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The Feast in the House of Levi |
In 1573 Veronese completed the commission for The Feast in the House of Levi, a last-supper painting for the rear wall of the refectory at the Basilica di Santi Giovanni e Paolo, Castello, Venice. Originally titled The Last Supper, the painting was to replace a Titian painting burnt in a fire; Veronese's oversized (5.55m x 12.80m) replacement depicted a Last Supper banquet scene that included German soldiers, dwarves, and animals – the human and animal exotica usual to Veronese's representational narratives. Artistically, The Feast in the House of Levi indicates Veronese's technical development in using intense and luminous colors for texture, attention to narrative coherence, the acute representation of human emotion, and the psychologically subtle interplay occurring among the characters who crowd the scene. |
Given the subject of the painting, the biblical Last Supper, the humanistic depictions of the characters lacked the piousness usual to Roman Catholic art depicting the Christ character and the events of his life; and the Inquisition readily noticed Veronese's irreligiosity. By the 1570s, the theology of the Counter-Reformation had given legal authority to Roman Catholic doctrine in Venice, which was a new, political development for an artist such as Veronese. In the Venetian republic of the Late–Renaissance, for an artist, painting crowd scenes had acquired political ramifications regarding who and what appeared in a religious painting commissioned from him, regardless of the patron or patroness. |
A decade earlier, the Benedictine monks who commissioned The Wedding at Cana (1563) had directed Veronese to freely include as many human figures as would fit in the banquet scene. In contrast, a decade later, Veronese encountered legal, religious constraints that determined the suitability (theological, political, sociological) of who and what he depicted in a painting—thus, on 18 July 1573, Veronese was summoned before the Venetian Holy Inquisition to explain the presence of what Church doctrine considered characters, animals, and indecorum extraneous to an image of the Last Supper of the Christ. |
The tribunal's interrogation of Veronese was cautionary, rather than punitive; political, rather than judicial; nonetheless, Veronese explained to the Inquisitiors that "we painters take the same liberties as poets and madmen" in telling a story. Although the Inquisition's tribunal ordered Veronese to repaint the last-supper scene, he opposed their remedy to his theological offences, yet was compelled to re-title the painting from the sacramental The Last Supper to The Feast in the House of Levi. That an artist, such as Veronese, had successfully perdured against the Inquisition's implied accusation of heresy, indicated he had the discreet political support of a patrician patron of the arts. |
Assessment |
An artist's biography of Paolo Veronese was included in the second edition of the Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects (1568), by Giorgio Vasari, with improved coverage of the painters of the Venetian school. |
A fuller biography of Veronese had to await Le maraviglie dell'arte ovvero le vite degli illustri pittori Veneti e dello stato (1648), by Carlo Ridolfi, a compilation of the Venetian School painters. Ridolfi said that Veronese's painting of The Feast in the House of Levi (1573) is "by far, the most important source for our knowledge of his art" because "it gave rein to joy, made beauty majestic, made laughter, itself, more festive". |
In 2014, the art historian Charles Hope wrote of Veronese's strengths and weaknesses: "He is notable above all as a colorist who used a range of bright hues with a boldness unmatched in his time and scarcely equaled since", but because his use of color "was often calculated to create a harmonious overall effect rather than to single out the main protagonists", his paintings convey little narrative drama. According to Hope, "the effect is sumptuous, seductive but ultimately excessive and a little monotonous, rather like a visit to a patisserie." |
In Paintings in the Louvre (1987), Lawrence Gowing’s modern assessment of Paolo Veronese’s artistic achievement is that: |
The French had no doubts, as the critic Théophile Gautier wrote in 1860, that Veronese was the greatest colorist who ever lived—greater than Titian, Rubens, or Rembrandt because he established the harmony of natural tones in place of the modeling in dark and light that remained the method of academic chiaroscuro. Delacroix wrote that Veronese made light without violent contrasts, "which we are always told is impossible, and maintained the strength of hue in shadow". |
This innovation could not be better described. Veronese’s bright outdoor harmonies enlightened and inspired the whole nineteenth century. He was the foundation of modern painting. But whether his style is in fact naturalistic, as the Impressionists thought, or a most subtle and beautiful imaginative invention must remain a question for each age to answer for itself. |
Gallery |
Working practices |
In addition to the ceiling creations and wall paintings, Veronese also produced altarpieces (The Consecration of Saint Nicholas, 1561–62, London's National Gallery), paintings on mythological subjects (Venus and Mars, 1578, New York Metropolitan Museum of Art), and portraits (Portrait of a Lady, 1555, Louvre). A significant number of compositional sketches in pen, ink, and wash, figure studies in chalk, and chiaroscuro modelli and ricordi survive. |
He headed a family workshop, including his younger brother Benedetto (1538–1598) as well as his sons Carlo and Gabriele, and his nephew Luigi Benfatto (also called dal Friso; 1559–1611), that remained active for a decade or so after his death in Venice in 1588, signing their work "Haeredes Pauli" ("Heirs of Paolo"), and continuing to use his drawings. According to Nicholas Penny, "The role of the workshop seems to have increased steadily, and after 1580 it is rare that we can feel confident that Veronese's was the sole hand involved". Among his pupils were his contemporary Giovanni Battista Zelotti and later, Giovanni Antonio Fasolo, Sigismondo de Stefani, and Anselmo Canneri. The Caliari family continued and another Paolo Caliari published the first monograph on his ancestor in 1888. |
Veronese was one of the first painters whose drawings were sought by collectors during his lifetime. |
Selected works |
Veronese in popular culture |
The Monty Python sketch "The Last Supper" from Monty Python Live at the Hollywood Bowl is based on the story of Veronese's painting The Feast in the House of Levi. |
An imaginary Veronese painting called La Morte dil Cesare is prominently featured in a story arc of the award-winning comics series 100 Bullets. |
Veronese in religion |
Theosophical authors have identified Paolo Veronese with the Master of Wisdom or Mahatma known as "The Venetian," who is the Head of the Third Ray. |
Elizabeth Clare Prophet repeated this information in her "Ascended Masters" teachings. |
See also |
Holy Family with Saint Catherine and Saint John the Baptist |
List of Orientalist artists |
Orientalism |
Portrait of Iseppo da Porto and his son Adriano |
Notes |
References |
Freedberg, Sydney J. (1993). Pelican History of Art (ed.). Painting in Italy, 1500–1600. Penguin Books Ltd. pp. 550–60. |
Ilchman, Frederick, et al., Titian, Veronese, Tintoretto: Rivals in Renaissance Venice, MFA Publications, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 2009, ISBN 978-0878467396 |
Penny, Nicholas, National Gallery Catalogues (new series): The Sixteenth Century Italian Paintings, Volume II, Venice 1540–1600, 2008, National Gallery Publications Ltd, ISBN 1857099133 |
Rearick, W. R., The Art of Paolo Veronese 1528–1588, National Gallery of Art, 1988 |
Rosand, David, Painting in Sixteenth-Century Venice: Titian, Veronese, Tintoretto, 2nd ed. 1997, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0521565685 |
Salomon, Xavier F., Veronese, National Gallery London, 2014, ISBN 978-1857095531 |
Watson, Peter, Wisdom and Strength: The Biography of a Renaissance Masterpiece, Hutchinson, 1990, ISBN 009174637X |
External links |
69 artworks by or after Paolo Veronese at the Art UK site |
Art view; Homage to a Gentleman of Verona [1] |
Veronese biography on Web Gallery of Art with link to images of many of his paintings |
Paolo Caliari – Biographical article in the 1911 Catholic Encyclopedia |
Rossetti, William Michael (1911). "Paul Veronese" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 20 (11th ed.). pp. 965–966. |
Gallery at Museum Syndicate |
Girolamo Francesco Maria Mazzola (11 January 1503 – 24 August 1540), also known as Francesco Mazzola or, more commonly, as Parmigianino (UK: , US: , Italian: [parmidʒaˈniːno]; "the little one from Parma"), was an Italian Mannerist painter and printmaker active in Florence, Rome, Bologna, and his native city of Parma. His work is characterized by a "refined sensuality" and often elongation of forms and includes Vision of Saint Jerome (1527) and the iconic if somewhat anomalous Madonna with the Long Neck (1534), and he remains the best known artist of the first generation whose whole careers fall into the Mannerist period. |
His prodigious and individual talent has always been recognised, but his career was disrupted by war, especially the Sack of Rome in 1527, three years after he moved there, and then ended by his death at 37. He produced outstanding drawings, and was one of the first Italian painters to experiment with printmaking himself. While his portable works have always been keenly collected and are now in major museums in Italy and around the world, his two large projects in fresco are in a church in Parma and a palace in a small town nearby. This in conjunction with their lack of large main subjects has resulted in their being less well known than other works by similar artists. He painted a number of important portraits, leading a trend in Italy towards the three-quarters or full-length figure, previously mostly reserved for royalty. |
Early years |
Parmigianino was the eighth child of Filippo Mazzola and one Donatella Abbati. His father died of the plague two years after Parmigianino's birth, and the children were raised by their uncles, Michele and Pier Ilario, who according to Vasari were modestly talented artists. In 1515, his uncle received a commission from Nicolò Zangrandi for the decoration of a chapel in San Giovanni Evangelista; a work later completed by a young Parmigianino. By the age of eighteen, he had already completed the Bardi Altarpiece. In 1521, Parmigianino was sent to Viadana (along with painter Girolamo Bedoli who was to marry his cousin) to escape the wars between the French, Imperial, and papal armies. In Viadana, he painted two panels in tempera, depicting Saint Francis for the church of the Frati de' Zoccoli, and the Mystical Marriage of Saint Catherine for San Pietro. He also worked in San Giovanni and met Correggio, who was at work on the fresco decorations of the cupola. |
Work in Fontanellato and travel to Rome |
In 1524, he traveled to Rome with five small paintings, including the Circumcision of Jesus and his Self-portrait in a Convex Mirror, seeking patronage of the Medici pope, Clement VII. Vasari records that in Rome, Parmigianino was "celebrated as a Raphael reborn". In January 1526, Parmigianino and his uncle, Pier Ilario, agreed with Maria Bufalina from Città di Castello, to decorate the church of San Salvatore in Lauro with an altarpiece of the Vision of Saint Jerome (1526–27, National Gallery, London). Within a year, the Sack of Rome caused Parmigianino, and many other artists, to flee. |
Bologna and return to Parma |
He resided in Bologna for nearly three years. At around 1528, he painted the Madonna and Child with Saints (Pinacoteca, Bologna), then later in 1528, he painted Madonna con la Rosa (Dresden) and Madonna with Saint Zachariah (Uffizi). By 1530 Parmigianino had returned to Parma. |
In 1531, Parmigianino received a commission for two altarpieces, depicting Saint Joseph and Saint John the Baptist, from the unfinished church of Santa Maria della Steccata. The brotherhood overseeing the church advanced him salary and promised him the supplies and materials; however, by 1535, the project was unfinished. In December, he nominated Don Nicola Cassola, a Parman cleric at the Roman Curia, to act as his legal representative. Parmigianino authorized him to collect the 50 gold scudi from Bonifazio Gozzadini for the Madonna with St. John the Baptist and St. Zacharias. |
In 1534, it was decided that the Madonna dal collo lungo (the Madonna with the Long Neck) would hang in the chapel of the family of Elena Baiardi. |
Parmigianino had probably expected to succeed Correggio in the favour of the church. However, in April 1538, the administrative offices commissioned initially Giorgio Gandini del Grano, then Girolamo Bedoli, to decorate the apse and choir of the Parma Cathedral. |
It is believed that at this time, he became a devotee of alchemy. Vasari hypothesizes that this was due to his fascination with magic. Scholars now agree that Parmigianino's scientific interests may have been due to his obsession with trying to find a new medium for his etchings. As a result of his alchemical researches, he completed little work in the church. He was imprisoned for two months for breach of contract after the Confraternita decided unanimously to ban him from continuing in their church. He was replaced between 1539 and 1540 by Giulio Romano, who also promptly withdrew from the contract. |
Parmigianino died of a fever in Casalmaggiore on 24 August 1540 at the age of 37 years. He is buried in the church of the Servite Friars "naked with a cross made of cypress wood on his chest". |
Among those closely influenced by Parmigianino were his cousin Girolamo Mazzuoli and Girolamo's son Alessandro Mazzuoli; Pomponeo Amidano; Giacomo Bertoia; and Francesco Borgani. |
Works |
Parmigianino was also an early Italian etcher, a technique that was pioneered in Italy by Marcantonio Raimondi, but which appealed to draughtsmen. Though the techniques of printing the copper plates required special skills, the ease with which acid, as a substitute for ink, could reproduce the spontaneity of an artist's hand attracted Parmigianino, a "master of elegant figure drawing". Parmigianino also designed chiaroscuro woodcuts, and although his output was small he had a considerable influence on Italian printmaking. Some of his prints were done in collaboration with Giovanni Jacopo Caraglio. |
Selected works |
Baptism of Christ (c. 1519) – Oil on wood, 197 x 137 cm – Gemäldegalerie, Berlin |
Bardi Altarpiece (1521) – Tempera on panel, 203 x 130 cm; Church of Santa Maria, Bardi |
Saint Barbara (1522) – Oil on Wood, 48 x 39 cm – Prado Museum, Madrid. |
Circumcision of Jesus (c. 1523) – Oil on wood, 42 x 31.4 cm; Detroit Institute of Arts |
Self-portrait in a Convex Mirror (c. 1524) – Oil on wood, diameter 24.4 cm; Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna |
Portrait of a Collector (c. 1524) – Oil on panel, 86 x 94 cm, National Gallery, London |
Portrait of Galeazzo Sanvitale (1524) – Oil on panel, 109 x 81 cm, Museo di Capodimonte, Naples |
Portrait of Lorenzo Cybo (1524) – Oil on panel, 126 x 104 cm, Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen |
Myth of Diana and Acteon (c. 1524) – fresco, Rocca Sanvitale, Fontanellato, Province of Parma |
The Holy Family with Angels (c. 1524) – Oil on panel, 110 x 89 cm, Museo del Prado, Madrid. |
Antea (c. 1524–7) – Oil on canvas, 135 x 88 cm, Museo di Capodimonte, Naples |
Madonna and Child (1525) – Galleria Doria-Pamphili, Rome |
Vision of Saint Jerome (1526–1527) – Oil on panel, 343 x 149 cm, National Gallery, London |
Conversion of Saint Paul (c. 1527) – Oil on canvas, 177.5 x 128.5 cm, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna |
Holy Family with the Infant Saint John the Baptist (c.1528) – National Museum of Capodimonte, Naples |
The Mystical Marriage of St Catherine (1529) – Oil on panel, 74.2 x 57.2 cm, National Gallery, London |
Turkish Slave (Portrait of a Lady; c. 1533) – Oil on panel, 67 x 53 cm, Galleria Nazionale di Parma |
Cupid Making His Arch (c. 1533–1535) – Oil on panel, 135 x 65.3 cm, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna |
Madonna with the Long Neck (1534–40) – Oil on wood, 216 x 132 cm, Uffizi, Florence |
Portrait of Pier Maria Rossi di San Secondo (c. 1535–1539) – Oil on panel, 133 x 98 cm, Museo del Prado, Madrid |
Virgin and Child with Saint John the Baptist and Mary Magdalene (c. 1535-1540) - Oil on panel, 75.9 × 59.7cm, J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles |
Portrait of Camilla Gonzaga and Her Three Sons (c. 1539–1540) – Oil on panel, 128 x 97 cm, Museo del Prado, Madrid |
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