Portrait Paintings by Paolo Veronese

“Boy with a Greyhound” by Paolo Veronese is believed to represent a young man from the Colleoni family of Bergamo, an Italian city northeast of Milan.

The painting is dated to the 1570s, and it echos Veronese’s illusionistic frescoes in Venetian villas. Veronese was an expert in depicting portraits shown as though entering the space of the viewer through an open door.

Veronese has expertly caught the richness of the youth’s clothing and the greyhound’s muscular anatomy. Unfortunately, the sky, in this painting, has lost most of its blue color.

Boy with a Greyhound

Title: Boy with a Greyhound
Artist: Paolo Veronese
Created: 1570s
Media: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: Height: 173.7 cm (68.3 ″); Width: 101.9 cm (40.1″)
Museum: Metropolitan Museum of Art – MET

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“Portrait of a Man” by Paolo Veronese portrays a man leaning on the base of a structure with columns. In a niche between the columns is a marble sculpture of a draped figure, of which only the lower portion is visible.

The identity of this man is a mystery; however, the clues in the painting may refer to the subject’s profession, perhaps that of a sculptor or architect.

Other clues include the carved reliefs, adorn the sides of the architectural base. The one at the right illustrates a classical hero in armor.

The man’s formal black attire and sword may also imply military rank or knighthood. In the background at the lower left is the Venetian Basilica of San Marco, placed in an imaginary setting.

The inclusion of the basilica likely alludes to the sitter’s association with the Venetian state.

At one point, scholars believed the painting might be a self-portrait, but such speculation remains unconfirmed.

Portrait of a Man

Title: Portrait of a Man
Artist: Paolo Veronese
Created: 1578
Media: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: Height: 1,921 mm (75.6 ″); Width: 1,340 mm (52.7 ″)
Museum: Getty Museum

Paolo Veronese

Paolo Veronese was an Italian Renaissance painter, based in Venice, known for large-format history paintings of religion and mythology.

His most famous works are narrative cycles, executed in a dramatic and colorful style, full of architectural settings and pageantry. Many of the greatest artists have long admired his work.

His large paintings of biblical feasts were painted for the refectories of monasteries in Venice and Verona as well as stately ceilings. Most of these works have remained in their original setting.

Paolo Veronese

Artist: Paolo Veronese
Born: Paolo Caliari
Born: 1528 – Verona, Venetian Republic
Died: 19 April 1588 (aged 60) – Venice, Venetian Republic
Movement: Renaissance, Mannerism
Notable Works:
- The Family of Darius before Alexander
- The Rape of Europa
- Portrait Paintings by Paolo Veronese
  - Boy with a Greyhound
  - Portrait of a Man