Paolo Veronese

Paolo Caliari, known as Veronese after his birthplace of Verona, was alongside Titian and Tintoretto the third titan of the Venetian 16th-century golden age. Renowned for his supreme mastery of silvery, shimmering color harmonies and soaring trompe-l'œil architectural illusionism, Veronese adorned churches, villas, and palaces across northern Italy.

His colossal panoramic banquet scenes, notably The Wedding at Cana (1563) and The Feast in the House of Levi (1573), combined sacred scriptural narratives with the opulent pageantry, musicians, jesters, and lavish costumes of Renaissance Venice. His defense before the Holy Inquisition in 1573 became an immortal declaration of artistic license and creative freedom.