The harmonious colour, the sense of material magnificence, and the
masterly draughtsmanship of Paolo Veronese (1528-1588) are seen to the
greatest advantage in his _Marriage at Cana_ (No. 1192). He signed a
contract in June 1562, to paint this large picture, which measures
21 ft. × 32 ft., for the refectory of San Giorgio Maggiore at Venice,
and completed it by September 8, 1563. According to the agreement,
Paolo was to receive 324 ducats, a sum equal to-day to about £200;
to be fed during the time he was engaged on the work; to be repaid
the cost of the materials; and to receive a pipe of wine. The picture
was seized by Napoleon during his victorious campaign of 1797, and
brought by road to Paris. In accordance with the terms of the Peace of
Campo Formio of 1814, it should have been returned. As it had proved
a very difficult matter to take it to Paris, where it had to go into
the restorer’s hands, the French urged that it was too vast and too
dilapidated to bear a second journey. Astonishing as it may seem to
us to-day, the Italians accepted the suggestion and in exchange took
Charles Le Brun’s large but mediocre _Magdalene at the Feet of Jesus_,
perhaps because it measured 12 ft. 6 in. × 10 ft. 4 in. Le Brun’s
picture now hangs in the Venice Gallery (No. 377), the Catalogue of
which pointedly remarks that “the exchange is much to be regretted.”
[Illustration:
PLATE XIII.—TITIAN
(1489?-1576)