Painter of the Bible
Paolo Veronese (Paolo Caliari)
Paolo Veronese — born Paolo Caliari in Verona in 1528, taking his professional name from his birthplace — was one of the three giants of late-sixteenth-century Venetian painting, alongside Titian and Tintoretto.
Their faith
Why Paolo Veronese (Paolo Caliari) painted Christ
Paolo Veronese, born Paolo Caliari in 1528, was deeply rooted in the Christian faith that permeated the culture of Renaissance Venice. His artistic journey began under the guidance of his father and later in the workshop of Antonio Badile, where he honed his skills before moving to Venice. Throughout his life, Veronese's devotion was reflected in his work, particularly in the grand biblical scenes that adorned the walls of churches and public spaces. His paintings were not merely artistic expressions; they were acts of worship and devotion, designed to inspire and elevate the viewer's spirit. Veronese's commitment to his faith is evident in his choice of subjects, with many of his works depicting pivotal moments in the life of Christ and the Christian narrative, showcasing his reverence for scripture and the teachings of the church.
Veronese's faith profoundly shaped his artistic vision, most notably in masterpieces like "The Wedding at Cana" and "The Feast in the House of Levi." In "The Wedding at Cana," he captures the miraculous moment of Christ's first miracle with a vibrant and festive atmosphere, inviting viewers to partake in the joy of the occasion while emphasizing the divine presence of Christ. Similarly, in "The Feast in the House of Levi," Veronese's refusal to alter the painting despite criticism from the Inquisition highlights his steadfastness in faith and artistic integrity. His works are characterized by their sumptuous color and grand scale, reflecting the glory of God through the beauty of creation. Even today, Veronese's devotion resonates with viewers, inviting them to experience the sacred through his art and reminding us of the joy and celebration found in faith.
Life & work
Paolo Veronese — born Paolo Caliari in Verona in 1528, taking his professional name from his birthplace — was one of the three giants of late-sixteenth-century Venetian painting, alongside Titian and Tintoretto. Trained first by his father, a stone-cutter, and then in the workshop of the painter Antonio Badile (whose daughter Veronese later married), he moved to Venice in his early twenties and worked there for the rest of his career, dying in Venice in 1588.
His Christian religious work is concentrated in vast festive banquet pictures whose biblical narratives — the wedding of Cana, the supper at Emmaus, the supper in the house of Levi, the supper in the house of Simon — provided the pretext for enormous painted feasts of Venetian patricians, livery, dogs, dwarves, columns, and architecture. The Wedding at Cana (Louvre, 1563), painted for the Benedictine refectory of San Giorgio Maggiore in Venice and looted by Napoleon's troops in 1797, is the largest painting in the Louvre's collection — almost ten meters wide — and the canonical statement of his late-Mannerist Venetian banquet style. The Feast in the House of Levi (Accademia, Venice, 1573) was originally painted as a Last Supper for the Dominican refectory of Santi Giovanni e Paolo; called before the Inquisition to defend its inclusion of Germans, dogs, and a man with a bloody nose, Veronese famously refused to repaint the canvas and instead simply renamed it.
His ceiling paintings for the Doge's Palace (the Triumph of Venice in the Sala del Maggior Consiglio, the Apotheosis of Venice in the Sala del Senato), the great cycle for the church of San Sebastiano in Venice (where he is buried), the frescoes for Palladio's Villa Barbaro at Maser, and the late Crucifixions and Pietàs round out the painted output. He worked at enormous speed with a large workshop that included his brother Benedetto and his sons Carlo and Gabriele Caliari, and the workshop continued issuing paintings under the Caliari name into the seventeenth century.
His color is the great inheritance to later painters — Rubens, Tiepolo, Delacroix, and Cézanne all looked to Veronese for the lessons in luminous flesh, silver-gray drapery, and the weighing of warm and cool that defined the Venetian school at its height.
Notable works in detail
Saint Catherine of Alexandria in Prison
Saint Catherine of Alexandria in Prison, painted by Paolo Veronese around 1580 in oil on canvas and now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, depicts the legendary fourth-century Christian martyr in her cell on the eve of her execution by the Emperor Maxentius. Veronese stages the scene as an intimate vertical interior: Catherine kneels in profile in the lower right with her hands folded in prayer, her wheel of martyrdom behind her in the shadow; an angel descends from the upper left bearing a martyr's palm and a crown, surrounded by a luminous mist that fills the upper third of the canvas. The chromatic palette of ivory, rose, deep emerald, and silvery grey is characteristic of Veronese's late mature manner, when his commissions for the Venetian state and the Veneto's monastic orders had given him an unmatched fluency in jewel-bright devotional color. The painting entered the Metropolitan in 1898 from the Marquand bequest.
Bible scenes Paolo Veronese (Paolo Caliari) painted
Romans
