By Anne Leader
Paolo Caliari, known as Veronese after his birthplace, died on 19 April 1588 in Venice, where he spent the majority of his career. After training and early work in his native Verona, the artist moved to Venice in 1553, though he would continue to work for patrons throughout the Veneto. Alongside Titian and Tinoretto, Veronese dominated late Renaissance painting in the city on the lagoon, and was widely sought after for portraits, religious narratives, and mythologies. In addition to richly colored oil paintings, Veronese excelled in the medium of fresco like those painted for the Villa Barbaro at Maser. Veronese was famously brought before the Inquisition on charges that his Last Supper, painted for the refectory of SS. Giovanni e Paolo in Venice, took too much artistic license with the biblical account. After his trial in July 1573, he changed the title of his work to Feast in the House of Levi rather than change his composition to suit Church officials.
Reference: Diana Gisolfi. “Veronese, Paolo.” Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online. Oxford University Press.
Further reading: Diana Gisolfi, Paolo Veronese and the Practice of Painting in Late Renaissance Venice. Yale University Press, 2017.
Deposition (or Lamentation), late 1540s, Verona, Italy, Museo di Castelvecchio; photo credit: Cameraphoto Arte, Venice/Art Resource, NY
Holy Family with St. Barbara and the Infant St. John, ca. 1565-70, oil on canvas, Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence
Giustiniana Barbaro and the wetnurse with the dog standing at a balcony, c. 1561, fresco, Villa Barbaro, Maser, Italy; photo credit: SCALA/Art Resource, NY
Last Supper, renamed the Feast in the House of Levi, oil on canvas, 1573, formerly SS. Giovanni e Paolo, Venice (now Galleria dell’Accademia); photo credit: Alinari/Art Resource, NY
Mars and Venus United by Love, c. 1570, oil on canvas, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Venus and Adonis, 1580-82,oil on canvas, Museo del Prado, Madrid
Portrait of Daniele Barbaro, 1561-65, oil on canvas, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
Portrait of a Young Man Wearing Lynx Fur, 1551-53, oil on canvas, Szépmûvészeti Múzeum, Budapest