François Crastre

“ Veronese had no more respect for religious tradition than he had for mythological legend. To take issue with the incongruities and anachronisms of the Wedding at Cana, is voluntarily to debar oneself from discussing it. If historic exactitude is the one thing that counts in a painting, then this picture simply does not exist. But happily painting has no need to justify itself to history; it is amply sufficient to itself, without borrowing anything from history, and loses nothing of its beauty if perchance it does violence to history. ”

“ Such is the price which the greatest artist of his time received for a masterpiece which to-day commands the admiration of the entire world.
Never did Veronese display so much brilliance, dispense so much imagination as in the Wedding at Cana; never did he show a greater dexterity in execution; for, however considerable the dimensions of the canvas may be, it demanded nothing less than genius to distribute without clash or disproportion the hundred and thirty-two personages which compose it. A painter less thoroughly sure of himself would have made a sorry mess of this Feast ”

“ Carpaccio, with his naïve and picturesque reproductions of Venetian life. Among the living, Sansovino, simultaneously architect and artist, who built marvellous palaces and adorned them with graceful frescoes; Tintoretto, sombre genius whose creative power largely redeemed the somewhat obscure tints of his palette; and above them all, Titian, the great Titian, who at that time was already eighty years of age, yet still manipulated his brush with the firm hand of youth. ”

“ Such as they are, brilliant and luxuriant, his works remain the most abundant that have ever come from the palette of any one painter, and Veronese stands lastingly, in the history of Art, as the most amazing of all masters, both in colour and in composition. ”

“ Vigorous, blessed with good health, jovial by nature, and much enamoured of the bright and sparkling side of life, Veronese fashioned his paintings in the image of his own temperament. His work was always an exaltation of the joy of living, an apology for those agreeable externals that render existence pleasant and easy; fine dwellings, flowers, copious repasts, women luxuriously apparelled, precious fabrics, horses and dogs of fine breed. ”

“ One can understand how the painters of the Venetian school, nurtured in the dazzling and joyous light of the sea-born city, transferred to their palette that vibrant colour with which their artist eyes were filled; nor is it surprising that Veronese, passionately enamoured of Venice, achieved, through his wish to glorify her, that magnificence of colour and of expression which remains his distinctive mark. ”

“ The surprise experienced in the presence of this noble work, executed with the energy of a master-hand, is surpassed only by admiration for the versatility of a genius which could at will adapt itself to unfamiliar formulas. This famous painting, proud and virile in style, was taken from Italy by the victorious Armies of France, and placed in Versailles in the chamber of Louis XIV., where for a long period it served as the ceiling decoration. It was finally removed and now hangs in the Louvre, in company of other masterpieces by the same artist. ”

“ In her opulence Venice chose to employ her treasures in self-adornment; palaces arose on all sides, the Ducal Palace itself was redecorated; Sansovino was just completing the new Government offices. The wealthy brotherhoods and equally wealthy parishes were seeking out every painter of repute to decorate their churches and their convents.
Accordingly, Veronese had arrived at the crucial moment to satisfy the demands of art. His rivals were negligible: Salviati, Battista Franco, Lo Schiavone, Zelotti, Orazio Vocelli the son of Titian, could none of them hold their own against him. ”

“ PLATE VI.—CALVARY (In the Musée du Louvre)
In painting this subject, which so many artists have treated in a lugubrious tone, Veronese, while preserving the intense sadness of the scene on Calvary, has none the less succeeded in lavishing upon it his habitual qualities as a colourist. All the actors in the divine drama wear gloomy countenances and resplendent robes.
Veronese defended himself as best he could. He [Pg 51] assumed a sort of injured innocence and apparently failed to understand the enormity of the irreverence with which he was charged. ”

“ More truly than Titian or Tintoretto, Veronese is the chosen painter of the Most Serene Republic. He not only decorated the ceilings of her palaces and the walls of her churches: but he took the city of his adoption as the setting for all his compositions; it is [Pg 16] at Venice that the Feast at the House of Simon the Pharisee, the Feast at the House of Levi take place; it is in Venetian surroundings that Jesus presides over the Wedding Feast at Cana. ”

“ No other artist affords an example of similar fecundity.
And what verges upon prodigy is that he never employed collaborators, as so many other celebrated painters have done; the only one that he is known to have had is his brother Benedetto Caliari, whose artistic aid was limited to painting in the prospective of the vast architectural designs with which it pleased Veronese to embellish all his canvases. ”

“ This was before the time when painters were expected to furnish their colours and their canvases, but demanded only the price of their toil. Later on, having become, if not rich—that he never was,—at least celebrated and independent, he acquired a taste for personal luxury ”

“ No documents exist regarding Veronese’s sojourn in Rome, but at all events it was fairly brief. Beyond this, we are reduced to mere conjecture. Furthermore, there is no extant evidence to sustain the idea that he practised his art in the Eternal City. If he had painted any pictures there, some trace of them would surely have been discovered. It must therefore be concluded that he contented himself with admiring [Pg 53] the masterpieces with which his illustrious predecessors, Raphael and Michelangelo, had enriched the capital of the Pontiffs. ”

“ This immense composition is the most celebrated work by Veronese. It is considered as one of the masterpieces of all painting. The greater number of the guests at this feast are portraits of illustrious characters of the sixteenth century, and the artist has included himself, along with Tintoretto and Titian, in the group of musicians in the foreground. ”

“ Bonaparte, who loved the arts without understanding them, laid profane hands on the [Pg 41] great majority of Italian masterpieces. This painting by Veronese was one of the number, and found a place in the Louvre. The treaty of 1815 obliged France to restore these treasures, but the Austrian commissioners, appointed to accomplish the restitution, became alarmed at the difficulties of transportation which the Wedding at Cana presented. They accordingly consented to exchange this canvas for a painting by Le Brun, The Feast at the House of the Pharisee. ”

“ He had a boyhood friend, Battista Zelotti, a painter like himself, and also like himself tormented by dreams of glory. Together they quitted Verona and betook themselves to Tiene, in the duchy of Vicenza. Here they had [Pg 21] the good luck to meet a man of discrimination, in the person of the paymaster-general Portesco, who entrusted them with the decoration of his palace. The two friends apportioned the work between them; while Zelotti, who had studied at Venice under Titian, undertook the fresco painting, Veronese decorated the intervening panels in grisaille, or gray monochrome. ”

“ Accordingly we shall limit ourselves to indicating, at the different stages of his career, those pictures which show most deeply the imprint of his genius and which also are most closely related to the life of Venice of which he was, in a certain way, together with Tintoretto, the official painter. For the rest the reader may be referred to the complete catalogue of the works of Veronese given at the close of this book.
Concerning the private life of the artist we are as poorly informed as concerning the date of his pictures. ”

“ Of these friendships, the most efficacious was that of the Prior of the convent of San Sebastiano, Bernardo Torlioni, a Veronese by birth, to whom he had brought letters of introduction. No sooner had young Caliari arrived in Venice at the beginning of 1555, [Pg 29] than he presented himself to his venerable compatriot, who promptly took a fancy to him, and bestirred himself to serve him. Thanks to Torlioni, Paolo obtained an order for five pictures, including one large composition, the Coronation of the Virgin and four dependent panels. ”

“ He sent a summons to Caliari, as well as to three other Veronese painters who enjoyed a big reputation: Battista del Moro, Paolo Farinato degli Uberti, and Brusasorci, who was regarded as the Titian of Verona. The cardinal instituted a sort of rivalry between these four artists, and gave them [Pg 20] orders for four pictures, destined to be competitive. The subject entrusted to Paolo Caliari was a representation of the Temptations of St. Anthony. The young painter applied himself resolutely to the task. ”

“ This large composition shows a method rarely employed by Veronese. The great imaginative artist here tried his hand at the more vigorous school of painting, and with complete success. It is especially admired for certain remarkable effects of foreshortening. This picture, painted for the Ducal Palace, served as a ceiling decoration in Louis XIVth’s chamber at Versailles, until it was finally transferred to the Louvre. ”

“ Veronese’s celebrity, about the year 1580, had become world-wide. Every sovereign who prided himself on his art gallery wished to possess some of his work. The indefatigable artist endeavoured to satisfy them all ”

“ BERGAMO (CARRARA ACADEMY) : Reunion in a Garden.—Episode from the Life of St. Catherine.
TURIN (ROYAL MUSEUM) : Magdalen washing the Feet of Christ.—Moses saved from the Waters.
NAPLES (NATIONAL MUSEUM) : The Circumcision. ”