Sixteenth-Century Italian Paintings

This volume catalogues paintings from Venice made between 1540 and 1600, and includes some of the greatest pictures in the National Gallery, London: Titian's Vendramin Family venerating a Relic of the True Cross and his Death of Actaeon; Veronese's Family of Darius and his four Allegories, and Tintoretto's Origin of the Milky Way. There are also new discoveries, such as the small painting by Veronese of The Rape of Europa, long considered to be a copy, whose quality is revealed by recent cleaning. The great Bassano family, who worked outside Venice but often in the service of the city and its art market, is also well represented. Veronese may be the artist whose entire range is best displayed, with paintings of all sizes and types from his youth to maturity. But the influence of Titian pervades the entire period covered in this catalogue, and for that reason his works after 1540 are included here; the paintings produced earlier in his life will appear in another volume.The catalogue also serves as an introduction to all the major types of painting produced in the city in this period: the altarpiece, the confraternity chapel decoration, the ceiling painting, paintings for the portego (the long central hall of a palace), the portrait, and even furniture painting. Many of these pictures have passed through some of the greatest collections in Europe - most notably those of Emperor Rudolph II, in Prague, of Queen Christina of Sweden and of the Duc d'Orleans. The author's account of how the works were acquired makes this catalogue an important contribution to the history of European taste and a fascinating chapter in the history of the National Gallery itself.