Prints and Drawings in the Time of Veronese

Coinciding with the Blanton’s showing of the Paolo Veronese: The Petrobelli Altarpiece, this exhibition offers a selection of works created in Venice and her territory during the second half of the sixteenth century. Aside from this general relation to Veronese’s activity, these prints and drawings share several important characteristics or circumstances with his style. The first group of works, along the wall to the right, represents some of the major figures and currents in Venice proper. They demonstrate the pervasive influence of contemporary Central Italian art and the various responses of Venetian artists to its emphasis upon idealized design and linear drawing. The second group, in the case and opposite corner, illustrates developments in Verona, the city of Veronese’s birth, occasional major project and steady artistic dialogue. These developments involved a synthesis of advanced Roman style, which reached Verona from an outpost in nearby Mantua, and an especially grounded interpretation of Venetian light and color. The third group of works, on the walls to the left, consists of reproductive engravings after contemporary Venetian paintings that also signal the emergence of a language suited to conveying their pictorial properties. Such engravings help account for Veronese’s immediate influence as well as later reputation. Together, the works in this exhibition help put Veronese’s style––its formation, consistency and fortune––in broad context.