Veronese at the National Gallery

Hello and welcome to the National Gallery and an exhibition called Veronese Magnificence in Renaissance Venice. Now Veronese is terribly famous of course and yet curiously we don't know that much about him. And yet if you look back at the history of art so many significant artists have been influenced mightily by him. Anyone who's ever tried to and the way light can hit a beautiful woman's face. All those sensitive things that only the really great artists ever truly capture. When they learn how to do it they usually learn by looking at Veronese. I mean look at this. Seemingly half of Venice has turned up for a big banquet. There's so much energy to the way he paints his religious pictures. But he could also be such a superb portraitist. I mean this is a portrait of Livia de Portotiene and her daughter Deidamia. And what he really specialised in is this thing called Cangente. Now Cangente is silk that has a different colour depending on which way you look at it. So sometimes it looks purple other times it looks yellow. It's fiendishly difficult to paint but Veronese does it a lot and he does it perfectly. Another of the special paintings brought over just for the show and probably the biggest painting in the exhibition is the Martyrdom of St George. It's come from a church in Verona. What a spectacular thing it is. Here's another special display. This is the Adoration of the Kings from the National Gallery which you may have seen if you've come here. But look another Adoration of the Kings this time from Vicenza. And as always with Veronese you feel that so much attention has been paid to all the figures in the picture. Such a sense of richness and magnificence. So you don't really go to Veronese to have your heart stirred religiously. They're beautiful paintings but they're not religiously overbearing or powerful. I'd say they're more religiously exquisite. The final room in the exhibition which is devoted to Veronese's late work. There's this terrific sense of variety here. All these different kinds of pictures. You know you think so often of Veronese as being this beautiful, magnificent, delicate painter but he could do throbbing and dark and troubling too. I mean that's almost baroque in its visual excitement. So this is a magnificent show. It really is and you mustn't miss it. It's the first significant Veronese exhibition ever in Britain and Veronese himself is one of the most important artists that's ever been. So please come and see this show. You won't regret it.