Xavier Solomon on The Choice Between Virtue and Vice by Paolo Veronese
'This is the painting that, many years ago, made me fall in love with Veronese. It is a piece of pure theatre, an image that plays in clever ways with the viewer. It is a painting about the young handsome man in white (who is he?) and his choice.
'But it is also an astute composition where the man and the viewer compete in terms of what they understand of the two flanking allegorical figures.
'As always with Veronese, the magnificence of the scene goes hand in hand with his pictorial intelligence and his unrivalled sagacity in staging a narrative.'
Xavier F. Salomon is the deputy director and Peter Jay Sharp chief curator of The Frick Collection in New York
John McEwen on The Choice Between Virtue and Vice
Hercules was the son of the supreme god Zeus and a mortal woman, Alcmene, whom Zeus seduced by appearing in the form of her no less mortal husband. Thus, Hercules was born a demi-god, famed for his immense strength. Contemplating his future in youth, he was confronted with two women personifying Vice and Virtue. Vice offered him a pleasant and self-indulgent life of no consequence; Virtue hard-earned glory.
The Renaissance interest in Ancient Greece and Rome introduced a humanist accent on questioning intelligence rather than unquestioning faith. The human fallibility of the powerful Hercules made him a popular artistic subject and his moral choice had resonance in 16th-century Venice.
In Veronese’s take on the tale, the moral lesson is written in capitals on the entablature: HONOR ET VIRTUS POST MORTE FLORET (Honour and Virtue Flourish after Death). The figure in the centre is fleeing the jewel-bedecked figure of Vice, whose dress undone and whose hair is woven with cyclamen, used in love potions. She holds a pack of playing cards in her left hand and sits on a sphinx, against which rests a knife.
Modest Virtue, crowned with victor’s laurels, drags the man from the clutches of Vice, whose sharp nails have ripped the hose of his leg. The moral message is clear: choose a virtuous path and you shall be rewarded.
The man has been identified as Veronese himself, a Venetian everyman or, most likely, the patron of the painting. Clearly choosing Virtue, he bears none of the attributes of Hercules and his clothes are contemporary, in contrast with the timeless garments of the two women. The white of his outfit, impractical and sometimes associated with mourning, implies he may have died young.
In Focus: how technology can transform old art, producing replicas not to deceive, but to stimulate artistic thinking
Modern digital technology is transforming our understanding of the context and meaning of historic works of art. Emma Crichton-Miller investigates.
Credit: Paul Roberts/Picfair
50 great things to do in Britain that won't cost you a penny
From moonlight to museums, birdsong to the Old Bailey, Kate Green and Giles Kime find 50 gloriously free things to
-
‘It had the air of an ex-rental, and that’s putting it politely’: How an antique dealer transformed a run-down Georgian house in Chatham DockyardsAn antique dealer with an eye for colour has rescued an 18th-century house from years of neglect with the help of the team at Mylands.
-
A home cinema, tasteful interiors and 65 acres of private parkland hidden in an unassuming lodge in KentNorth Lodge near Tonbridge may seem relatively simple, but there is a lot more than what meets the eye.
-
'As a child I wanted to snuggle up with the dogs and be part of it': Alexia Robinson chooses her favourite paintingAlexia Robinson, founder of Love British Food, chooses an Edwin Landseer classic.
-
The Pre-Raphaelite painter who swapped 'willowy, nubile women' for stained glass — and created some of the best examples in BritainThe painter Edward Burne-Jones turned from paint to glass for much of his career. James Hughes, director of the Victorian Society, chooses a glass masterpiece by Burne-Jones as his favourite 'painting'.
-
'I can’t look away. I’m captivated': The painter who takes years over each portrait, with the only guarantee being that it won't look like the subjectFor Country Life's My Favourite Painting slot, the writer Emily Howes chooses a work by a daring and challenging artist: Frank Auerbach.
-
My Favourite Painting: Rob HouchenThe actor Rob Houchen chooses a bold and challenging Egon Schiele work.
-
My Favourite Painting: Jeremy Clarkson'That's why this is my favourite painting. Because it invites you to imagine'
-
The chair of the National Gallery names his favourite from among the 2,300 masterpieces — and it will come as a bit of a shockAs the National Gallery turns 200, the chair of its board of trustees, John Booth, chooses his favourite painting.
-
'A wonderful reminder of what the countryside could and should be': The 200-year-old watercolour of a world fast disappearingChristopher Price of the Rare Breed Survival Trust on the bucolic beauty of The Magic Apple Tree by Samuel Palmer, which he nominates as his favourite painting.
-
My favourite painting: Andrew Graham-Dixon'Lesson Number One: it’s the pictures that baffle and tantalise you that stay in the mind forever .'
