in Verona until around 1552, when he left to execute commissions in various northern Italian cities, including Mantua, where he worked on an altarpiece for the cathedral with several other painters. It is not clear exactly when he first settled in Venice, but in 1553, he was given work at the Venetian Ducal Palace. This important commission, also a collaboration, involved painting the ceiling of the room where the Council of Ten met for deliberations (Sala del Consiglio dei Dieci).

Veronese’s style during his earliest period was in line with the sophisticated mannerism popular in Italy during the middle of the sixteenth century. In particular, his early work shows the influence of Emilian artists such as Parmigianino. As he matured, however, his style evolved into a more classical handling of space and form. A natural predisposition for pictorial compositions, along with the influence of Titian’s style, seemed to account for this countermannerist development.

Life’s Work

Veronese is generally considered, along with Titian and Tintoretto, one of the greatest painters of sixteenth century Venice. His paintings, frequently of immense size and crowded with figures, are like tapestries filled with color and light. The sumptuous textures, details, and colors create patterns that emphasize the decorative qualities of what is, emphatically, a joyful, aristocratic art. Veronese’s colors are pure and clear, a combination of pale and vivid tones, unsubdued by shadows or glazes such as those of Titian and Tintoretto.

Within a few years of his arrival in Venice, Veronese was given a commission that, along with his work in the Ducal Palace, established his reputation as one of Venice’s preeminent painters. For the Church of San Sebastiano, he executed, around 1556, a series of frescoed murals and canvas ceiling paintings. The ceiling paintings in particular demonstrate dramatic compositional arrangements. Exploiting the position of the paintings above the viewer’s head, Veronese employed perspective to create the illusion that the ceiling had opened up and that the scenes being depicted were in fact happening while the viewer looked up from below. In The Triumph of Mordecai , horses shy at the edge of an abyss in which, spatially speaking, the viewer stands. Lords and ladies look directly down from a balcony. Veronese was not the first artist to use this illusionistic device (called di sotto in su). Andrea Mantegna had employed it in the fifteenth century, and Correggio had explored its possibilities. Veronese, however, developed its full pictorial and atmospheric potential and served as a reference for Baroque artists of the seventeenth century.

Veronese appears to have spent most of his mature career in and around Venice. He did visit Rome sometime between 1555 and 1560, where he saw the work of the High Renaissance masters, but most of his travels took him to cities near Venice. Around 1561, he executed a series of frescoes at the Villa Barbaro in Maser, and in 1575, he is documented as working in Padua on a Martyrdom of Saint Justina and An Ascension of Christ . In the late 1570’s, Veronese received one of his most important commissions. A 1577 fire had destroyed the painted decorations in the Hall of the Great Council (Sala del Maggior Consiglio) of the Ducal Palace, and Veronese was hired to repaint the ceiling. His central allegorical scene, The Triumph of Venice, combines the illusionism of the San Sebastiano ceiling paintings with a new spatial expansiveness full of strong, almost unearthly highlights and pure color.

Veronese’s personal life was fairly uneventful. He married Elena Badile, the daughter of his teacher, in 1566 and had two sons. By all accounts, he was religious and morally strict. It is ironic, then, that his name has been immortalized not only for his art but also because he was called before the Inquisition to defend one of his paintings.

In April of 1573, Veronese completed a painting depicting the Last Supper for the refectory of Saints Giovanni and Paolo in Venice, to replace a work of the same subject by Titian that had been destroyed by fire in 1571. Three months later, he was summoned to appear before the Holy Tribunal, or Inquisition, to answer complaints against the work. Specifically, the Church hierarchy was concerned by what it perceived as a lack of decorum in the composition. The crowded painting showed, in addition to the traditional Christ and apostles, dwarfs, buffoons, drunkards, and Germans. These superfluous figures, added for picturesque and decorative effects, violated the decrees of the Council of Trent, which, in its codification of the tenets of the Counter-Reformation, had stated that religious paintings should contain no distortions or distractions that might interfere with the moral message. The transcript of Veronese’s interview with the tribunal survives and shows him deflecting the criticism with naïveté, claiming that he added the excess figures for compositional, or artistic, purposes. The tribunal decided that Veronese was to make corrections at his own expense. Instead, he changed the title of the painting to The Feast in the House of Levi and left it mostly as he had painted it, with only the most minor alterations.

Significance

Veronese is sometimes described by art historians as a proto-Baroque artist. His essentially naturalistic and illusionistic handling of form and space was certainly not in keeping with the mannerist taste that dominated Italian painting during the middle of the sixteenth century. Some of his mature works do, in fact, demonstrate expansive views of space, theatrical compositions, and decorative arrangements of color and light that point to the styles of the next two centuries. At the same time, other of his paintings look back to the pictorial traditions of fifteenth century Venice. In particular, his use of the old tableau composition, with figures lined along a shallow plane before a descriptive Venetian backdrop, hark back to the works of Vittore Carpaccio and Gentile Bellini.

Of the three great masters of sixteenth century Venetian painting (Titian, Tintoretto, and Veronese), the reputation of Veronese has suffered the most. Critics often find his decorative compositions lacking in profundity. The perceived deficiencies are not those of talent or technique, but rather in the area of expression. This attitude may say more about the expectations of art in the modern world than about Veronese’s intentions and accomplishments.

Bibliography

Cocke, Richard. “The Development of Veronese’s Critical Reputation.” Arte Veneta 34 (1980): 96-111. Discusses the critical attitudes toward Veronese over the centuries and the extent of his influence in each period of art. Especially valuable in describing Veronese’s influence on Baroque artists.

Cocke, Richard. Paolo Veronese: Piety and Display in an Age of Religious Reform. Burlington, Vt.: Ashgate, 2001. Details the decisive effects of Veronese’s many religious paintings on Venetian ideas about piety. Argues that critics have failed to notice Veronese’s skill with painterly narrative. Includes twenty-four pages of plates, illustrations, bibliographic references, and index.

Cocke, Richard. Veronese. London: Jupiter Books, 1980. A monographic overview of Veronese’s life and career, this book is a useful introduction to the artist. Particular emphasis is placed on stylistic issues, although biographic information is also included. Contains one hundred illustrations, with some in color, and a bibliography.

Cocke, Richard. Veronese’s Drawings, with a “Catalogue Raisonné.” Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1984. A thorough analysis of Veronese’s drawings and how they relate stylistically and programatically to their related paintings. Includes a chronology of documentable activities, a bibliography, and illustrations and catalog entries for each drawing. Useful as a supplement to Cocke’s work.

Fehl, Philipp. “Veronese and the Inquisition: A Study of the Subject Matter of the So-Called Feast in the House of Levi.” Gazette des Beaux-Arts 58 (1961): 325-354. Discusses the iconography of Veronese’s famous painting and the events surrounding the confrontation with the Inquisition.

Goldwater, Robert, and Marco Treves, eds. Artists on Art. New York: Pantheon Books, 1972. A translation of the examination of Veronese by the Holy Tribunal regarding his Last Supper, later retitled The Feast in the House of Levi. The original record is preserved in the archives in Venice. Most other anthologies of art-historical documents also include this transcript.

Pedrocco, Filippo. Veronese. Translated by Christopher Evans. Antella, Florence, Italy: Scala, 1998. Brief monograph covering the major works of Veronese, discussing their meaning and importance. Includes color illustrations, bibliographic references, and index.

Priever, Andreas. Paolo Caliari, Called Veronese, 1528-1588. Translated by Paul Aston and Fiona Hulse. Cologne, Germany: Könemann, 2000. In addition to a study of Veronese’s life and art, this work contains a discussion of the revival of the artist’s reputation in the twentieth century. Includes illustrations and bibliographic references.

Rosand, David. Painting in Sixteenth-Century Venice: Titian, Veronese, Tintoretto. Rev. ed. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1997. This work contains readable, scholarly articles investigating the sources of and influences on Veronese’s compositions, including fifteenth century traditions and contemporary theater designs. Also provides an analysis of Veronese’s waning reputation and a synopsis of the examination by the Inquisition. Contains excellent black-and-white photographs and a bibliography.