Memoirs of the early Italian painters / by Anna Jameson; thoroughly revised and in part rewritten by Estelle M. Hurll.

  • Jameson, Mrs. (Anna), 1794-1860.
Date:
1899
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Memoirs of the early Italian painters / by Anna Jameson; thoroughly revised and in part rewritten by Estelle M. Hurll. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    317/335 (page 269)
    209 pomp, this display of festive enjoyment, these moving figures these lavish colors in glowing approximation, we begin* after a while to distinguish the principal personages, our Saviour, the Virgin Mary, the Twelve Apostles, mingled with Vene- tian senators and ladies clothed in the rich costume of the sixteenth century — monks, friars, poets, artists, all portraits of personages existing in his own time ; while in a group of musicians he has introduced himself and Tintorettoplayiim the violoncello, while Titian plays the bass. The bride in : this picture is said to be the portrait of Eleanor of Austria, the sister of Charles V., and second wife of Francis I., of whom there is a most beautiful portrait at Hampton Court. There is a series of these Scriptural banquet scenes, painted by Paul Veronese, all in the same extraordinary style, but varied with the utmost richness of fancy, invention, and coloring: Christ ( entertained by Levi, now in the Academy of Venice ; the Sup- per in the house of Simon the Pharisee, with Mary Magdalene at the feet of our Saviour, now in the Turin Gallerv, of which the first sketch, a magnificent piece of color, was in the pos- c session of Mr. Rogers, and is now in the collection of the Baroness Burdett-Coutts ; and the Supper at Emmaus [Louvre], in which he has introduced his wife and others of his family as spectators. The companions of St. Sebastian, Marcus and Marcellinus, preparing for their Martyrdom, which is now in the church of San Sebastiano at Venice, is, for the expression of life, passion, and dramatic power, one of the grandest pictures in the world: it is esteemed the masterpiece of the painter. Paul Veronese died in 1588. He was a man of amiable manners, of a liberal, generous spirit, and extremely pious. ivVhen he painted for churches and convents, he frequently accepted very small prices, sometimes merely the value of his canvas and colors; for that stupendous picture in the Louvre, the Marriage at Cana, he received not more than 40/. of our money. He had sons and relations who were educated in his atelier and assisted in painting his great pictures, and who after his f death continued to carry on a sort of manufactory of pictures m the same magnificent ornamental style ; but they were far inferior painters, and had not, like him, the power of redeem- ing gross faults of judgment and taste by a vivid imagination and strong feeling of character.