| This dissertation presents the first comprehensive study of the portraits by Paolo [Caliari] Veronese (1522--1588), the circumstances of their creation and reception, and their importance to later portraitists. Often overlooked in this genre, Veronese created fashionable likenesses, highly prized for their grace and grandeur. Chapter one examines Veronese's portraits produced in the villa culture of the terra ferma, especially the symmetrical, architectonic pendants of the Da Porto and the innovative fresco cycle at Villa Maser, such portrayals pioneering new depictions of nonchalance, sprezzatura, and decorum. Chapter two addresses Veronese's images of ideal female beauty, exploring their nuances in the context of the visual/literary traditions of sixteenth-century Venice. Chapter three discusses military likenesses, placing particular emphasis on an early work omitted from previous catalogues. While building on Titian's example, Veronese pioneered his own refined style indebted to the courtliness valued so highly in the man-at-arms by Castiglione and others. The fourth chapter explores the role of antiquity in Veronese's portraits of artists and the elite. The artist exploits such romanita to serve a range of emotive purposes, especially to suggest melancholy, so central in the fashioning of Renaissance identity. The final chapter offers concluding remarks defining Veronese's style and a brief survey of subsequent portraitists, as diverse as Peter Paul Rubens, Anthony Van Dyck, Mary Cassatt, and Henri Matisse, who profited from Veronese's example. |
