Wit and Humour in the Work of Paolo Veronese

Author(s): Richard Cocke

Source: Artibus et Historiae, Vol. 11, No. 21 (1990), pp. 125-145
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RICHARDCOCKE
Wit and Humour in the Work of Paolo Veronese
During a career spanning the sixty years from his birth in
1528 until his death in 1588, Paolo Veronese produced, with
some assistance from his workshop, an enormous range of
painting and drawing. The standard modern catalogue of his
paintings runs to some three hundred and fifty entries for
autograph works, with an even larger section devoted to the pic-
tures produced in differing measures by the workshop. His
oeuvre includes vast canvases filling refectory walls, great
cycles of frescoes both sacred and profane, incomparable ceiling
paintings in the Ducal Palace glorifying Venice, and others for pri-
vate patrons. His work was admired by the elite of the Venetian
patriciate, by a small but distinguished number of foreign collec-
tors and, at a more humble level, by parish priests in search of a
suitable altar for their churches.1
In this paper I shall concentrate on one of the most remark-
able, but comparatively neglected features of both his religious
and mythological painting: their wit and humour. This, of
course, is not the only element in his work. His mastery of
figures in movement and ability to capture the play of light on rich
and sparkling textures, the interlocking of figures, their convinc-
ing relationship to architectural settings, and their role within a
narrative are all equally significant. Some of these aspects - in
particular his treatment of architecture - are well-worn themes
while others, such as his painterly technique, have hardly been
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touched upon in the scholarly literature, no doubt because of our
lack of a suitable descriptive language,2
One side of Veronese's humour and gentle ironic wit,
however, has found a notable exponent in the writings of John
Ruskin. I shall start with Ruskin's striking description of
Veronese's The Coccina Family Presented to the Virginand Child
with Saints Anthony and John the Baptist by Faith, Hope, and
Charity [Fig. 1]. Ruskin, as we shall see, was concerned with the
witty and humorous treatment of the dogs in Veronese's
religious paintings. While his writings serve as an introduction
to the theme, we shall have to look also at the ways in which
Veronese treats the Olympian gods and goddesses, before
ending with a brief discussion of the place of humour and wit in
Renaissance art.
Ruskin's account of the Coccina Family comes in the fifth
volume of Modern Painters, published in 1860. The theoretical
framework within which he wrote had been deeply influenced by
his rejection of the "idealizing" concepts of Reynolds and the
eighteenth century. They had espoused the notion of the grand
style embodied in the work of Raphael and Michelangelo.
Ruskin's views reflected the rediscovery of earlier so-called
primitive artists like Fra Angelico. They were held to embody
a pure sense of the Christian faith, which was extinguished in
sixteenth-century Italy, with the notable exception of Venice.
125
RICHARD COCKE

1) Veronese, ((The Coccina Family Presented to the Virgin and Child with Saints Anthony and John the Baptist by Faith, Hope and
Charity)),oil on canvas (167 x 414 cm.), Staatliche Kunstsammlungen,Dresden.

Ruskin's views reflect, then, both his rejection of the concept of
the "grand - Roman - style" advocated by Reynolds and his
need to reconcile very different types of painting: the compara-
tive austerity of Fra Angelico with the rich "worldly" canvases
of Veronese.
"In the rest of Italy,"Ruskin writes,
piety had become abstract, and opposed theoretically to
worldly life: hence the Florentine and Umbrian painters
generally separated their saints from living men [...]. At
Venice all this was reversed, and so boldly as at first to shock,
with its seeming irreverence, a spectator accustomed to the
formalities and abstractions of the so-called sacred schools.
The madonnas are no more seated apart on their thrones, the
saints no more breathe celestial air. They are on our own
plain ground - nay here in our houses with us. All kind of
worldly business going on in their presence fearlessly [...] our
dearest children playing with pet dogs at Christ's very feet.
I once myself thought this irreverent. How foolishly! As if
children whom He loved could play anywhere else.3
There follows a detailed description of the picture, ending
with a touching account of the response of the children, ranging
from the rapt adoration of the eldest, through the shy reaction
of the nine-year-old peeping around the column, to the youngest
who
is neither frightened nor interested, but finds the ceremony
tedious, and is trying to coax the dog to play with him; but the
dog, which is one of those little curly, short-nosed, fringy-
pawed things, which all Venetian ladies petted, will not now
be coaxed. For the dog is the last chain of lowering feeling,
and takes his doggish views of the matter. He cannot under-
stand, first, how the Madonna got into the house; nor, se-
condly, why she is allowed to stay, disturbing the family, and
taking all their attention from his dogship. And he is walking
away, much offended.
Ruskin followed the nineteenth-century view that the picture
represented Veronese's family, although the editors of his Com-
plete Works rightly referred to the older tradition that it showed
the Coccina family. As such it was one of four canvases painted
for their palace on the Grand Canal just down from the Rialto and
shown in the right background. The members of the family were
identified by Rodolfo Gallo as Antonio (standing at the back), his
brother Alvise with his wife, Zuana, and Zuanantonio kneeling to
hold the hand of Faith. Gallo established a date for the four can-
vases at the beginning of the 1570s, on the basis that the

126

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 WIT AND HUMOUR IN THE WORK OF PAOLO VERONESE

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2) Veronese, studies for a "MarriageFeast at Cana), pen and ink (20.6 x 17.3 cm.),
Staatliche Museen, Berlin-Dahlem, KdZ 502.

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RICHARD COCKE

3) Veronese, ((TheMarriageFeast at Cana)),oil on canvas (207 x 457 cm.), Staatliche Kunstsammlungen,Dresden.

youngest child carried by his nurse was born in 1570, whilst An-
tonio died in 1572.4
These facts supplement Ruskin's perceptive account of the
painting and modify it in one significant detail: the action is not,
as Ruskin suggested, intended to be seen as taking place in the
family palace (that is included in the background, after all), but
in a special sphere where the divine and earthly are combined but
separated. The composition with the Virgin and Child with at-
tendants isolated from the adoring donors was adopted from an
older tradition, best represented by Altichiero's fresco of the
CavalliFamily Being Presented to the Holy Family in S. Anastasia,
Verona.5 Since the Coccina family's namesake saints have
been included with the Virgin and Child, they themselves are
presented by Faith, Hope, and Charity. The important distinction
occurs in the isolation of the Virgin and Child with their atten-
dants in their own separate tabernacle, clearly distinguished
from the more worldly building behind the members of the Caval-
li household. This distinction was preserved in Veronese's can-
vas where, however, it is made with different means, i.e., the rich
marble columns. The comparison with Altichiero's fresco un-
derlines both his sense of tradition and the wit and humour
which, as Ruskin noted in his description of the dog, separates
Veronese's treatment of the theme from that of his predecessors.
This is also true of the remaining three canvases. As rich but
non-noble merchants, the members of the Coccina family under-
standably chose to be associated with the most famous biblical
precedent of wealthy outsiders, the Magi offering their tribute to
the youthful Christ. This is shown as a historical scene, with no
portraiture, but the action is enlivened by the humorous treat-
ment of the two dogs accompanying the black magus resplen-
dent in his shot-silk robes. One lies on the ground apparently in-
tent on the action while his companion looks out of the canvas.
He appears transfixed by what he sees. This (if Pignatti is right
about their original disposition) must be the group of the small
boy playing with a cat in the Marriage Feast at Cana [Fig. 3].6
The subject must have been chosen for the obvious parallels
between the central action of the Marriage Feast and the use to
which the family put the room for which it was originally intend-
ed. The format and scale of the canvas contrast with his earlier
treatment of the theme in the great canvas from the refectory of
S. Giorgio Maggiore. Veronese went to considerable pains to em-
phasise the miracle by which Christ turned the water into wine.
In the preparatory drawing the servant contemplating the glass
of wine, whose miraculous origin is known only to the servants,
is separated from Christ by the group of the guests [Fig. 2]. In
the canvas the glass is juxtaposed with Christ's haloed head to

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 WIT AND HUMOUR IN THE WORK OF PAOLO VERONESE

4) Veronese, ((TheConsecration of David,, oil on canvas (173 x 365 cm.), Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna.

underline the miracle and, no doubt, to add a touch of respecta-
bility to the family's consumption of wine (and food). There is
little emphasis upon the wedding guests, whose role is secon-
dary to the small boy with the cat, the group on the left of the
young girl and a servant playing with a small dog held by another,
younger child, and the dog hopefully looking for crumbs in the
background. There was no room for this type of humour in the
last canvas, the Christ Carrying the Cross. Here Veronese has
emphasised the action, as Christ stumbles under the weight of
the cross and a soldier pushes St Veronica away to prevent her
wiping Christ's brow, and in the background Golgotha is pre-
pared for the final stage in the drama of Christ's earthly Passion,
his Crucifixion. The canvases embody three aspects of Christ's
ministry: the devotion due to him, and to the Virgin, in his
childhood; his miraculous powers as an adult; and his ultimate
suffering on behalf of our redemption.7
Veronese's sense of decorum and wit, as exemplified in the
four canvases commissioned by the Coccina family, had
matured and developed during the course of his career. His early
training and career remains a matter of controversy but we are
on safe ground with the Consecration of David, now in Vienna
[Fig. 4]. This was one of a series of canvases which came into
the collection of the Duke of Buckingham early in the seven-
teenth century. It is larger than the other canvases which make
up a series of ten Old and New Testament scenes, now divided
between Prague, Vienna, and Washington. They were created
towards the end of Veronese's career, with a large contribution
by the workshop. Modern critics agree that the Consecration
dates from a much earlier phase in his career, in the 1550s, at
about the time that he settled in Venice, where he is documented
by the beginning of 1555. The action in the Consecration takes
place in front of a dark setting, which is separated from the fan-
tastic and ruined landscape. The youthful hero kneels before the
elaborate altar while Samuel pours out the ointment in prepara-
tion for the ceremony. The group is flanked on one side by the
old man in an elaborate costume and head-dress, twisting in a
pose of deliberate virtuosity while he concentrates upon David.
Over his shoulder we can make out the bearded and balding head
of the donor, so positioned that this is all we see of him, who is
present at the ceremony without intruding. The old man's pose
is echoed by the young attendant next to Samuel and by the
young woman, emblematic of Charity, framing the group on the
other side.8
Much in the assertive drama of their movements was inspired
by the example of Giulio Romano, and finds parallels in the work
of some of Veronese's older compatriots, Battista del Moro and

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RICHARD COCKE

5) Veronese, (<TheFeast in the House of Simon>, oil on canvas (315 x 451 cm.), Galleria Sabauda, Turin.

Paolo Farinato, for instance. The factors which set Veronese's
work apart are the fluency of the composition, the sense of in-
vention in the costume, the historical detail of the altar and great
jars, the tact with which the ruined architectural setting is rea-
lised, and the humour in the treatment of the children. One dives
over his mother's shoulder and fiddles with the strap with which
her cloak is fixed, while his companion is attracted by the
goat, an interested spectator in the ceremony involving his
shepherd.9
Two dogs are employed in a similar vein in the first of the ser-
ies of Feasts, that in the house of Simon from the refectory of SS.
Nazaro e Celso in Verona. The picture is undated but must have
been painted at the end of the 1550s, since the treatment of
light, colour, and architecture closely recalls the organ shutters
from S. Sebastiano in Venice, documented to 1560 [Fig. 5]. On
the right Mary anoints Christ's feet with ointment while Martha
looks on with two apostles, the host, and two Pharisees, one
wearing an elaborate turban. The Feast involved a typical dis-
play of Venetian virtuosity in its handling of light and colour.
Christ is set half in shadow but he is still the focus of the light
as well as of the attention of the guests, and his robe is the light-
est tone in the whole composition. Judas, seated on the other

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 WIT
WIT AND
AND HUMOUR
HUMOUR IN THE WORK
IN THE WORKOF PAOLOVERONESE
OF PAOLO VERONESE

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6) Veronese, detail of the ((Marriage Feast at Cana), oil on canvas (overall 669 x 990 cm.), Mus6e du Louvre, Paris.

side besides the colonnade, points out the poor to a servant and
complains about the wastefulness of Mary's gesture with the
expensive ointment. The poor are carefully positioned outside
the open loggia where Simon holds his feast, but their needs are
underlined by the dog which wanders in front of the Corinthian
colonnade to look at the feast, while another has been hunting
for scraps under the table.10
This mode of underlining the action continues throughout
Veronese's career and is found, for instance, in the concerned
reaction of the small dog in the undated but late Good Samaritan
in Dresden. The path from Jericho runs through a dramatic forest
in which the injured and robbed traveler is shown abandoned in
the left foreground. The priest and the Levite pass him by in the
background, while the Samaritan has stopped to dress his
wounds under the watchful eye of the small dog, who in other
paintings springs to the defence of his mistress Susanna as she
is approached by the elders.1 These two examples are typical
of one strand in Veronese's humorous and witty handling of
animals. Another is brought out in his response to the challenge
of the contract, signed in June 1562, to fill the great canvas of
the Marriage Feast at Cana with "quella quantita de figure che
le potra intrar acomodamente."12

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RICHARD COCKE

7) Veronese, ((The Supper at Emmaus), oil on canvas (290 x 448 cm.), Mus6e du Louvre, Paris.

The scale of the commission surpassed any other, with the
possible exception of the lost canvas in the Sala del Maggior
Consiglio in the Ducal Palace. Christ in the centre is the focal
point of the action. His miraculous powers are underlined by the
servants contemplating the wine in the glasses, the best at the
feast but whose origin in the water-jars they alone know.
Even the serious allusions are transformed by Veronese's sense
of wit and humour. Thus the activity of the servants in the back-
ground frames the figure in the centre, above Christ, whose
cleaver is raised to chop the paschal lamb. The lightness of touch
in this reference to Christ's Passion is also a feature of the many
levels of allusion to be found in the musicians seated beneath
Christ, and in the treatment of the guests seated around the
great tables.'3 On the right sits the prior of the monastery,
Girolamo Scrocchetto, with other members of the monastery.
The remaining guests, with their striking range of exotic costumes
and headgear, all pause between courses; some pick their teeth
or wipe their mouths with napkins or discuss the relative merits
of their jewellery. Their every need is ministered to by the ser-
vants, who include a dwarf with parrot. The setting is suitably
lavish, with rich colonnades and balustrades, and the action is
enlivened by the playful cat being eyed by one of the pair of dogs
on the leash in the centre, and by the large dog stoically sitting
on the left edge of the canvas, who turns to look at the small dog
yapping at him from the safety of the lap of the governor of the
feast, but makes no response [Fig. 6]. All this detail was realised
with a sense of discrimination between these inessential details
and the servants contemplating the freshly poured wine, whose
actions transmit the message of Christ's miracle.
Veronese reused the appealing device of a small dog barking
at a larger one in the Supper at Emmaus, now in the Louvre.
This is the painting which Charles Emmanuel IIgave to the Duke

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 WIT AND HUMOUR IN THE WORK OF PAOLO VERONESE
of Crequi, who had been campaigning in Savoy on Charles's
behalf in the 1630s [Fig. 7].14 The provenance, unfortunately,
does not go back far enough to enable us to identify the family
which has chosen to be present as the two apostles recognize
that they have been eating with the resurrected Christ. The
inclusion of portraiture in this scene goes back at least to
Giovanni Bellini's version of this subject from the chapel in S. Sal-
vatore, although Veronese's patrons extended the demands by
asking for a family portrait. 15 Christ in the centre of the canvas
is set off against the dark background as he looks up while bless-
ing the bread and wine. He is isolated from, and contrasted with,
the host and the two apostles. The family are placed outside this
group, although the youngest of the bearded brothers reverently
holds a dish. He is accompanied by two young boys who con-
centrate upon the action, unlike the children on the other side, of
whom one looks up at her mother while another is looking
straight out at us. The family's spaniel is half seated on its back,
accepting the caresses of two young daughters, whose petting
has provoked the smaller lap dog to bark furiously, in spite of the
attentions of another of the younger members of the family. The
interplay between members of the family anticipates the Cocci-
na family picture. There, however, Veronese was more fully in
control of the pictorial modes, separating, as we have already
seen, the heavenly and the earthly spheres more decisively than
in the earlier Supper at Emmaus. That change is indicative both
of his sense of decorum and of his growing stature as an artist.
That success had been won by a traditional means - his
successful participation in the decoration of the Ducal Palace.
As in the cases of Gentile Bellini and Carpaccio, Veronese's
career stems in large measure from his contribution to the
decoration of the chambers of the Council of Ten, from the early
1550s onwards. He had already been in contact with important
Venetian patrician families, hence the commission for the
Giustiniani family chapel in S. Francesco della Vigna, completed
most probably by 1551. The success of his work in the Ducal
Palace, however, led to a wider base for his commissions, includ-
ing those from his compatriot Bernardo Torlionifor the Servite
monastery of S. Sebastiano. The most striking result, however,
came in the commissions for large-scale fresco cycles. Like
other artists from Verona, he had plied this trade before his arrival
in Venice, most notably in Sanmichele's now destroyed Villa
Soranza, of which a few fragments survive.16
The greatest challenge was the commission to fresco the villa
which Daniele and Marcantonio Barbaro had commissioned
from Andrea Palladio. The villa, together with the nymphaeum,
was completed by 1559, which may well be the date of
Veronese's frescoes. Both brothers were interested in the arts.
Daniele had been responsible for the programme on which
Veronese had based his series of canvases in the rooms of the
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Council of Ten, as well as for that in the palace of Camillo Trevisan
in Murano. His brother's interest in the arts was of a more practi-
cal kind. He had collaborated with Veronese on a series of ban-
ners (spaliere) on the life of Esther, and modelled the awkward
series of the gods and goddesses in the niches of the nymphae-
um of their villa at Maser. They suffer a series of misfortunes
which were intended to contrast with the bountiful riches en-
joyed in the decoration of the villa itself. The scheme of the fres-
coes intertwines a number of themes: the harmony of the
spheres, the abundance of the villa as a farm, conjugal happi-
ness, and the need to temper charity with prudence. It must
have been drawn up by Daniele Barbaro, but was transferred to
the walls and ceilings with an inventive freedom and wit which
owe everything to Veronese.17
The spectator approached the villa from the nymphaeum, to
be greeted by Thalia, the ninth of the Muses, seated in the centre
of a great ceiling with the seven planetary gods and goddesses
with their zodiacal signs and the four elements in the outer fields
[Fig. 8]. The great frame, decorated with mock cameos, was
linked with the lunettes and outer fields with a sharp sense of hu-
mour. The cameo under Venus and Mercury represents Cupid
holding up his bow, in illustration of the tag Amor Vincit Omnia.
In the lunette immediately underneath, Venus reclines in the lap
of her husband, Vulcan, and both are strewn with roses to indi-
cate the joys of a happy marriage. Opposite, under a cameo
showing Abundance with a cornucopia and jug of wine, Bac-
chus, the god of fertility, enjoys the harvest of corn and wine
which he presses from the grapes. The scene is flanked by
Cybele, goddess of the earth, holding ripe apples in one hand.
The festive mood in the lunette is established by the amoretto
asleep on the sheaf which he has helped harvest, and by the corn
in the hair of Bacchus's companions. One lunette clearly
celebrates Marcantonio's marriage to Giustina Giustiniani in
1534 and their successful rearing of four sons, the other the con-
tinued prosperity of the villa as a working farm.18
Beneath this great evocation of a type of Olympus, Veronese
presented an idealized view of life in the villa. The two servants
on one side hold a book and a dog whilst the monkey in the centre
is chained. Its fate must be a comment on the role of Fortune in
the cameo, combining prosperity in the cornucopia with the
warning of the broken wheel [Fig. 9]. The servants illustrate
Pliny the Younger's views that the "otium"of villa life should be
used to refresh the body with hunting and the intellect through
reading.19 Opposite, a mother (not, I think, intended as a por-
trait but, like the servants, a type) stands together with the nurse
and a young child. Above them Cupid has stolen one of Vulcan's
arrows to throw down, while the whole group is placed under a
cameo of Abundance, once more referringto Marcantonio's mar-
riage. The mother and the nurse look down beyond the specta-
133
RICHARD COCKE

8) Veronese, ceiling fresco, Sala dell'Olimpo, Villa Barbaro, Maser. Photo: O. Bohm.

tor in the room and along the corridor on the eastern wing of the
villa. At the end, Veronese frescoed a huntsman returning
together with his dog from a day in the field. He thus supplies
the missing element in the lunette, the husband on his return
from the hunt, which thus echoes a part of the theme embodied
in the servants on the opposite wall [Fig. 10].
The inspiration for the subsidiary themes can in some mea-
sure be found in contemporary mythographic handbooks, most
notably the Imagini degli Dei of Vincenzo Cartari, published in
Venice in 1556.20 Cartari, however, only provided patron and
artist with a starting point which was elaborated on by means of
reference to the overall scheme. One pair of figures in the Stanza
della Lucerna embody Prudence, identified by the mirror,and For-
titude in the reclining Hercules [Fig. 11]. The reins and measure
held by the man in the other pair were suggested by Cartari's
description of Nemesis. Here they have been given a new mean-
ing since Prudence and Fortitude are traditionally accompanied
by Temperance. This must be the meaning of the way in which
the man looks up for divine inspiration while restraining the pas-
sions of his female companion [Fig. 12]. There was no comparable

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 WIT AND HUMOUR IN THE WORK OF PAOLO VERONESE

9) Veronese, detail of ceiling fresco, Sala dell'Olimpo, Villa Barbaro, Maser. Photo: O. Bohm.

established triad for the pairs of figures in the Stanza del Cane,
but Veronese retained the contrast between a positive pair and
a negative one. History, identified by her books, sits with Saturn,
who represents Time [Fig. 13]. History points to the Holy Family
with Sts Catherine and John the Baptist in the lunette at the end
of the wall. Time and history need to be placed in the service of
Christian Faith. They are coupled because Cartariexplained that
history began in the time of Saturn.21
The idea gave rise to another pun. The reeds which Saturn
holds have been explained by reference to an engraving of Saturn
by Giulio Campagnola, based upon an ancient river-god. There
must be a further reason since Saturn is shown in conventional
guise, without the reeds, on the ceiling of the Sala dell'Olimpo.
The choice of attribute, which I believe we should put down to
the artist rather than the patron, has to be understood as show-
ing Saturn beating time. This must have seemed a suitable sub-
text in a villa where there are constant allusions to music, and
where Bacchus, for instance, is also presented as the leader of
the Muses. The lessons to be learned from time and history are
contrasted with that of Fortune, who crowns a sleeping man.

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RICHARD COCKE
10) Veronese, ((Hunter), fresco, VillaBarbaro,Maser. Photo: Alinari.
She could equally, however, have chained him or tied him up. The
message must be not to sleep and dream of riches which can slip
away, but to pay attention to the lessons of time and history
[Fig. 14].22
Veronese combined this literary type of wit and humour with
a sharp sense of visual invention, which we can see exemplified
in the walls of the Stanza del Cane. Marble statues are set
between the paired columns which, in turn, frame the window
with its rich dado, elegant frame, and great all'antica landscape.
The base on which the columns rest is raised up to enhance the
illusionistic curve of the wall, echoing the nymphaeum. A small
dog, from which the room takes its name, sits in front of the land-
scape, with a cat opposite [Fig. 15]. The landscape is part of a
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series decorating the walls of the major rooms in the villa. Taken,
as a group, they have a range of invention and wit unparalleled
in the Renaissance. Imaginary but totally convincing views over
the foothills of the Alps are matched by others in which Roman
remains are inserted into a new and striking landscape, far re-
moved from their actual setting in Rome. In one of the sea-
scapes in the Sala dell'Olimpo (a fantasy in this part of the Alpine
foothills), Veronese included a distant view of Maser itself.23
Veronese can, when necessary, be serious in his presentation
of the Olympian gods and goddesses; witness the exalted
Jupiter on the ceiling of the Sala dell'Olimpo, wrapped in his
cloak. His companions, however, are often treated with wit, hu-
mour, and affection. Diana, for instance, is shown rubbing
noses with one of her hunting dogs who rests his paw on her lap.
Behind her another is looking at the astrolabe held by the amoret-
to, itself an indication of one of the major interests of Daniele Bar-
baro. We have already seen Cupid beside Vulcan, about to throw
one of his arrows down at the mother and the nurse, so that it
comes as no surprise that Venus has confiscated Cupid's bow
and arrow. This motif has a long and distinguished history in
Venetian painting, but here he is being made to learn his al-
phabet. Though the idea had been used earlier by Correggio,
Veronese gives it a fresh charm, which is one of the hallmarks of
his mythological canvases.24
In 1571 the Venetian agent of the emperor Maximilian II
reported enthusiastically on the Venus and a Satyr with Sleeping
Cupid, which he had seen on a visit to the artist's studio [Fig.
16]. The painting remained in the family collection well into the
seventeenth century, when it was admired by successive visi-
tors, not least for the high price at which it was valued - 15,000
ecus in 1664. The theme, like that of Venus correcting Cupid,
has its origin in Correggio's mythological paintings, which
Veronese would have seen in the Palazzo del Tb. While Veronese,
in what Itake to be the autograph version, sadly in need of clean-
ing, in the Palazzo Vecchio, Florence, is concerned to meet the
demand for full-length paintings of naked women, his treatment
is otherwise very different from Correggio's. Not for Veronese
the suggestion of passion as the satyr sneaks up on the un-
suspecting sleeping Venus, a choice of moment intended to
achieve the fullest expression of erotic tension. He shows Venus
and the satyr almost as a family group, in which the mother
reveals her concern for her sleeping child. This mood of smiling
interest replaces the eroticism which is so vital and close to the
surface in Correggio's canvas, and which can also be seen in
nearly contemporary works by those northern artists, like Bar-
tholomaeus Spranger, who became associated with the court of
the emperor Rudolf II,son of Maximilian. In Veronese's work the
erotic implications are alluded to through Pan, whose pipes un-
derline the sexual nature of the encounter.25
 WIT AND HUMOUR IN THE WORK OF PAOLO VERONESE

' ..* ...' . ....

; . ":: ?

* *..... . . .
..... h
Iff.;P
r'
PZirll:i?-:':'?aaicl
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which discusses Veronese's commissions for Rudolf fails to

then for sale in Venice. ~, These

,
'zf
..,~ ' f .,.
included
.~..'
,
the pair Omnia Vanitas
,,;; t ; - ~.~[
I
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tion. 11) Veronese,

11)these
Veronese, ((Prudence and Fortitude,
were and
?cPrudence fresco,
Fortitude,,, infresco,
subsequently
Sttanza della Lucerna, Villa Barbaro, Maser. Photo: Alinari.
St
the col-
Although paintings

Veronese had
Veronese already become
had already become known northern circles
known in northern circles
through the
through the activities
activities of Jacopo
Jacopo del Maximilian's
Strada, Maximilian's
del Strada,
antiquarian. He
antiquarian. He was
was actively engaged in purchasing
actively engaged purchasing on behalf
behalf
Albrecht V, the
of Albrecht elector of Bavaria,
the elector Venice in 1566
Bavaria, in Venice 1566 and
and 1567.
1567.
Among
Among Strada's
Strada's papers
papers from
from this
this period
period is an
an undated
undated list
list of mention these canvases. This brief review of the few facts
pictures,
pictures, not
not in his
his hand
hand but
but obviously representing
obviously representing a group
group concerning the great series of paintings from his collection is
then for sale in Venice. These included the pair Omnia Vanitas intended as a reminder of the reasons for dating many of them
Amoretet Virtus post Mortem Floret, now in the Frick Collec-
and Amor to the 1560s, before Rudolf came to the imperial throne in
tion. Although these paintings were subsequently in the col- 1576.26 .

137

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RICHARD COCKE

I 1i*-l
-J
:1
L
I ....
i~
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P 'i ? 'r?
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12) Veronese, ((Temperance)), fresco, Stanza della Lucerna, Villa Barbaro, Maser. Photo: Alinari.

Prominent among this series is the Mars and Venus, now in
New York. Here, too, the mood is strikingly sunny and cheerful
[Fig. 17]. The scene is set in a garden bower, beside a fountain
with ruins in the background. Veronese has adopted a stan-
dard mode of presenting the pair, with her undress contrasted
with his armour.27 His picture can be compared with the
smaller version which Mantegna had painted some sixty years
earlier for Isabella d'Este. Even his contemporaries misread
Mantegna's striking invention, where Mars and Venus are
presented on top of a hill, Apollo plays his lyre, and Mercury leads
Pegasus, while a group of Muses dance in the foreground.28
Veronese's narrative mode, by contrast, is clear since he has
concentrated on the implications of the union: one amoretto
has just tied Mars and Venus together - as a symbol of the
bonds of marriage - and both the water from the fountain
and the milk spurting from Venus' right breast indicate the fu-
ture fertility of the union. In the background Mars' horse looks
on, tethered, whilst another amoretto holds up Mars' sword

138

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 WIT AND HUMOUR IN THE WORK OF PAOLO VERONESE

13) Veronese, <(Timeand History", fresco, Stanza del Cane, Villa Barbaro, Maser. Photo: Alinari.

in its sheath to indicate that, at least for the time being, he is giv-
ing up the sword for love.
These details entertain and divert, and in so doing diminish
the subject's erotic potential. This point is underlined by
perhaps the wittiest of all sixteenth-century mythologies, the
small Mars and Venus in Turin [Fig. 18]. Here the action has
moved on to a later stage in the lovers' union. They are in the
bedroom and both are stripped for action. Here, too, we can
compare Veronese's treatment of the nearly naked lovers with
Giulio Romano's presentation of the bath of Venus and the naked
Mars in the fresco on the walls of the Sala diPsiche in the Palazzo
del Te. In Veronese's canvas the climactic moment is interrupted
by yet another amoretto, this time leading Mars' horse, who
peers amiably into the room. The call to arms here conquers love,
or perhaps better lust. Veronese's wit works at yet another,
non-literary level in the Turin canvas, which also involves a
paragone with the complex interlocking of contemporary
sculptors.29

139

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 ;>w.... . .

RICHARD COCKE

,.?
..
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,',? '"*~.';";',~",-:....
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14) Veronese, ((Fortune)), fresco, Stanza del Cane, Villa Barbaro, Maser. Photo: Alinari.

This point is best illustrated in the great Hermes, Herse, and initiated by Leonardo and carried on in academic circles through-
Aglauros, another of the canvases from the collection of Rudoph out the century. Veronese has captured the climax of a drama
II,now in Cambridge [Fig. 19]. Herse sits in elegant dishabille in which, in Book IIof Ovid's Metamorphoses, involved at least two
a rich interior, awaiting a visit from her lover, Mercury. His atten- encounters between Mercury and Aglauros, and a subplot in
tions have made her sister Aglauros so jealous that she guards which Aglauros is assailed by Envy at Minerva's prompting. Mer-
her sister's door to bar Mercury from entering. As he approach- cury and Aglauros were conceived as the painterly equivalent of
es, she catches him by his right foot and vows not to move, a the interlocking figure groups which were so fundamental for
threat which prompts Mercury to turn her to stone. This group sixteenth-century sculpture from Michelangelo onwards. Here,
has to be understood in the light of the tradition of the paragone however, the contrast with the sculpture in the setting high-

140

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 WIT AND HUMOUR IN THE WORK OF PAOLO VERONESE

} _S%v^as,s

15*eoee,dtif alfeco,Saz e Cae Vil Barar, MeP o . Bohm

15) Veronese, detail of wall fresco, Stanza del Cane, Villa Barbaro, Maser. Photo: 0. Bohm.

141

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RICHARD COCKE
16) Veronese, (Venus and a Satyr with Sleeping Cupid,),
oil on canvas (73 x 64 cm.), Palazzo Vecchio, Florence.
Photo: Alinari.
lights, as was intended, Veronese's ability to render the texture
of skin and the play of light and shade, as well as the richness of
the various materials used in the house and its furnishings.30
The richness of the setting in the Hermes, Herse, and
Aglauros, the skill with which different materials are rendered,
and the inclusion of the small dog at Herse's feet, all find a
precedent in the earlier Venetian tradition, most notably as
represented by Carpaccio's Vision of StAugustine. The subjects
are clearly very different: in one, St Augustine looks up from his
desk at the moment which marks the death of his mentor, St
Jerome; in the other, we have the climax of a story warning
against the evil effects of envy and jealousy. The differences,
however, go beyond this. Carpaccio is concerned to render
faithfully the surface of aristocratic life in Venice at the turn of
the century. Veronese, on the other hand, aims at an imaginative
142
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17) Veronese, ((Mars and Venus)), oil on canvas (201 x 161 cm.),
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Kennedy Fund,
Photo: Museum.
reconstruction of an ideal world, achieved through a sense of
observation comparable to Carpaccio's, but where the love of
incidental details has been manipulated with a rare sense of wit
and humour. In Veronese's canvas the musical instruments
underline the harmony of true love, also embodied in the
severe draped lady in the niche (who could be intended as a
contrast to the decollete of Herse). The statue of the satyress
must embody baser passions, here jealousy, which she tries to
cover behind the curtain.31
That wit and humour were a significant factor in Renaissance
art and theory was first established in a systematic way by Paul
Barolsky in his study Infinite Jest. Wit and Humour in Italian
Renaissance Art.32 He notes the lengthy discussion of humour
guided by Bernardo Bibbiena in the second book of Castiglione's
Courtier. The examples of the three types of wit - practical
 WIT AND HUMOUR IN THE WORK OF PAOLO VERONESE

i? ? xrri i-??? 1 u:
elF
""' isars
?iaanb .?ticr,?:;;ci?:\? i?.:cLil??i
'? ??::?:'
l"is-?~ ??"? I
I;; -.r
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18) Veronese, ((Mars and Venus)), oil on canvas (47 x 47 cm.), Galleria Sabauda, Turin.

jokes, a long and amusing narrative in a polished style, and the
spontaneous thrust of a single cutting remark - have not worn
well and are a monument to changing tastes in humour. The
importance of the discussion rests in establishing the sig-
nificance of wit and humour for Renaissance art in a general
sense. According to Barolsky's pioneering study, the categories
for the humour of Renaissance art include: court art, embodied
in Leonardo's work in Milan,33 followed by Raphael in his work
for Agostino Chigi,34 and developed with greater erotic empha-
sis by Giulio Romano in the Palazzo del Te; Mannerist bizarrerie,

143

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RICHARD COCKE
19) Veronese, {(Hermes, Herse, and Aglauros?, oil on canvas
(232 x 173 cm.), Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge.
* This article is a revised version of one of four lectures given in
November 1988, under the auspices of EuropeanArt Studies at the
Universityof Delaware,in commemorationof the 400th anniversaryof
Veronese'sdeath. I am gratefulto Prof.MauriceCope for his invitation
and to Prof.PaulBarolskyfor suggesting its publication.
1 T. Pignatti, Veronese,Venice, 1976; R. Cocke, Veronese'sDraw-
ings, London,1984.
2 C. Lenz, Veronese's Bildarchitektur,Bremen, 1969; L. Puppi,
"PaoloVeronese e I'Architettura," in S. Bettagno, ed., Paolo Veronese.
Disegni e Dipinti,exhib. cat., Venice, FondazioneGiorgioCini(1988).
3 The Worksof John Ruskin, ed. E. T. Cook, A. Wedderburn,Lon-
144
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and the Venetian boudoir, beginning with Titian. To these must
be added the concept of small comical paintings, "grill,"which
Renaissance theory had inherited from Pliny the Elder's chapters
on art in his Natural History. This, as Professor Gombrich has
reminded us, became associated with the paintings of Hierony-
mus Bosch. These were eagerly collected throughout Europe,
by the court of Spain as well as by the Grimani in Venice. The
notion of humour was extended to the series of inventions in
which Arcimboldo flattered the emperor Rudolph IIby compari-
son with the seasons.35
Veronese's sympathetic and witty treatment of animals, es-
pecially dogs, helps to illuminate another category of Renais-
sance wit. In Pisanello's fresco of St George in S. Anastasia,
Verona, the hunting dog at the saint's feet looks across the water
scenting the dragon in its lair. Its eager anticipation of the the
hunt is contrasted with the small dog at the feet of the princess,
whose interplay with the sheep underlines the domestic
prosperity threatened by the dragon.36 That Pisanello should
transpose the larger drama onto this "domestic" sphere is under-
standable in view of the period's enthusiasm for dogs as pets.
This appears to have been the major factor in their inclusion in
portraits of scholars in their studies, beginning with that of
Petrarch in the Sala Virorum Illustrium, Padua.37 The concern
was shared by princes as well as scholars, a point brought out
in the correspondence between Ludovico II Gonzaga and his
wife, Barbara of Brandenburg, in 1462, asking her to organize a
search party for his dog, Rubino. Such was his regard for Rubino,
who is probably the dog shown under Ludovico's chair in Mante-
gna's fresco in the Camera Dipinta, that his tomb was marked
with a slab with a Latin epitaph.38 In the hands of Veronese,
this universal concern is treated with elegant and sympathetic
wit, which was extended to his treatment of the gods and god-
desses in his mythological paintings.
don, 1905, VII,289-92; althoughperceptive,notablyon animals,Ruskin
in other cases failed to appreciatethe narrativeuse to which Veronese
put his skill in paintingbrocades. See R. Cocke, "The Developmentof
Veronese's CriticalReputation,"Arte Veneta34 (1980), pp. 105-106.
4 R. Gallo, "Per la datazione delle opere del Veronese," Emporium
89 (1939), pp. 145-52; Pignatti, Veronese, cat. 167.
5 G. L. Mellini,Altichiero e Jacopo di Avanzo, Milan, 1965, pls.
52-53.
6 Pignatti, Veronese,cat. 170.
7 Cocke, Veronese'sDrawings, cat. 58.
8 Pignatti, Veronese, cat. 48; the bridge in the background is
derivedfromCock's views of Rome,issued in 1551 and used inthe land-
 WIT AND HUMOUR IN THE WORK OF PAOLO VERONESE
scapes at Maser(see n. 23, below). The Dukeof Buckingham'scollec-
tion is studied furtherin the papers by K. Garas,B. L. Brown,in the Atti
del Convegno Internazionalesu Paolo Veronese, 1988, Venice (forth-
coming).
9 For the work of del Moro and Farinato,see S. Marinelli,ed.,
Veronesee Verona,exhib.cat., Museo di Castelvecchio,Verona,1988,
pp.301-308 and pp.341-52; the action of the goat greedilyeating on the
rightedge of the Christwith Zebedee's Widowfrom Grenoble,ibidem,
cat. 16., appearsto echo the overreachinggreed of the request that her
sons should sit on Christ's right hand. Veronese's humorous use of
animals begins with the Giustinianialtarpiece;see n. 16, below.
10 Pignatti, Veronese,cat. 93.
11 Pignatti,cat. 327, and W. R. Rearickin Paolo Veronese.Disegnie
Dipinti,op. cit., cat. 57.
12
Pignatti,p. 253 and cat. 131.
13 D. Rosand,
Paintingin Cinquecento Venice,New Haven-London,
1982, pp. 104-10; I have dealt more fully with this in my paper"Venice,
Decorumand Veronese"in the forthcomingAtti..., op. cit.
14 Pignatti, Veronese, cat. 91; for the provenance see the note in
the 1635 Savoyinventoryed., Rome,GallerieNazionali,1897, pp.60, no.
608; the Dukeof Crequiwas killedin 1638, L. G. Michaud,Biographie
Universelleet Moderne, Paris, 1825, IX,466.
15 G. Robertson,GiovanniBellini,Oxford, 1968,
p. 97.
16
Pignatti,Veronese,cats. 5, 8-17, and pp. 107-109; the patronage
of the S. Francesco della Vigna altar is discussed by
P. Humfreyin the forthcomingAtti..., op. cit. The youthful Baptist's
struggle with his reluctant lamb and St Anthony's pig, apparently
sharpening his teeth on the fallen fragment of a column, are early
examplesof Veronese'swit. Forthe most recent divisionof hands at La
Soranza,see D.GisolfiPechukas,"Veroneseand HisCollaboratorsat 'La
Soranza',"Artibuset Historiae 15 (1987), pp. 67-108.
17 J. S. Ackerman,Palladio's Villas, New York, 1967, pp. 55-58.
The relativeshares of Veroneseand Palladioare much debated; Ifollow
the line suggested by W. Wolters,"AndreaPalladioe la decorazionedei
suoi edifici,"Bollettinodel CentroInternazionaledi Studi d'Architettura
AndreaPalladio10, pp.349-56, emphasisingthe contrastwith Palladio's
own principles. Fora differentpointof view see D.Lewis,TheDrawings
of Andrea Palladio, exhib. cat., Washington National Gallery of Art
(1981), pp. 154 ff. For Daniele's role in formulatingthe scheme, see
R. Cocke, "Veronese and Daniele Barbaro:The Decoration of Villa
Barbaro," Journalof the Warburgand CourtauldInstitutes (1972), pp.
226-46.
18 Cocke, "Veronese and Daniele Barbaro,"pp. 229-32; for a
differentaccount of the centralfresco see I. J. Reist, "DivineLoveand
Veronese'sFrescoes at the VillaBarbaro," TheArtBulletin67 (1985), pp.
614-36.
19 Plinythe Younger,Lettersand Panegyrics, LoebClassical Library,
trans. B. Radice, Cambridge,Mass.-London,1976, I, 28-29, Bk. I, 9:
"when at Laurentumreadingand writingand findingtime to take the ex-
ercise which keeps my mindfit for work";D. R. Coffin, The Villain the
Lifeof the Renaissance, New Jersey, 1979, pp. 10-12.
20 T. Puttfarken,"Bacchus und Hymenaeus.Bemerkungenzu zwei
Freskenvon Veronese in der VillaBarbaroin Maser,"Mitteilungendes
Kunsthistorischen Institutes in Florenz 24 (1980), pp. 1-14;
C. Hope,"Veroneseandthe VenetianTraditionof Allegory,"Proceedings
of the BritishAcademy 71 (1985), pp. 389-428.
21
Hope, pp. 415 ff.
22 Hope, pp. 415 ff. and fig. 9; Puttfarken, "Bacchus and
Hymenaeus."
23 A. R. Turner,The Vision of
Landscape in Renaissance Italy,
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Princeton, 1966, pp. 205-12; K. Oberhuber,"H. Cock, Battista Pittoni
und Paolo Veronese in VillaMaser,"in MunusculaDiscipulorum.Fest-
schrift for Hans Kauffmann zum 70. Geburtstag, Berlin, 1968,
pp. 207-25. While Veronese undoubtedlydrew on Cock's views of
Rome,his relationshipwith Pittoni'simaginativeprintsdiffers in a way
that suggests that the frescoes came first; for his earlierfrescoes in
PalazzoTrevisan,see S. Romano,"IPaesaggidi PaoloVeronesein Palazzo
Trevisan," Arte Veneta35 (1981), pp. 150-52.
24 C. Gould, The Paintings of Correggio, London, 1976, pp.
213 ff.
25 Pignatti, Veronese, cats. 139 and A107; Cocke, "The
Developmentof Veronese'sReputation"(see n. 3, above), pp.96; forthe
Correggiosee Gould,pp. 230, andfor Pan'spipes, E.Winternitz,Musical
Instrumentsand TheirSymbolism:Studies in Musical Iconology, New
Haven-London,1979, pp. 50-56.
26 R. Cocke, "Veronese'sOmnia Vanitasand Honoret Virtuspost
mortem floret,"Pantheon35 (1977), pp. 120-25; the generaloutlineof
this paper,although not all the details, is supportedby K. Garasin her
forthcomingpaper (see n. 8, above);for Stradasee R. von Busch, Stu-
dien zu deutschen Antikensammlungen des 16. Jahrhunderts,
Tubingen, 1973, pp. 108-64; for the traditionalview of Rudolf as a
patron of Veronese, see W. R. Rearick, The Art of Paolo Veronese,
1528-1588, exhib.cat., NationalGalleryof Art, Washington,1988, pp.
120 ff.
27 Rearick,cat. 68; see also P. Barolsky,InfiniteJest. Witand Hu-
mourin ItalianRenaissance Art, Missouri,1978, pp. 178-82.
28 R. Jones, "'What Venus Did With Mars': Battista Fiera and
Mantegna'sParnassus,"Journalof the Warburg and CourtauldInstitutes
44 (1981), pp. 193-98.
29 Rearick, The Art of Paolo Veronese, 1528-1588, cat. 38;
E.Verheyen,ThePalazzodel Tein Mantua.Images of Loveand Politics,
Baltimore-London, 1977, pp. 24-28.
30 Pignatti, Veronese,cat. 247, and J. W. Goodison, G. H. Robert-
son, FitzwilliamMuseum, Cambridge.Catalogue of Paintings. Vol.II,
ItalianSchools, Cambridge,1967, pp. 125-27; for Leonardo'sviews on
the superiorityof painting,see "Paragone":A Comparisonof the Arts
by Leonardoda Vinci, ed. and trans. I. A. Richter,London-NewYork-
Toronto,1949, p. 104, and M. Kemp,Leonardoda Vinci:TheMarvellous
Worksof Natureand Man, London,1981, pp. 209-11.
31 J. Lauts, Carpaccio,Paintingsand Drawings, Complete Edition,
London,1962, pl. 104.
32 Barolsky,InfiniteJest, ch. I.
33 Kemp,Leonardoda Vinci,ch. 3.
34 R. Jones, N. Penny,Raphael,London,1983, pp. 92-100 and pp.
183-85; the intellectual milieu is evoked in I. D. Rowland, "Some
Panegyricsto Agostino Chigi,"Journalof the Warburg and CourtauldIn-
stitutes 47 (1984), pp. 194-99; see also Coffin,The Villain the Lifeof the
Renaissance, pp. 87-109, and Barolsky,InfiniteJest, chs. 5 and 7.
35 E. H. Gombrich,"TheRenaissanceTheoryof Artand the Rise of
Landscape,"NormandForm,London,1971,pp. 107-21;T.da Costa Kauf-
mann, "Arcimboldo's Imperial Allegories," Zeitschrift for Kunst-
geschichte 39 (1976), pp. 280 ff.
36 G. Paccagnini,Pisanello, London,1973, pls. 125-26.
37 P. Reutersward, "The Dog in the Humanist's Study,"
KonsthistoriskTidskrift50 (1981), pp. 53-69; although Reutersward
offers an allegoricalinterpretation,it is clear that for both Petrarchand
ConradCeltis, the majorimpetus came from their affection for their
dogs.
38 R. Signorini,"TwoNotes from Mantua:A Dog Named Rubino,"
Journalof the Warburgand CourtauldInstitutes41 (1978), pp. 317-20.
145