The Peace (between 1551 and 1552)

Paolo Veronese prints bring the splendour, colour and pageantry of Renaissance Venice into your home. Veronese was one of the great trio of sixteenth-century Venetian painters, alongside Titian and Tintoretto, famous for huge, crowded biblical feasts, glowing ceilings and elegant myths. Our collection of fine art prints includes The Wedding at Cana, Mars and Venus United by Love, The Finding of Moses, portraits, allegories and many of his drawings.

About Paolo Veronese

Paolo Caliari was born in Verona in 1528, the fifth child of a stonecutter named Gabriele and his wife Caterina. He later took his mother's family name, Caliari, but is known by the name of his home town. By 1541 he was apprenticed to the Verona painter Antonio Badile, and his gifts soon outgrew the workshop. In his teens he was already painting for important churches in Verona, and in 1551 he worked on frescoes at the Villa Soranzo near Treviso.

In 1553 Veronese moved to Venice after winning his first state commission: ceiling paintings for the Doge's Palace. His ceilings for the church of San Sebastiano and the Marciana Library, where he won a prize judged by Titian and Sansovino, made him a leading master. In the late 1550s he decorated the Villa Barbaro at Maser, designed by Andrea Palladio, with frescoes full of illusion and light, and in 1562–63 painted The Wedding at Cana for the monastery of San Giorgio Maggiore.

In 1565 he married Elena Badile, daughter of his first master; their sons and his brother Benedetto later worked with him in his large workshop. In 1573 his huge Last Supper for the Dominicans of Santi Giovanni e Paolo, crowded with soldiers, dwarves and animals, drew the attention of the Inquisition, and the painting was renamed The Feast in the House of Levi. He died in Venice on 19 April 1588.

Style and Subjects

Veronese was above all a great colourist. His paintings glow with silvery light, rich silks and brilliant blues, and his figures are elegant and aristocratic. His famous banquet scenes are vast stages: crowds in shimmering costume move across the picture in front of grand classical architecture, colonnades and bright skies.

He was also the leading Venetian painter of ceilings, using bold foreshortening and illusion. His myths and allegories, such as Mars and Venus United by Love, are graceful and sensuous, and his portraits calm and dignified. The collection includes many of his drawings, which show how he worked out figures, armour and costume.

Famous Works

• The Wedding at Cana (1562–1563), Louvre, Paris. A vast feast nearly ten metres wide, with portraits of Titian, Tintoretto and Veronese himself among the guests.
• The Family of Darius before Alexander (1565–1570), National Gallery, London. His grandest treatment of secular history, arranged like a procession.
• Allegory of Virtue and Vice (c. 1565), The Frick Collection, New York. An allegory from his mature years.
• Mars and Venus United by Love (1570s), Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. A graceful mythological scene of the two lovers.
• The Madonna of the Cuccina Family (c. 1571). A Venetian family presented to the Virgin and Child.
• The Feast in the House of Levi (1573), Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice. His huge Last Supper, renamed after questioning by the Inquisition.
• Rape of Europa (1581–1584). One of his late mythological paintings.

Decorating with Veronese Prints

Veronese's paintings are rich and celebratory, made for grand rooms. A banquet scene like The Wedding at Cana is perfect above a dining table or sideboard, and its glowing colours suit warm walls, dark wood and gilded frames.

His myths, such as Mars and Venus United by Love or Rebecca at the Well, bring elegance to a living room or bedroom. The allegories of navigation and the drawings of armour and costume make a fine group for a study or library.

FAQ

What art movement was Paolo Veronese part of?

Veronese was a painter of the Venetian Renaissance. With Titian and Tintoretto he formed the great trio who dominated Venetian painting in the sixteenth century, and his work later inspired Baroque painters.

What is Paolo Veronese's most famous painting?

The Wedding at Cana (1562–63), now in the Louvre, is his most famous work. The Feast in the House of Levi (1573), in the Gallerie dell'Accademia in Venice, is equally celebrated.

Why was Veronese questioned by the Inquisition?

His 1573 Last Supper included soldiers, dwarves and animals, which the Inquisition considered irreverent. Ordered to repaint it, he resisted, and instead the painting was retitled The Feast in the House of Levi.

Where can I see Veronese's work?

Many of his greatest works remain in Venice, in the Doge's Palace, the church of San Sebastiano and the Gallerie dell'Accademia, and at the Villa Barbaro in Maser. Others are in the Louvre, the National Gallery in London, the Prado and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Related Artists

• Titian: the older Venetian master, member of the great trio, who judged Veronese's prize-winning ceiling
• Jacopo Tintoretto: his great Venetian contemporary and fellow member of the trio
• Giovanni Battista Zelotti: fellow painter from Verona who worked with him at the Villa Soranzo
• Giovanni Battista Tiepolo: eighteenth-century Venetian painter who followed Veronese's example