Made in Venice

• Published in: Apollo (London. 1925) 2013-09, Vol.178 (612), p.76-82
• Main Author: Humfrey, Peter
• Format: Magazinearticle
• Language: English
• Subjects: Art, Italian; Collections and collecting; Marriage; Nuns; Painters; Veronese, Paolo; Veronese, Paolo (1528-1588); Works
• ISSN: 0003-6536; 2059-5247

Wright bought the paintings at a time when the number of nuns in the convent had become much reduced, and following the transfer in the 1790s of the remaining sisters to another convent on Murano, Santa Maria degli Angeli, the buildings were demolished.5 San Giacomo, situated on the south-east tip of the island, with the modest-sized church orientated in the same direction, regularly appears in the various bird's eye views of Venice printed in the three centuries following the celebrated woodcut by Jacopo de' Barbari of 1500.6 While details of the exterior are often difficult to interpret from these views, it is clear that the plan consisted of a simple rectangle, without aisles or projecting chapels, and with a single oculus window in the chancel and several windows placed high along the north and south walls (Fig. 2). Considering that he is more likely to have invented the composition for a prestigious commission from the king of Spain and then varied it for a nunnery on Murano than vice versa, this date may be regarded as a terminus post quem for the Sons ofZebedee.9 More controversial is the estimate of its quality, with Carlo Ridolfí attributing the work to Veronese himself in 1648, but Boschini downgrading it to the painter's younger brother, Benedetto Caliari (1538- 98), in 1664.10 As was very evident in the recent exhibition at the Ringling Museum in Sarasota, Florida ('Paolo Veronese: A Master and His Workshop in Renaissance Venice'), Veronese's workshop operated as a highly efficient business, and it is often very difficult to tell the difference between works, or passages within works, executed by the master or by his various assistants.11 In this case, it can be assumed that Boschini had a particular reason, perhaps based on local tradition, for his attribution to Benedetto; and it is true that the handling of some areas is relatively generalised and mechanical. According to the sources, the two altarpieces on the left wall of the church consisted of a Martyrdom of St Catherine by Palma Giovane and Veronese's Visitation, while the two on the right wall consisted of St Augustine saving the Inhabitants of Hippo from Massacre, again by Palma, and Veronese's Resurrection. [...]although sneered at by art historian and collector Horace Walpole for his ignorant gullibility in matters of art, Clive was anxious to proceed quickly with acquiring a suitably impressive collection of Old Masters to decorate his recently acquired country seat of Claremont in