Veronese had by 1556 been commissioned to…
1561 CE
Veronese had by 1556 been commissioned to paint the first of his monumental banquet scenes, the Feast in the House of Simon, which will not be concluded until 1570.
However, owing to its scattered composition and lack of focus, it is not to be his most successful refectory mural.
In the late 1550s, during a break in his work for San Sebastiano, Veronese decorates the Villa Barbaro in Maser, a newly finished building by the architect Andrea Palladio.
Veronese displays his talent for integrating painting and architecture, whether real or fictive, in a single decorative ensemble, in this, his masterpiece.
The frescoes are designed to unite humanistic culture with Christian spirituality; wall paintings include portraits of the Barbaro family, and the ceilings open to blue skies and mythological figures.
Veronese's decorations employ complex perspective and trompe l'oeil, and result in a luminescent and inspired visual poetry.
The trompe l'oeil architecture, landscapes, and human figures with which Veronese covers the villa's interiors recall the similar decorations, as described by ancient Roman authors, of ancient country houses, which the Barbaro family, like other Venetian nobles, seek to emulate in establishing their country seat.
Here in about 1561, the thirty-three-year-old Veronese paints the ingenious ceiling fresco called Abundance, Fortitude, and Envy, a typically colorful blend of classical quotation and inspired illusionism, and a masterpiece of di sotto in su ("from below looking up") perspective.
This encounter between architect and artist is a triumph.
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One of Veronese's frescoes
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Southwest Europe
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