Paolo Veronese
The census records of 1528 list a stonecutter named Gabriele and his wife Caterina as the parents of their fifth child, Paolo. This boy would later change his name from Spezapreda to Caliari after discovering his mother was the illegitimate daughter of a nobleman called Antonio Caliari. He took his usual name from his birthplace of Verona, then the largest possession of Venice on the mainland. By 1541, Veronese was apprenticed with Antonio Badile, who was later to become his father-in-law. In 1544 he became an apprentice of Giovanni Francesco Caroto, both leading painters in Verona. An altarpiece painted by Badile in 1543 includes striking passages that were most likely the work of his fifteen-year-old apprentice. Veronese's precocious gifts soon surpassed the level of the workshop, and by 1544 he was no longer residing with Badile.
Veronese moved to Venice in 1553 after obtaining his first state commission, ceilings in fresco decorating the Sala dei Consiglio dei Dieci. The adjoining Sala dei Tre Capi del Consiglio in the Doge's Palace replaced rooms lost in the fire of 1547. His panel of Jupiter Hurling Thunderbolts at the Vices for the former is now in the Louvre. He then painted a History of Esther on the ceiling for the church of San Sebastiano between 1556 and 1557. It was these ceiling paintings and those of 1557 in the Marciana Library that established him as a master among his Venetian contemporaries. For which he was awarded a prize judged by Titian and Sansovino. Already these works indicate Veronese's mastery in reflecting both the subtle foreshortening of the figures of Correggio and the heroism of those by Michelangelo.
By 1556, Veronese was commissioned to paint the first of his monumental banquet scenes, the Feast in the House of Simon. This work would not be concluded until 1570, yet it lacked focus due to its scattered composition. In the late 1550s, during a break in his work for San Sebastiano, Veronese decorated the Villa Barbaro in Maser. The frescoes were designed to unite humanistic culture with Christian spirituality, including portraits of the Barbaro family. The ceilings opened to blue skies and mythological figures, employing complex perspective and trompe-l'œil. The Wedding at Cana, painted in 1562, 1563, was also a collaboration with Palladio. The contract insisted on the huge size to cover 66 square meters, specifying that blues should contain the precious mineral lapis-lazuli. There are a number of portraits staged upon a canvas surface nearly ten meters wide.
In 1573 Veronese completed the commission for The Feast in the House of Levi, originally titled The Last Supper. The oversized painting depicted a Last Supper banquet scene that included German soldiers, dwarves, and animals. By the 1570s, the theology of the Counter-Reformation had given legal authority to Roman Catholic doctrine in Venice. On the 18th of July 1573, Veronese was summoned before the Venetian Holy Inquisition to explain the presence of what Church doctrine considered characters, animals, and indecorum extraneous to an image of the Last Supper. The tribunal's interrogation of Veronese was cautionary rather than punitive. Veronese explained to the Inquisitors that painters take the same liberties as poets and madmen in telling a story. Although the Inquisition ordered him to repaint the last-supper scene, he opposed their remedy yet was compelled to re-title the painting from The Last Supper to The Feast in the House of Levi.
He headed a family workshop including his younger brother Benedetto who lived from 1538 to 1598. His sons Carlo and Gabriele worked alongside his nephew Luigi Benfatto, also called dal Friso, who lived from 1559 to 1611. This group remained active for a decade or so after his death in Venice in 1588. They signed their work Haeredes Pauli, meaning Heirs of Paolo, and continued to use his drawings. According to Nicholas Penny, the role of the workshop seems to have increased steadily, and after 1580 it is rare that we can feel confident that Veronese's was the sole hand involved. Among his pupils were his contemporary Giovanni Battista Zelotti and later, Giovanni Antonio Fasolo, Sigismondo de Stefani, and Anselmo Canneri. The Caliari family continued another Paolo Caliari published the first monograph on his ancestor in 1888.
An artist's biography of Paolo Veronese appeared in the second edition of Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects by Giorgio Vasari in 1568. A fuller biography had to await Le maraviglie dell'arte by Carlo Ridolfi in 1648. Ridolfi said that Veronese's painting of The Feast in the House of Levi is by far the most important source for our knowledge of his art. In 2014, the art historian Charles Hope wrote that Veronese used a range of bright hues with a boldness unmatched in his time. Yet because his use of color was often calculated to create a harmonious overall effect rather than to single out main protagonists, his paintings convey little narrative drama. Lawrence Gowing noted in Paintings in the Louvre that French critics like Théophile Gautier believed Veronese was the greatest colorist who ever lived. Delacroix wrote that Veronese made light without violent contrasts, maintaining the strength of hue in shadow.
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Common questions
Who were the parents of Paolo Veronese and what was his birth name?
Paolo Veronese was born Gabriele Spezapreda to a stonecutter named Gabriele and his wife Caterina in 1528. He later changed his surname to Caliari after discovering his mother was the illegitimate daughter of a nobleman called Antonio Caliari.
When did Paolo Veronese move to Venice and what commissions did he receive there?
Paolo Veronese moved to Venice in 1553 after obtaining state commissions for fresco ceilings in the Sala dei Consiglio dei Dieci. His subsequent works included a History of Esther painted on the ceiling of San Sebastiano between 1556 and 1557.
Why was Paolo Veronese summoned before the Venetian Holy Inquisition on the 18th of July 1573?
The Venetian Holy Inquisition summoned Paolo Veronese because his painting The Last Supper included German soldiers, dwarves, and animals deemed indecorous by Church doctrine. The tribunal ordered him to repaint the scene or change its title, which led him to rename it The Feast in the House of Levi.
Who were the members of the family workshop that continued Paolo Veronese's work after his death in 1588?
His brother Benedetto lived from 1538 to 1598 while his sons Carlo and Gabriele worked alongside his nephew Luigi Benfatto who lived from 1559 to 1611. This group signed their work Haeredes Pauli meaning Heirs of Paolo and remained active for about a decade after his death.
What biographies document the life and art of Paolo Veronese?
An artist biography appeared in the second edition of Lives of the Most Excellent Painters Sculptors and Architects by Giorgio Vasari in 1568. A fuller account followed with Le maraviglie dell'arte by Carlo Ridolfi published in 1648.