Adoration of the Magi (Veronese)

Last updated
Paolo Veronese, Adoration of the Magi, 1573, zoomable image Paolo Veronese - Adoration of the Magi - National Gallery.jpg
Paolo Veronese, Adoration of the Magi, 1573, zoomable image

The Adoration of the Magi by the Venetian artist Paolo Veronese is a large oil painting on canvas dated to 1573 which has been in the National Gallery, London since 1855, shortly after it was sold by the Venetian church for which it was commissioned. It shows the common subject in the Nativity art of the visit by the Three Kings to the infant Jesus, here given a grandly theatrical treatment typical of Veronese's mature works. It was not an altarpiece, having been painted to hang beside rather than over a side altar in the nave of the church.

Contents

Description

The Adoration of the Magi was a very common subject in religious art. It was no doubt chosen for this painting because it was commissioned by a confraternity of Saint Joseph, although he is not especially prominent in the composition, placed hanging off a ledge above the ox. However he is at the top of the compositional diagonal formed by the main figures. Veronese enjoyed painting elaborate and stagey costumes and the three kings, like religious or historical figures in many of his paintings, are very elaborately dressed in robes that reflect the dress of the contemporary Venetian elite but are more extravagant and fanciful than would often actually be worn. [1] It has been suggested that Veronese's costumes drew from theatre costumes, for which he also made drawings, and they might be likened to modern-day haute couture styles, many of which are not really intended to be worn off the catwalk. [2]

The grand architectural setting in a ruined classical temple is also typical of Veronese, who took a serious interest in architecture, although David Rosand suggests that the settings in his large paintings are better considered as stage scenery or temporary monumental decor for royal entries or other occasions (which was often very elaborate at this period) than compared in detail to actual architecture. [3] Nativity scenes are very often given such settings, which apart from showing off the artist's skill acted as a reminder of the medieval legend, reported in the popular compilation of the Golden Legend , that on the night of Christ's birth the Basilica of Maxentius in Rome, supposed to house a statue of Romulus, had partly tumbled to the ground, leaving the impressive ruins that survive today. [4]

Detail of the main group. The eight human figures here are matched by eight animals, of six species Paolo Veronese - Adoration of the Magi - National Gallery corner crop(cropped).jpg
Detail of the main group. The eight human figures here are matched by eight animals, of six species

Another meaning for the ruined temple went back to 15th-century Early Netherlandish painting, when the usual simple shed of the Nativity stable, little changed from Late Antiquity, had developed into an elaborate ruined temple, initially Romanesque in style, which represented the dilapidated state of the Old Covenant of the Jewish law. [5] In Italian works the architecture of such temples became classical, reflecting the growing interest in the ancient world, and the ruins that remained in many areas. [6]

Dating and attribution

There seems no reason to doubt the date of 1573 painted on the lowest stone step. The degree of Veronese's personal involvement has been the subject of varying views since the work came to London, with some doubting that he touched the final work at all, while others believing that the figures are largely by the master's hand. It is generally accepted that Veronese was responsible for detailed preparatory drawings, reflected in the underdrawing that is visible in many places, and was followed with little change. Cecil Gould was the first to point out that in 1573 Veronese also completed works including the enormous The Feast in the House of Levi and a large Madonna del Rosario (both now in the Accademia, Venice), suggesting "that this fact alone would support the idea that there was a large degree of studio participation." [7] Nicholas Penny finds much of the painting "characteristic of the more competent productions of Veronese's workshop, yet the heads of the two older kings are among the finest Veronese ever painted". [8]

The style in some areas, such as the faces of the Virgin and Caspar, and aspects like the inclusion of the ox and ass, "by no means obligatory in a painting" of this subject and "another notably Bassanesque feature", have suggested to several scholars that Jacopo Bassano, or someone from his workshop, collaborated on the painting. Apart from these the painting includes horses, two lambs, two dogs and a camel. Veronese is known to have admired Bassano, who specialized in history paintings in which animals were included. [8]

History

Detail, top left Paolo Veronese - Adoration of the Magi - WGA24820 top rightpped).jpg
Detail, top left

The provenance of the painting is unusually simple for a 16th-century work, since it was bought by a dealer from the parish church of San Silvestro, Venice, for which it was commissioned. The painting was commissioned by the confraternity of Saint Joseph, the Scuola di San Giuseppe, and placed beside their altar on the left hand wall of the nave. They were not one of the very wealthy Scuole Grandi of Venice, nor trade-based like others with altars in the church, but essentially devotional, and they included female members. [9]

The church had a number of significant paintings, and the Veronese was next to the altar of St Joseph, which in the next century was given an altarpiece by Johann Carl Loth of the unusual subject of Joseph presenting the newborn Jesus to God the Father, which remains in the church. The Veronese had some fame, being singled out for mention in early guide books such as Giovanni Stringa's 1604 revision of Francesco Sansovino's Venetia. [9] In 1670 agents of the new Cosimo III de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, who had failed to persuade the convent of Saint Catherine to sell Veronese's Mystical Marriage of St Catherine of 1575 (now Gallerie dell'Accademia), turned to San Silvestro and attempted to bribe every member of the confraternity to sell the work, but failed after two years. [10]

After a partial collapse of the structure in 1820 it was decided to largely rebuild the church, and the present internal appearance is entirely 19th-century, with careful observation revealing how the money for the work ran out, with painting replacing reliefs and marble in secondary areas. Work began in 1836, with the Veronese stored in the church from 1837, either folded or rolled up, and the church was reconsecrated in 1850. [11] The exterior facade was finished in 1909, though the campanile or bell tower is 14th-century. The new nave had many fewer altars, with a "lucid articulation of the nave walls" that left no space for a painting the size of the Veronese. According to Penny the "official story" that this was only realized after rebuilding, making the original intention to replace the original large paintings impossible, is improbable, and gaining funds from the sale of the Veronese had probably been part of the plan all along. [12]

The painting was bought from the church by Angelo Toffoli, a Venetian art dealer, on 1 September 1855; the sale had been delayed by the need to obtain both a Papal decree allowing a sale and a permission to export it from the Austrian authorities then ruling Venice. Toffoli sent it to Paris the next month, apparently intending to sell it there to Baron James Mayer de Rothschild of the French Rothschilds or another collector. But the newly appointed Director of the National Gallery, Sir Charles Lock Eastlake, heard of this and bought it from Toffoli, probably without having ever seen it. Toffoli was paid £1,977 on 24 November, and the painting was in London by 29 November. It evidently arrived without its original frame, and the current one was made in Wardour Street before the painting was hung in the gallery on 1 February 1856, since when it has normally been on display, [13] today in Room 9.

Condition and technique

The painting is generally in a good condition, although the nearly twenty years spent rolled or folded up in its final period in Venice and the moves ending at the National Gallery caused localized paint loss along the edges, which were repainted for Toffoli the dealer. When it arrived in the National Gallery "superfluous repaint" was removed in 1856. It was described as worn and hard to see by one 18th-century visitor to San Silvestro, perhaps because of dirt or discoloured varnish. It received further cleaning in 1891, 1934 and 1957. [14] In 2012-13 it was given a "full cleaning and restoration, as well as relining", the examination suggesting that Veronese's own hand was more evident in various of the main figures than had previously been thought. [15]

The painting is on three pieces, each 119 cm wide, of "tabby-weave, medium weight canvas" running across the picture. Rather unusually, the ground is calcium carbonate with glue as a binding medium, rather than the usual gesso based on calcium sulphate; it is not primed. Many pigments used have been identified, and there has been some discolouration. [16]

Notes

  1. Penny, 401–402
  2. Rosand, Chapter 4, especially 123–125
  3. Rosand, Chapter 4, especially 114–128
  4. Lloyd, Christopher, The Queen's Pictures, Royal Collectors through the centuries, p.226, National Gallery Publications, 1991, ISBN   0-947645-89-6. In fact the Basilica was not built until the 4th century. Some later painters used the remains as a basis for their depictions.
  5. Schiller, pp. 49–50. Purtle, Carol J, "Van Eyck's Washington 'Annunciation': narrative time and metaphoric tradition", p.4 and notes 9–14, Art Bulletin, March, 1999. Page references are to online version. online text. Also see The Iconography of the Temple in Northern Renaissance Art by Yona Pinson Archived 2009-03-26 at the Wayback Machine
  6. Schiller:91-82
  7. Penny, 396, 399 quoted
  8. 1 2 Penny, 399 quoted
  9. 1 2 Penny, 401
  10. Penny, xxi
  11. Penny, 396, 405
  12. Penny, 405, quoted
  13. Penny, 406, 405
  14. Penny, 396, 398
  15. Report in the National Gallery Review of the Year, 2012-2013 Archived January 21, 2014, at the Wayback Machine (PDF), pp. 36-37
  16. Penny, 396; very full details in the technical report online via the National Gallery page.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paolo Veronese</span> Italian Renaissance painter

Paolo Caliari, known as Paolo Veronese, was an Italian Renaissance painter based in Venice, known for extremely large history paintings of religion and mythology, such as The Wedding at Cana (1563) and The Feast in the House of Levi (1573). Included with Titian, a generation older, and Tintoretto, a decade senior, Veronese is one of the "great trio that dominated Venetian painting of the cinquecento" and the Late Renaissance in the 16th century. Known as a supreme colorist, and after an early period with Mannerism, Paolo Veronese developed a naturalist style of painting, influenced by Titian.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">San Giacomo dell'Orio</span>

The Chiesa di San Giacomo dall'Orio is a church located in the sestiere (quarter) of Santa Croce in Venice, northern Italy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Giovanni Girolamo Savoldo</span> Italian painter (c. 1480–1485 – 1548)

Giovanni Girolamo Savoldo, also called Girolamo da Brescia, was an Italian High Renaissance painter active mostly in Venice, although he also worked in other cities in northern Italy. He is noted for his subtle use of color and chiaroscuro, and for the sober realism of his works, which are mostly religious subjects, with a few portraits. His portraits are given interest by their accessories or settings; "some even look like extracts from larger narratives".

<i>Pietà</i> (Titian) 1576 painting by Titian

The Pietà is one of the last paintings by the Italian master Titian, and in its final, extended state was left incomplete at his death in 1576, to be completed by Palma Giovane. Titian had intended it to hang over his grave, and the two stages of painting were to make it fit in two different churches. It is now in the Gallerie dell'Accademia in Venice.

<i>Assumption of the Virgin</i> (Titian) Painting by Titian

The Assumption of the Virgin or Frari Assumption, popularly known as the Assunta, is a large altarpiece panel painting in oils by the Italian Renaissance artist Titian, painted in 1515–1518. It remains in the position it was designed for, on the high altar of the Basilica di Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari or Frari church in Venice. It is the largest altarpiece in the city, with the figures well over life-size, necessitated by the large church, with a considerable distance between the altar and the congregation. The images above and below are not Titian's work, they are by Palma Vecchio. It marked a new direction in Titian's style, that reflected his awareness of the developments in High Renaissance painting further south, in Florence and Rome, by artists including Raphael and Michelangelo. The agitated figures of the Apostles marked a break with the usual meditative stillness of saints in Venetian painting, in the tradition of Giovanni Bellini and others.

<i>Portrait of the Vendramin Family</i> Painting by Titian

The Vendramin Family Venerating a Relic of the True Cross is a large painting by the 16th century Venetian master Titian and his workshop, executed in the early 1540s, and now in the National Gallery in London.

<i>The Feast in the House of Levi</i> Painting by Paolo Veronese

The Feast in the House of Levi or Christ in the House of Levi is a 1573 oil painting by Italian painter Paolo Veronese and one of the largest canvases of the 16th century, measuring 560 cm × 1,309 cm. It is now in the Gallerie dell'Accademia in Venice. It was painted by Veronese for a wall of a Dominican friary called the refectory of the Basilica di Santi Giovanni e Paolo. This painting was intended to be a Last Supper, to replace an earlier work by Titian of this subject destroyed in the fire of 1571. The painting is directly tied to Luke, chapter 5, of the Bible which is clear from the inscription the artist added. The painting shows a banquet taking place in which Christ is the focal point at the center of the image. However, the painting led to an investigation by the Tribunal of the Holy Inquisition in Venice. Veronese was called to answer for irreverence and indecorum, and the serious offense of heresy was mentioned.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">San Silvestro, Venice</span>

San Silvestro is a church building in the sestiere of San Polo of Venice, northern Italy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Circumcision of Jesus</span> Event from the life of Jesus of Nazareth and common subject in Christian art

The circumcision of Jesus is an event from the life of Jesus, according to the Gospel of Luke chapter 2, which states:

And when eight days were fulfilled to circumcise the child, his name was called Jesus, the name called by the angel before he was conceived in the womb.

David Rosand was an American art historian, university professor and writer. He died on August 8, 2014, from cardiac amyloidosis. Rosand specialized in Italian Renaissance art, and was known for his scholarly work on Venice and Venetian artists, in particular Titian.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marco Marziale</span> Italian painter

Marco Marziale was a Venetian painter from, known to have been active from 1492/93 to 1507. He was a pupil of Giovanni Bellini, as stated in some of his inscriptions signing works, and was also influenced by Giovanni's brother Gentile, with possibly some elements of the style of Perugino also. From January 1493, when he must have at least completed his training, he was employed by the Republic of Venice as an assistant to Giovanni Bellini on the Great Council Chamber in the Doge's Palace at a fairly modest salary. These paintings were all lost in the great fire of 1574. In 1493 he joined the confraternity of the Scuola di San Marco.

<i>Petrobelli Altarpiece</i> Painting by Paolo Veronese

The Petrobelli Altarpiece is an oil painting on canvas of c. 1563 by Paolo Veronese, the remaining fragments of which are now divided between four museums.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Venetian painting</span> Art from the Republic of Venice

Venetian painting was a major force in Italian Renaissance painting and beyond. Beginning with the work of Giovanni Bellini and his brother Gentile Bellini and their workshops, the major artists of the Venetian school included Giorgione, Titian, Tintoretto (1518–1594), Paolo Veronese (1528–1588) and Jacopo Bassano (1510–1592) and his sons. Considered to give primacy to colour over line, the tradition of the Venetian school contrasted with the Mannerism prevalent in the rest of Italy. The Venetian style exerted great influence upon the subsequent development of Western painting.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">San Sebastiano, Venice</span>

The Chiesa di San Sebastiano is a 16th-century Roman Catholic church located in the Dorsoduro sestiere of the Italian city of Venice. The church houses a cycle of paintings by the artist Paolo Veronese, as well as paintings by Tintoretto and Titian. The church is a member of the Chorus Association of Venetian churches. It stands on the Campo di San Sebastiano by the Rio di San Basilio, close to the Giudecca Canal. It is one of the five votive churches in Venice, each one built after the passing of a plague through the city. Following construction, the church was dedicated to a saint associated with the disease; in this case St. Sebastian.

<i>Flaying of Marsyas</i> (Titian) Painting by Titian

The Flaying of Marsyas is a painting by the Italian late Renaissance artist Titian, probably painted between about 1570 and his death in 1576, when in his eighties. It is now in the Archbishop's Palace in Kroměříž, Czech Republic and belongs to the Archbishopric of Olomouc. It is one of Titian's last works, and may be unfinished, although there is a partial signature on the stone in the foreground.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Last Supper in Christian art</span>

The Last Supper of Jesus and the Twelve Apostles has been a popular subject in Christian art, often as part of a cycle showing the Life of Christ. Depictions of the Last Supper in Christian art date back to early Christianity and can be seen in the Catacombs of Rome.

<i>The Family of Darius Before Alexander</i> Painting by Paolo Veronese

The Family of Darius before Alexander is an oil painting on canvas by Paolo Veronese, created ca. 1565–1570. It depicts Alexander the Great with the family of Darius III, the Persian king he had defeated in battle. Although Veronese had previously painted a version of the subject, since destroyed, the theme had rarely been depicted by other artists before him. The painting has been in the collection of the National Gallery in London since 1857.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Finding of Moses</span> The finding in the River Nile of Moses as a baby by the daughter of Pharao

The Finding of Moses, sometimes called Moses in the Bullrushes, Moses Saved from the Waters, or other variants, is the story in chapter 2 of the Book of Exodus in the Hebrew Bible of the finding in the River Nile of Moses as a baby by the daughter of Pharaoh. The story became a common subject in art, especially from the Renaissance onwards.

<i>The Conversion of Mary Magdalene</i> Painting by Paolo Veronese

The Conversion of Mary Magdalene is an oil painting, an early work by the Italian Renaissance artist based in Venice, Paolo Veronese (1528–1588). He was known for his sumptuous paintings with a dramatic and colourful style. Dating from circa 1545–1548, the painting was commissioned by a noble patron in Verona. It is held by the National Gallery in London.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">San Geminiano, Venice</span> Church in Veneto, Italy

San Geminiano was a Roman Catholic church located in Piazza San Marco in Venice, Italy, dedicated to Saint Geminianus. It is believed to have been founded by the Byzantines in the 6th century AD and it was destroyed and rebuilt several times over subsequent centuries. The last reconstruction began in 1505 to designs of the architect Cristoforo da Legname, and it was completed by Jacopo Sansovino in 1557. This church was a significant example of Venetian Renaissance architecture, and it was well-known for being ornate and richly decorated. The building was demolished in 1807 in order to make way for the Napoleonic wing of the Procuratie, and many of the artworks it contained were distributed among other churches and museums.

References