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PAUL VERONESE (1528-1588)

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Originally appearing in Volume V20, Page 966 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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PAUL VERONESE (1528-1588) , the name ordinarily given to See also:Paolo Caliari, or Cagliari, the latest of the See also:great See also:cycle of painters of the Venetian school, who was See also:born in See also:Verona in 1528 according to Zanetti and others, or in 1532 according to See also:Ridolfi. His See also:father, Gabriele Caliari, a sculptor, began to See also:train Paolo to his own profession. The boy, however, showed more propensity to See also:painting, and was therefore transferred to his See also:uncle, the painter See also:Antonio Badile, whose daughter he eventually married. According to See also:Vasari, he was the See also:pupil of Giovanni Carotto, a painter proficient in See also:architecture and See also:perspective; this statement remains unconfirmed. Paolo, in his See also:early years, applied himself to copying from the engravings of See also:Albert Diirer and the drawings of See also:Parmigiano. He did some See also:work in Verona, but found there little outlet for his abilities, the See also:field being See also:pretty well occupied by Ligozzi, Battista dal See also:Moro, Paolo See also:Farinato, Domenico Riccio, Brusasorci and other artists. See also:Cardinal Ercole See also:Gonzaga took him, when barely twenty years of See also:age, to See also:Mantua, along with the three last-named painters, to execute in the See also:cathedral a picture of the " Temptation of St See also:Anthony "; here Caliari was considered to excel his competitors. Returning to Verona, he found himself exposed to some envy and See also:ill-will. Hence he formed an See also:artistic See also:partnership with Battista Zelotti, and they painted together in the territories of See also:Vicenza and Treviso. Finally Paolo went on to See also:Venice. In this See also:city his first pictures were executed, in 1555, in the See also:sacristy and See also:church of S. Sebastiano, an uncle of his being See also:prior of the monastery.

The subjects on the vaulting are taken from the See also:

history of See also:Esther; and these excited so much admiration that henceforward Caliari, aged about twenty-eight, ranked almost on a See also:par with See also:Tintoretto, aged about See also:forty-five, or with See also:Titian, who was in his eightieth See also:year. Besides the Esther subjects, these buildings contain his pictures of the " See also:Baptism of See also:Christ," the " Martyrdom of St See also:Marcus and St See also:Marcellinus," the " Martyrdom of St See also:Sebastian," &c. As regards this last-named work, dating towards 1563, there is a vague tradition that Caliari painted it when he had taken See also:refuge in the monastery. He entered into a competition for painting the See also:ceiling of the library of St See also:Mark, and not only obtained the See also:commission but executed it with so much See also:power that his very rivals voted him the See also:golden See also:chain which had been tendered as an honorary distinction. At one See also:time he returned to Verona, and painted the " Banquet in the See also:House of See also:Simon the Pharisee, with Jesus and See also:Mary Magdalene "—a picture now in See also:Turin. In 156o, however, he was in Venice again, working partly in the S. Sebastiano buildings and partly in the ducal See also:palace. He visited See also:Rome in 1563, in the See also:suite of See also:Girolamo Grimani, the Venetian See also:ambassador, and studied the See also:works of See also:Raphael and See also:Michelangelo, and especially the See also:antique. Returning to Venice, he was overwhelmed with commissions. He was compelled to decline an invitation from See also:Philip II. to go to See also:Spain and assist in decorating the See also:Escorial. One of his pictures of this See also:period is the famous " Venice, See also:Queen of the See also:Sea," in the ducal palace. He died in Venice on the loth (orperhaps rgth) of See also:April 1588, and was buried in the church of S.

Sebastiano, a See also:

monument being set up to him there by his two sons, Gabriele and Carlo, and his See also:brother, Benedetto, all of them painters. Beyond his magnificent performances as a painter, the known incidents in the See also:life of Paul Veronese are very few. He was honoured and loved, being See also:kind, amiable, generous and an excellent father. His See also:person is well known from the portraits See also:left by himself and others: he was a dark See also:man, rather See also:good-looking than otherwise, somewhat bald in early See also:middle age, and with nothing to mark an exceptional See also:energy or turn of See also:character In his works the first quality which strikes one is their palatial splendour. The pictorial See also:inspiration is entirely that of the piercing and comprehens've See also:eye and the magical See also:hand—not of the mind. The human See also:form and See also:face are given with decorous comeliness, often with beauty; but of individual apposite expression there is next to none. In fact, Paolo Veronese is pre-eminently a painter working pictorially, and in no See also:wise amenable to a See also:literary or rationalizing See also:standard. He enjoys a sight much as See also:Ariosto enjoys a See also:story, and displays it in form and See also:colour with a zest like that of Ariosto for See also:language and See also:verse. He was supreme in representing, without huddling or confusion, numerous figures in a luminous and diffused See also:atmosphere, while in richness of draperies and transparency of shadows he surpassed all the other Venetians or Italians. In gifts of this kind See also:Rubens alone could be pitted against him. In the moderation of See also:art combined with its profusion he far excelled Rubens; for, dazzling as is the first impression of a great work by Veronese, there is in it, in reality, as much of soberness and serenity as of exuberance. By variety and apposition he produces a most brilliant effect of colour; and yet his hues are seldom See also:bright.

He hoards his See also:

primary tints and his high See also:lights. He very rarely produced small pictures: the spacious was his See also:element. Of all Veronese's paintings the one which has obtained the greatest See also:world-wide celebrity is the vast " See also:Marriage at See also:Cana," now in the Louvre. It contains about a See also:hundred and twenty figures or heads—those in the foreground being larger than life. Several of them are portraits. Among the personages specified (some of them probably without sufficient See also:reason) are the See also:Marquis del See also:Vasto, Queen Eleanor of See also:France, See also:Francis I., Queen Mary of See also:England, See also:Sultan Soleyman I., See also:Vittoria See also:Colonna, See also:Charles V., Tintoretto, Titian, the See also:elder See also:Bassano, Benedetto Caliari and Paolo Veronese himself (the figure playing the See also:viol). It is impossible to look at this picture without astonishment. The only point of view from which it fails is that of the New Testament narrative; for there is no relation between the Galilean See also:wedding and Veronese's See also:court-banquet. This stupendous performance was executed for the See also:refectory of the monastery of S. Giorgio See also:Maggiore in Venice, the See also:contract for it being signed in See also:June 1562 and the picture completed in See also:September 1563. Its See also:price was 324 See also:silver ducats (=16o), along with the artist's living expenses and a See also:tun of See also:wine. There are five other great banquet-pictures by Caliari, only inferior in See also:scale and excellence to this of Cana.

One of them is also in the L luvre, a " Feast in the House of Simon the Pharisee," painted towards 1570-1575 for the refectory of the See also:

Servites 1 Venice. A different version of the same theme is in the Brera See also:Gallery of See also:Milan. " The Feast of Simon the Leper " (1570) was done for the refectory of the monks of St Sebastian, and the " Feast of See also:Levi " (St See also:Matthew) (1573), now in the Venetian See also:academy, for the refectory of the monks of St See also:John and St Paul. In each instance the price barely exceeded the cost of the materials. The Louvre contains ten other specimens of Veronese, notably the " Susanna and the Elders" and the " Supper at See also:Emmaus." In the See also:National Gallery, See also:London, are ten examples. The most beautiful is " St See also:Helena's See also:Vision of the See also:Cross," founded upon an See also:engraving by See also:Marcantonio after a See also:drawing supposed to be the work of Raphael. Far more famous than this is the " See also:Family of See also:Darius at the Feet of See also:Alexander the Great after the See also:Battle of Issus"—the captives having mistaken See also:Hephaestion for Alexander. It was bought for 13,56o, and has even been termed (very unreasonably) the most celebrated of all Veronese's works. The See also:principal figures are portraits of the See also:Pisani family. It is said that Caliari was accidentally detained at the Pisani See also:villa at See also:Este, and there painted this work, and, on quitting, told the family that he had left behind him an See also:equivalent for his courteous entertainment. Another picture in the National Gallery, " See also:Europa and the See also:Bull," is a study for the large painting in the imperial gallery of See also:Vienna, and resembles one in the ducal palace of Venice. The Venetian academy contains fourteen works by Veronese.

One of the finest is a comparatively small picture of the Battle of See also:

Lepanto, with Christ in See also:heaven pouring See also:light upon the See also:Christian See also:fleet and darkness on the See also:Turkish. In the Uffizi Gallery of See also:Florence are two specimens of exceptional beauty—the " See also:Annunciation " and " Esther Presenting herself to See also:Ahasuerus" ; for delicacy and See also:charm this latter work yields to nothing that the See also:master produced. In Verona " St See also:George and St See also:Julian," in See also:Brescia the " Martyrdom of St Afra," and in See also:Padua the " Martyrdom of St Justina" are works of leading renown. Celebrated frescoes by Caliari are in four villas near Venice, more especially the Villa Masiera. His drawings are very See also:fine, and he took See also:pleasure at times in engraving on See also:copper. The brother and sons of Paolo already mentioned, and Battista Zelotti, were his principal assistants and followers. Benedetto Caliari, the brother, who was about ten years younger than Paolo, is reputed to have had a very large See also:share in the architectural backgrounds which form so conspicuous a feature in Paolo's compositions. If this is not overstated, it must be allowed that a substantial share in Paolo's fame accrues to Benedetto; for not only are the backgrounds admirably schemed and limned, but they govern to a large extent the invention and See also:distribution of the See also:groups. Of the two sons Carlo (or Carletto), the younger, is the better known. He was born in 1570, and was sent to study under Bassano. He produced various noticeable works, and died See also:young in 1596. Gabriele, born in 1568, attended, after Carlo's See also:death, almost entirely to commercial affairs; his works in painting are rare.

All three were occupied after the death of Paolo in See also:

finishing his pictures left uncompleted. See Ridolfi, Le Meraviglie dell' arte, &c.; Dal Pozzo, Vile de' piltori veronesi, &c.; Zanetti, Della Pittura veneziana, &c.; and Lanni ; also, among See also:recent works, the See also:biographies by C. Yriarte (1888); F. H. Meiotic'. (1897); and Mrs See also:Arthur See also:Bell (19o4). (W. M.

End of Article: PAUL VERONESE (1528-1588)

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