PAOLO VERONESE: A Master and His Workshop

Paolo Caliari from Verona, known as Veronese, was one of the big three giants of Venetian painting, together with Titian and Tintoretto. Veronese specialised in painted ceilings and huge-scale architectural canvases, with the result that some of his greatest work will never be seen in international exhibitions, for instance his breakthrough commission to decorate the walls and ceilings of San Sebastiano in Venice. In terms of smaller works however he is well represented in the US, and this sumptuous book was created to accompany an exhibition at the Ringling Museum in Florida. Pride of place at the Ringling goes to Veronese's canvas Rest on the Flight to Egypt, with the Holy Family to the left of the canvas dominated by a serene and motherly-looking Mary suckling the infant. A highly realistic angel top right performs unlikely contortions in the air, demonstrating the mastery of dizzying perspective that led to Veronese, and the painters in his workshop, being so much in demand for ceiling work. Preparatory sketches held by other American galleries were included in the exhibition, and the book also reproduces for comparison an ink and wash "Rest on the Flight" held in London's British Museum. Another major work in the exhibition was "The Baptism of Christ", a late work from the Getty Museum in Los Angeles. An essay on this painting traces its inspiration back to the dramatic canvas by Tintoretto on the same subject. Tintoretto's figures are silhouetted against the brightly lit descent of the Holy Dove, but Veronese domesticates the scene with a stooping, humble Christ-figure. Veronese's workshop artists may have had a hand in this work, and it was reproduced with small variations after his death in a canvas now held in New York and another remaining in Venice itself. This book includes six essays on different aspects of Veronese's work and a further eleven chapters based on the works displayed in the exhibition. 288pp, numerous high-quality colour reproductions, exhibition checklist, list of works cited.