Paolo Veronese

One of the three major Venetian painters of the Cinquecento, Paolo Caliari (1528–88), known as “Veronese,” was celebrated first and foremost as a colorist. A sumptuous narrator, he created a subgenre of colossal religious and mythological paintings, grandiose in size and display of fabrics, poses and portraits, where the evangelical event was an opportunity to stage the patrician society of his time. Appreciated and admired throughout the ages, Veronese paved the way for the theatrics of 17th-century painting and the vivid palettes of the Romantics and Impressionists. This book retraces Veronese’s work through its essential stages from an early creativity to critical success, and details his artistic inventions such as his illusionistic solutions and taste for staging.

A new undertaking by Venetian Heritage and Bulgari for Venetian art offers the occasion to rediscover two paintings by Paolo Veronese, a great master of Venetian Renaissance art.

Two paintings by Paolo Veronese, Saint Jerome in the Desert and Saint Agatha in Prison, dating to 1566 and located in the church of San Pietro Martire in Murano, have been recently restored, together with their seventeenth-century gilded frames. Before the restoration, the paintings were in bad condition, very dark and scarcely readable, due to the application of varnishes that had oxidized over the years. The rich and unusual seventeenth-century frames, sculpted and gilded, were also in bad condition. Both works are relatively unknown because of their position in a lesser-known location and the poor condition they were in before the current restoration. The restoration has brought back to life the brilliant colors of the canvases and the vigorous gilded carvings of the frames, giving also the occasion to study their provenance and commission as well as their conservation history.