Paolo Veronese revisited: art collecting and connoisseurship in Eighteenth-Century Venice

Among the Renaissance masters, Paolo Veronese (1528-1588) was one of the most admired in Eighteenth century Venice being one of the greatest colorists of all time famed for his complex compositions and remarkable architectural settings. Modern literature shed light at what extent Veronese’s legacy has been renovated and transformed by artist such as Sebastiano Ricci and Giambattista Tiepolo. However, scholars paid little consideration to the success and fortune of Veronese among collectors, art dealers and connoisseurs of the time, such as Francesco Algarotti. The matter is quite extensive; for this reason in the present essay we explore relevant aspects concerning: a) the nature of connections between the revival of Veronese’s art and the increasing demand of Veronese’s works for contemporary art collections in Venice, which stimulated of course the production of copies and pastiches but also incited modern painters to take inspiration from the pictorial solutions of the famous Renaissance master; b) the expertise on Veronese’s paintings formulated by Giambattista Tiepolo and Giambattista Piazzetta; c) the display of Veronese’s paintings in Venetian private galleries d) the sale of Veronese’s works in the international art market and of paintings by Tiepolo and Ricci as autographs by Caliari.