Page:Bryan's dictionary of painters and engravers, volume 1.djvu/356

 m the Cathedral at Mantua, since disappeared ; and some wall-paintings in the Casa Contarini. After executing these and several other works in his native town, he went to Castelfranco, where he received a commission to decorate the Villa Soranzo with large frescoes. He took with him as assistant to Castelfranco Giovan Battista Zelotti, who was at that time a youth of nineteen, and who worked for some time with Paolo, decorating not only Soranzo, but anotlier splendid Villa — Faiizolo — and executing several works in the church uf San Liberale. Many of these works still remain, and testify to the early, or, as it may be called, the Veronese, manner of Paolo, fonned chiefly on that of his master Badile and that of Paolo Morando. Many of Paolo's peculiar characteristics had, however, manifested themselves, and he was al- ready a painter of note and achievement before he was called to Venice in 1555. His first works in Venice were for the church of San Sebastiano. Here after painting the ceiling of the Sacristy, he was commissioned to undertake the ceiling of tlie church itself, which he decorated with gorgeous scenes from the history of Esther. These were so much admired that the prior further employed him to paint a beautiful altarpiece of the Madonna in Glory and several smaller works.

The stimulus given to Paolo's art by thus being brought in rivalry with the great masters of Venice was just what was needed for the development of his style. His colour became warmer and more harmonious, and his forms more full of life and motion. In some historical paintings executed in the castle of Tiene near Vicenza, his richness of colour and grandeur of composition are fully evi- dent. He does not appear at first, however, to have attracted much remark at Venice, and it was not until the patriarch Titian in 1561 selected him, with several of the younger painters of the time, as suitable to be entrusted with the decoration of the great hall of the library lately built by Sansovino, that his powers were properly recognised. Here Paolo painted three allegorical medallions, representing 'Music,' 'Mathematics.' and Tamo,' and carried off, as Vasari relates, the prize of a gold chain that had been promised for the best painting done in the library. After this he worked in com- pany with his early assistant, Zelotti, who had also come to Venice, in several of the halls of the Ducal Palace, covering the ceilings and walls with magnificent allegories.

In 1562 he received the commission to paint for the refectory of the convent of S. Giorgio Maggiore the celebrated picture of the ' Marriage at Cana,' now in the Louvre. Every one knows this magnificent banqueting scene, and has formed some idea from it of Paolo's gorgeous style and mode of conception. Above all things he delighted in the pomp and splendour of earthly pageantry, the vainglory of mortal man, the material riches and beauty of existence ; and this with no hint that such things are vanity, no belief in any higher life than that afforded by the depraved but lovely Venice in which he dwelt. It seemed to him, therefore, no anomaly to introduce Jesus of Nazareth into the midst of a lavish, tumultuous banquet, whereat the bride, Eleanor of Austria, and the bridegroom, Don Alfonso d'Avalos, are supported by such noted historical characters as Francis I. of France, the Emperor Charles V., Queen Mary of England, and the Sultan Soliman I. The musicians also are all portraits of painters of the time.

This was the first of several great banqueting scenes painted by Paolo, among which may be mentioned ' The Feast of the Levite,' in the Academy at Venice, and the ' Supper at the House of Simon,' in the Louvre. Other representations of the same scene are to be found at the Brera at Milan, the Durazzo Palace at Genoa, and the Dresden Gallery. The ' Supper at Emmaus ' was likewise a favourite subject with this master. In the well-known Louvre example the painter has introduced himself and his family as present in the solemn scene. Two of his little girls play with a large dog in the foreground, while his wife holds a baby in her arms, and her sons play near her. About 1563 Paolo was again employed in painting in the church of San Sebastiano. Here he now represented, in two magnificent wall-paintings, the martyrdom of the Saint to whom the church was dedicated, and ' SS. Marcellus and Marcellinus on the way to Martyrdom.' These are two of Paolo's tinest works, full of movement, beauty of colour, and dramatic effect. Indeed, the whole church of San Sebastiano glows with his work, and remains a splendid monument of his masterly power and skill. Another celebrated monument is the Villa Masiera, a palace built by Palladio for the Venetian patricians, Maroantouio and Daniele Barbaro. Paolo was employed to decorate this magnificent villa, and achieved his task in the most gorgeous manner, his fancy running riot amidst gods and goddesses, loves and nymphs, and other creations of heathen mythology and imaginative symbolism. Charles Blanc has given a detailed description of the Villa Masiera in the Gazette des Beaiix Arts, and many other writers have testified to the charm of these wonderful works. They were probably executed about 1566, for Vasari speaks of them in the second edition of his Lives, published in 1568. About the same time, probably, Paolo painted on canvas the historical picture of the ' Family of Darius,' now in the National Gallery. It is possible that at some period of his life Paolo went to liome, and saw the works of Michelangelo in the Sistina, or drawings from them, for in some of his fresco decorations his style, strange to say, resembles that of ihe great Florentine master. But Veronese never rose to the lofty heights of the ideal that Michelangelo trod so fearlessly. He aimed at magnificence more than sublimity, and surrounded his saints and holy persons with every material good, as if to compensate them for the woes they had endured while on earth. His fondness for banquets is amusingly illustrated by a memorandum, quoted by Ridolfi, from the back of one of his drawings. In this he declares his intention of representing, when he has time, ' a sumptuous repast in a superb gallery, at which the Virgin, the Saviour, and St. Joseph shall be present, served by the richest cortege of angels that it is possible to imagine, who shall offer them, on plates of silver and gold, the most exquisite viands and fruits. Others shall be occupied in presenting to them, in transparent crystal and gold cups, precious liqueurs, to show the zeal with which happy spirits serve the Lord.'

Of Paolo Caliari's domestic life little is known. He married a daughter of his master, Antonio Badile, and had several children, whom he has depicted in some of his pictures. His eldest son, Gabriele, was born in 1568, and Carletto in 1570. Both brothers adopted their father's profession, but Carletto had by far the most talent. After his