Paolo Veronese (1528 ? April 19, 1588) was an Italian painter of the Renaissance in Venice, famous for paintings such as The Wedding at Cana and The Feast in the House of Levi. He adopted the name Paolo Cagliari or Paolo Caliari, and became known as "Veronese" from his birthplace in Verona.
Veronese, Titian, and Tintoretto constitute the triumvirate of pre-eminent Venetian painters of the late Renaissance (1500s). Veronese is known as a supreme colourist, and for his illusionistic decorations in both fresco and oil. His most famous works are elaborate narrative cycles, executed in a dramatic and colorful Mannerist style, full of majestic architectural settings and glittering pageantry. His large paintings of biblical feasts executed for the refectories of monasteries in Venice and Verona are especially notable. His brief testimony with the Inquisition is often quoted for its insight into contemporary painting technique.
By 1556 Veronese was commissioned to paint the first of his monumental banquet scenes, the Feast in the House of Simon, which would not be concluded until 1570. However, owing to its scattered composition and lack of focus, it was not his most successful refectory mural. In the late 1550s, during a break in his work for San Sebastiano, Veronese decorated the Villa Barbaro in Maser, a newly-finished building by the architect Andrea Palladio. The frescoes were designed to unite humanistic culture with Christian spirituality; wall paintings included portraits of the noble Barbaro family, and the ceilings opened to blue skies and mythological figures. Veronese's decorations employed complex perspective and trompe l'oeil, and resulted in a luminescent and inspired visual poetry. The encounter between architect and artist was a triumph. Veronese painted one portrait of Daniele Barbaro depicting his patron in clerical garb, as well as a second portrait, now in the Pitti Palace, displaying his patrician sitter in an aristocratic ermine fur.
The Feast in the House of Levi (1573), one of the largest canvases of the 16th century. It led to an investigation by the Roman Catholic Inquisition. In 1573 Veronese completed the painting which is now known as the Feast in the House of Levi for the rear wall of the refectory of the Basilica di Santi Giovanni e Paolo. The painting was originally intended as a depiction of the Last Supper, designed to replace a canvas by Titian that had been lost in a fire. It measured more than five metres high and over twelve metres wide, depicted another Venetian celebration and was a culmination of his banquet scenes, which this time included not only the Last Supper, but also German soldiers, comic dwarves, and a variety of animals; in short, the exotica which were standard to his narratives. Even as Veronese's use of color attained greater intensity and luminosity, his attention to narrative, human sentiment, and a more subtle and meaningful physical interplay between his figures became evident.
That the subject was indeed a Last Supper, and then some, was not lost on the Inquisition. A decade earlier the monks who commissioned the Wedding at Cana had requested that the artist squeeze the maximum number of figures into the painting, but the Counter-Reformation had since exerted its influence in Venice, and in July of 1573 Veronese was summoned to explain the inclusion of extraneous and indecorous details in the painting. The tone of the hearing itself was cautionary rather than punitive; Veronese explained that "we painters take the same liberties as poets and madmen", and rather than repaint the picture, he simply and pragmatically retitled it to the less sacramental version by which it is known today.
http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj171/Azjahh/Art%20Museum/-Paolo_Veronese_Feast.jpg
((The work of art depicted in this image and the reproduction thereof are in the public domain worldwide. The reproduction is part of a collection of reproductions compiled by The Yorck Project. The compilation copyright is held by http://www.zeno.org and licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.))
Wisdom
http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj171/Azjahh/Art%20Museum/Paoloveronesewisdom.jpg
The Wedding at Cana, 1562-1563. On loan from: The Louvre, Paris.
http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj171/Azjahh/Art%20Museum/VeroneseCana1.jpg
Battle of Le Ponto 1572, oil on canvas, on loan from Gallerie dell? Accadamia, Venice
http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj171/Azjahh/Art%20Museum/VeroneseThe_Battle_of_Lepanto.jpg
Lucretia
http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj171/Azjahh/Art%20Museum/Veronese_Lucretia01.jpg
A Portrait of Daniele Barbaro by the Italian Renaissance master Paolo Veronese (from circa 1565-1567) is in the collection of the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam.
http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj171/Azjahh/Art%20Museum/Veronese-Daniele_Barbaro.jpg
(All text taken from Wikipedia)
Veronese, Titian, and Tintoretto constitute the triumvirate of pre-eminent Venetian painters of the late Renaissance (1500s). Veronese is known as a supreme colourist, and for his illusionistic decorations in both fresco and oil. His most famous works are elaborate narrative cycles, executed in a dramatic and colorful Mannerist style, full of majestic architectural settings and glittering pageantry. His large paintings of biblical feasts executed for the refectories of monasteries in Venice and Verona are especially notable. His brief testimony with the Inquisition is often quoted for its insight into contemporary painting technique.
By 1556 Veronese was commissioned to paint the first of his monumental banquet scenes, the Feast in the House of Simon, which would not be concluded until 1570. However, owing to its scattered composition and lack of focus, it was not his most successful refectory mural. In the late 1550s, during a break in his work for San Sebastiano, Veronese decorated the Villa Barbaro in Maser, a newly-finished building by the architect Andrea Palladio. The frescoes were designed to unite humanistic culture with Christian spirituality; wall paintings included portraits of the noble Barbaro family, and the ceilings opened to blue skies and mythological figures. Veronese's decorations employed complex perspective and trompe l'oeil, and resulted in a luminescent and inspired visual poetry. The encounter between architect and artist was a triumph. Veronese painted one portrait of Daniele Barbaro depicting his patron in clerical garb, as well as a second portrait, now in the Pitti Palace, displaying his patrician sitter in an aristocratic ermine fur.
The Feast in the House of Levi (1573), one of the largest canvases of the 16th century. It led to an investigation by the Roman Catholic Inquisition. In 1573 Veronese completed the painting which is now known as the Feast in the House of Levi for the rear wall of the refectory of the Basilica di Santi Giovanni e Paolo. The painting was originally intended as a depiction of the Last Supper, designed to replace a canvas by Titian that had been lost in a fire. It measured more than five metres high and over twelve metres wide, depicted another Venetian celebration and was a culmination of his banquet scenes, which this time included not only the Last Supper, but also German soldiers, comic dwarves, and a variety of animals; in short, the exotica which were standard to his narratives. Even as Veronese's use of color attained greater intensity and luminosity, his attention to narrative, human sentiment, and a more subtle and meaningful physical interplay between his figures became evident.
That the subject was indeed a Last Supper, and then some, was not lost on the Inquisition. A decade earlier the monks who commissioned the Wedding at Cana had requested that the artist squeeze the maximum number of figures into the painting, but the Counter-Reformation had since exerted its influence in Venice, and in July of 1573 Veronese was summoned to explain the inclusion of extraneous and indecorous details in the painting. The tone of the hearing itself was cautionary rather than punitive; Veronese explained that "we painters take the same liberties as poets and madmen", and rather than repaint the picture, he simply and pragmatically retitled it to the less sacramental version by which it is known today.
http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj171/Azjahh/Art%20Museum/-Paolo_Veronese_Feast.jpg
((The work of art depicted in this image and the reproduction thereof are in the public domain worldwide. The reproduction is part of a collection of reproductions compiled by The Yorck Project. The compilation copyright is held by http://www.zeno.org and licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.))
Wisdom
http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj171/Azjahh/Art%20Museum/Paoloveronesewisdom.jpg
The Wedding at Cana, 1562-1563. On loan from: The Louvre, Paris.
http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj171/Azjahh/Art%20Museum/VeroneseCana1.jpg
Battle of Le Ponto 1572, oil on canvas, on loan from Gallerie dell? Accadamia, Venice
http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj171/Azjahh/Art%20Museum/VeroneseThe_Battle_of_Lepanto.jpg
Lucretia
http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj171/Azjahh/Art%20Museum/Veronese_Lucretia01.jpg
A Portrait of Daniele Barbaro by the Italian Renaissance master Paolo Veronese (from circa 1565-1567) is in the collection of the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam.
http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj171/Azjahh/Art%20Museum/Veronese-Daniele_Barbaro.jpg
(All text taken from Wikipedia)