Theresa Thompson extols the genius of Paul Veronese

It was the ‘mere’ in the quotation that jarred. Written on the wall of the opening gallery of the National Gallery’s breathtaking Veronese exhibition, the 1894 quote from art critic Bernard Berenson read: “Taken as a whole, he was as much the greatest master of the pictorial vision as Michelangelo was of the plastic, and it may be doubted that, as a mere painter, Paul Veronese has ever been surpassed.”

From that gallery on, which alone contained 11 magnific-ent early oil paintings by Verona-born — hence ‘Veronese’ — Paolo Caliari (1528–1588), it was obvious that he was no ‘mere’ painter. Exhibition curator Xavier Salomon believes him to be a ‘genius’ and from an early stage too: evidence the early works here, including one of the earliest surviving finished paintings, The Conversion of Mary Magdalen — astonish-ingly painted when he was only 20 years old, already showing mastery of colour and expression. Here too is the glorious The Supper at Emmaus loaned from the Louvre, Paris — the first time this painting has crossed the Channel.

The son of a stone-cutter, Veronese moved to Venice around 1555, a fully-fledged painter, and soon was one of the city’s principal artists. His vivid palette, mastery of painting opulent fabrics and skin tones, his eye for detail, his eye for theatricality, combined to gain him commissions from patrons across northern Italy.

Time and again his compositions resemble stage sets: the tight figure grouping and landscape backdrop in The Anointing of David, a Vienna loan; and the supreme theatricality of one of his most celebrated works — certainly the star of this show — The Martyrdom of Saint George (1565) staged like the culmination of a grand opera.

This “impossible loan” — the vast altarpiece was painted for the church of San Giorgio in Braida, Verona and has never before left the church save once at the hands of Napoleon — according to Salomon is arguably the world’s greatest painting.

“Not that it shows the martyrdom,” he said, “but the moment before when the saint accepts his fate” — a seldom-painted scene. We can’t but stand in awe before this luminous work. It brilliantly shows Veronese’s flair for colour and composition as the saint with bared chest, flanked by executioner and priest, raises his eyes from earthly concerns to the lighter celestial figures above.

Veronese’s eye for detail is one of the most charming aspects of his work. For example, the two little girls playing with a dog that patiently gives in to their ministrations in the forefront of The Supper at Emmaus are completely convincing — and compelling. Also, the exquisitely rendered details of fabrics, furs, jewels and costumes, for instance the lynx fur coat lining in the 1555 Portrait of a Gentleman, and the lustrous jewels of the unknown La Bella Nani. Human touches are everywhere: in the gaunt eyes of the anguished Lucretia who draws a sumptuous emerald green fabric to her for comfort; in the ‘totally improper’ pose of the dreaming, deeply asleep, unaware Saint Helena; and the self-aware St Menna, who, hand-on-hip seems about to step from the wall.

There are ten National Gallery paintings in the exhibition. They include The Adoration of the Kings — incidentally, always a best-selling Christmas card — shown opposite a similar altarpiece made the same year (1573-4) for a church in Vicenza. It’s wonderful to stand between these two great works and compare them, knowing this is the first time they have been together since they left Veronese’s studio.

Other highlights include the gallery’s Four Allegories of Love series presenting positive and negative aspects of love, reunited for the first time since the 18th century with Mars and Venus United by Love (from New York).

Organised in association with the Museo di Castelvecchio, Verona, Veronese: Magnificence in Renaissance Venice is an unforgettable exhibition.

The 50 oil paintings exhibited in London, spanning Veronese’s career from beginning to end, is the most important collection of his paintings ever shown in Britain. It’s a thrilling show — the best since Leonardo.

Veronese Magnificence in Renaissance Venice
National Gallery
Until June 15
Visit nationalgallery.org.uk or 0844 847 2490