Passing by London any time soon? Don’t miss the splendid exhibition dedicated to Veronese (1528-1588) who, along with Giorgione, Titian and Jacopo Tintoretto, was one of the most universally admired masters of Sixteenth-Century Venetian painting. The exhibition features fifty masterpieces, both sacred and profane, of which ten belong to The National Gallery, while the rest is made up of loans from major museums like Verona’s Church of San Giorgio in Braida, Venice’s Gallerie dell’ Accademia, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Musée du Louvre or The Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, among others.
Born Paolo Caliari in Verona in 1528, and hence nicknamed ‘Veronese’, the painter left his native city around 1555 to settle in Venice where his precocious and exceptional talent gained immediate recognition and earned him lucrative commissions for the decoration of churches, monasteries and palaces, as well as wealthy Venetians’ summer villas, like those designed by Andrea Palladio.
Indeed, Veronese was blessed with genius, fame and wealth, and this is perhaps why his luminous painting is sumptuous and festive, while extolling the splendour of the Serenissima.
Veronese is known for his ability to produce works of huge dimension (often too large to be moved) like TheWedding at Cana (1563, 666 x 990 cm), which is the Louvre’s biggest painting. He is much praised for his illusionistic architecture and the ‘staged’ aspect of his works that feature numerous characters and complex ‘narratives’, as well as his elaborate use of perspective and trompe-l’oeil.
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His extraordinary contribution to European art, however, is undoubtedly his mastery of colour. Like most Venetian painters, Veronese was less dependent on disegno than the Florentines and worked directly on the canvas with layers of paint to create form through subtle variations in tone. Most impressive is his rendering of luxurious textures and fabrics as many elements of the Venetian fashion of his time are recognisable in his painting. In the portrait of Livia da Porto Thiene and her daughter Deidamia, for instance, Livia’s marten fur coat reveals her pregnancy, as this type of fur was believed to protect women in childbirth.
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Furthermore, the magnificent depiction of Mars’ pink satin cloak in Mars and Venus United by Love, as well as that of the little girls’ damask dresses in The Supper at Emmaus, express the beauty and sensuality of fabric. Similarly, women’s delicate flesh is enhanced by exquisite gold jewellery with precious stones and pearls that capture light, while conveying the sophistication of a very aristocratic art.
Veronese’s influence on European painting is indeed immeasurable and he was much admired by artists of great stature like Velázquez, Rubens, Delacroix or Renoir, while many believed that his prodigious technique has never been surpassed.
Louise Kissa
All images Courtesy of The National Gallery, London
