National Gallery of Canada

An altarpiece is a painted work or sculpture placed vertically behind and above the altar in Christian churches and chapels. The altarpiece is dedicated to saints or religious subjects and invites congregants to meditate. The Petrobelli altarpiece was no doubt dedicated to Saint Michael and Christ, with salvation as a key theme. In Veronese’s time, altarpieces also had a Eucharistic significance and were often integrated into the architecture of the place for which they were intended. The limestone frame that surrounded the Petrobelli altarpiece would have been part of the architectural decoration in the church.

An “attribute” is an object often associated with a biblical or mythical figure. Attributes are used by artists to identify figures and tell stories. The objects and clothing illustrated in the Petrobelli altarpiece made it possible to identify the saints portrayed.

“Cartoon” is a term that refers to a one-to-one scale drawn study on paper that would be transferred to the prepared surface of a painting as part of the ‘underdrawing’ stage. This practice was most prevalent in Italy during the 15^th and 16^th centuries. Common methods of transfer involved pricking holes along the outlines on the cartoon to enable delivery of pulverized charcoal, or impressing the outline with a stylus via a charcoal-laden interlayer. Given the relative cost and size of individual pieces of paper, the typical scale of production of the Veronese workshop, their generally adaptive approach to painting, and their robust technique, the use of cartoons would not be central to typical practice. It may, however, have been used for occasional elements; the swooping putti in the Petrobelli Altarpiece may have been drawn using cartoons.

If an object is represented as if looming into our own space, it is said to be “foreshortened”. This is the most obvious form of this skilful trick of drawing, but more subtle uses were employed by artists. For instance, a painting to be hung extremely high, or to be viewed from one side, may have a form of foreshortening or elongation to counteract or work with the distortions produced by the viewing situation.

“Gesso” is the Italian word for the white preparation layer traditionally used for wooden panels and polychrome sculpture. It is made by dissolving animal-hide glue in hot water, and adding calcium sulphate until the mixture has the consistency of single cream. The material was then applied with a brush in several layers. As the water evaporated, the glue would harden and form a hard white absorbent layer, that could be sanded or scraped smooth, and even polished, carved, or decoratively punched. This material was also used on canvas, as this became increasingly a support for paintings. This was the normal practice for the Veronese workshop; instead of a complete, smooth layer however, the loose paste was driven into the fabric to suppress but not cover the various types of weave used. On the Rest on the Flight into Egypt, which has a burly herringbone weave canvas, there are striations in the surface that indicate the use of something like a plasterer's trowel to apply the gesso, with no smoothing afterwards. As well as filling the interstices of the weave, the gesso would have lightened the tawny colour of the linen, and additionally stiffened it overall, making large canvases easier to paint on.

“Infrared photography and reflectography” is the use of a camera or optical sensor that is sensitive to infrared light, which our eyes can not detect. Due to the fact that light of this type is absorbed differently, the visible image – usually greyscale – produced by the equipment often provides information we can not ordinarily see. Veronese used a charcoal-rich dark drawing material over pale, chalk-based priming, and information about the initial drawing can often be detected. The thickness of the overlying paint and the absorbency of the pigments in it are limiting factors, as are the capabilities of the equipment in terms of detectable wavelengths of IR light, and resolution.

The “pieta” most often represents the dead Christ on the knees of his grieving mother, the Virgin Mary, and can be incorporated into the themes of the Descent from the Cross and the Lamentation. The term can be extended, however, to any image of the dead Christ designed to arouse feelings of intense, sorrowful pity (pieta literally means pity), and is one of the most potent devotional themes in the Renaissance. Veronese’s Pieta is a less common representation. The dead Christ supported by angels, with putti carrying the Instruments of the Passion are presented to viewers for their contemplation.

“The first idea” or initial sketch was executed on a small scale in pen and ink or in chalk. The handling was free and loose as the artist explored different solutions for a design, without concern for detail.

“Ricordo” is a term used for a visual record of a painting, made after completion - usually a drawing. Within the Veronese workshop these drawings took different forms, from simple linear and somewhat schematic descriptions of compositions, to more elaborate records of modeling and tonal values using wash and highlights on tinted papers. Their function was likely manifold – as an aide-memoire and record of production if a painting were leaving Venice, which could also serve as a model or reference point for future commissions of related subjects. Some of them were beautiful drawings in their own right, and were prized by collectors.

“Squaring up” is a means of accurately transferring a drawing from paper to the surface of a painting. A figure study for instance, once complete, would have a grid drawn on it, and a corresponding and enlarged grid on the painting would then be used to map out the form. It allowed apprentices working in an artist’s workshop to reproduce, square by square, the master’s preparatory drawings upon large surfaces. While at least one preparatory drawing by Paolo is gridded in this way, no corresponding grids have been found on the paintings. The grid may well have been formed of temporarily strung taunt threads, or in an undetectable medium, such as chalk. On the Petrobelli Altarpiece, dark vertical reference lines were used for some figures, which likely functioned in the same way.

“Workshop” is the term most frequently used today to refer to the group of people working together with a named master painter, or sculptor, etc. The individuals within the workshop, unless named, are commonly termed “assistants”. While some master painters would have a minimal number of people working with them, some workshops were fairly large, with specialist painters within the group, who would be given the landscape elements, or animals, etc. This was normal practice before the 19^th century, and traditionally many workshops were run as family businesses, as was Veronese’s. The Veronese family workshop seems to have been highly collaborative. A letter from Benedetto, Paolo’s brother, to a client describes a scenario where Paolo’s design was set out on the canvas by Benedetto, roughed in by Carlo, Paolo’s youngest son, and finished by Gabriele, the older son. While this letter probably describes practice after the master’s death, the fact that the workshop was able to seamlessly continue production with a willing clientele indicates this was an established and normal way of working. Some paintings are inscribed as by “the heirs of Paolo”, with the family using the wealth of drawn studies as inspiration for new “Veroneses”.

“X-Radiography” is often used to assess the structure of works of art. Like a medical X-ray image, a density map of the entire structure can be imaged, which can yield a lot of information about condition and technique of manufacture. The principal white pigment used in painting before the early 20^th century is lead-based, and more absorbent to X-rays than many other pigments. This fortunate coincidence produces X-ray negatives that can be read positively, with lighter areas on the painting appearing lighter on the X-radiograph, and modeling of form is often very legible. Within the study of Veronese, the technique is very useful both in demonstrating how bold and fluid his painterly touch was, and in detecting the hands of his collaborators in the workshop.