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Paolo Veronese: Difference between revisions
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== Heaven on earth: man’s domain == | == Heaven on earth: man’s domain == | ||
[[File:Paolo Veronese - Mystical Marriage of St Catherine - WGA24821.jpg|thumb | [[File:Paolo Veronese - Annunciation - WGA24811.jpg|thumb|upright|''Annunciation'']] | ||
[[File:Paolo Veronese - Mystical Marriage of St Catherine - WGA24821.jpg|thumb|alt=caption|''Marriage of St. Catherine'']] | |||
The striking use of color was not Veronese’s only gift to Renaissance art. Paul saw beauty as the most powerful catalyst for enlightenment, and he endowed the figures of Jesus, the apostles and saints with lifelike expressions. By associating them with easily identifiable places and things, he put them within the reach of the common people. | The striking use of color was not Veronese’s only gift to Renaissance art. Paul saw beauty as the most powerful catalyst for enlightenment, and he endowed the figures of Jesus, the apostles and saints with lifelike expressions. By associating them with easily identifiable places and things, he put them within the reach of the common people. | ||
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== Defiance of the Inquisition == | == Defiance of the Inquisition == | ||
[[File:Paolo Veronese 007.jpg|thumb|upright= | [[File:Paolo Veronese 007.jpg|thumb|upright=2|alt=caption|''Feast in the House of Levi'']] | ||
Inevitably, Veronese’s controversial views drew the attention of the Inquisition. At the very heights of the Renaissance, the inquisitors scanned the flourishing world of Italian art for heretical contents. They exacted conformity in religious scenes, banned nudity, and required ecclesiastical approval for the contents of major compositions. | Inevitably, Veronese’s controversial views drew the attention of the Inquisition. At the very heights of the Renaissance, the inquisitors scanned the flourishing world of Italian art for heretical contents. They exacted conformity in religious scenes, banned nudity, and required ecclesiastical approval for the contents of major compositions. | ||
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Untempered zealots roamed Italy, destroying paintings, decapitating statues, and threatening artists. Pope Pius V and the Spanish painter El Greco even advocated the destruction of Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel because of the nude figures upon its ceiling. Veronese was summoned before the tribunal of the Inquisition under suspicion of heresy for the “irreverences” and “fantasy” in his painting of the Last Supper, which included in it a dwarf, a parrot, guards in German armour, dogs and a jester. | Untempered zealots roamed Italy, destroying paintings, decapitating statues, and threatening artists. Pope Pius V and the Spanish painter El Greco even advocated the destruction of Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel because of the nude figures upon its ceiling. Veronese was summoned before the tribunal of the Inquisition under suspicion of heresy for the “irreverences” and “fantasy” in his painting of the Last Supper, which included in it a dwarf, a parrot, guards in German armour, dogs and a jester. | ||
Veronese staunchly defended the artist’s right to freedom of imagination. He was wholly innocent that there was any disrespect for the Deity expressed in his externalization of beauty. “Others,” he pleaded, “expressed what to them seemed beautiful without sanction of the orthodox.” | Veronese staunchly defended the artist’s right to freedom of imagination. He was wholly innocent that there was any disrespect for the Deity expressed in his externalization of beauty. “Others,” he pleaded, “expressed what to them seemed beautiful without sanction of the orthodox.” The tribunal acquiesced and elegantly resolved the question by suggesting that the theme be changed to a Feast in the House of Levi. | ||
Veronese inscribed on the painting the new title and a fitting Bible quote directed to his persecutors: “But their scribes and [[Pharisees]] murmured against his disciples, saying, Why do ye eat and drink with publicans and sinners? And Jesus answering said unto them, They that are whole need not a physician, but they that are sick.” | Veronese inscribed on the painting the new title and a fitting Bible quote directed to his persecutors: “But their scribes and [[Pharisees]] murmured against his disciples, saying, Why do ye eat and drink with publicans and sinners? And Jesus answering said unto them, They that are whole need not a physician, but they that are sick.” | ||
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Paul’s embodiment as Paolo Veronese, culminated in his reunion with God in the ritual known as the ascension. From the ascended state, he has described the process of the [[ascension]]: | Paul’s embodiment as Paolo Veronese, culminated in his reunion with God in the ritual known as the ascension. From the ascended state, he has described the process of the [[ascension]]: | ||
<blockquote>If you are victorious on this path, the day and the hour of your ascension will come, when the sacred fire shall rise on your spinal altar with an intensity so great as to almost overwhelm you. Your [[I AM Presence]] and [[Holy Christ Self]] shall then draw you up into the arms of everlasting Love, and you shall make the transition from mortality to immortality. | <blockquote> | ||
If you are victorious on this path, the day and the hour of your ascension will come, when the sacred fire shall rise on your spinal altar with an intensity so great as to almost overwhelm you. Your [[I AM Presence]] and [[Holy Christ Self]] shall then draw you up into the arms of everlasting Love, and you shall make the transition from mortality to immortality. | |||
And you shall hear the words of the Father: “Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things.<ref>Matt. 25:21.</ref> Rise to the levels of the kingdom of God and let others follow in your wake!”<ref>{{POWref|38|34|, August 6, 1995}}</ref> | |||
</blockquote> | |||
This is precisely what Paul did at the conclusion of his embodiment as Paolo Veronese. He accelerated consciousness and reunited with his God source, ascending from the [[Château de Liberté|Retreat of the Liberty Flame]] in the heaven world over southern France on April 19, 1588. | This is precisely what Paul did at the conclusion of his embodiment as Paolo Veronese. He accelerated consciousness and reunited with his God source, ascending from the [[Château de Liberté|Retreat of the Liberty Flame]] in the heaven world over southern France on April 19, 1588. | ||
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The master Paul has spoken of his own artwork as Paolo Veronese: | The master Paul has spoken of his own artwork as Paolo Veronese: | ||
<blockquote>Now I speak to you because of some of the canvases that I created. There were times when I felt pressed, through the need for my livelihood, to create on canvas some wondrous object in order that mankind might be able to glory in it. And yet I was driven, in a sense, to a pensive mood whereby I could create at will a masterpiece only to find that when I came to create it, the inspirational spark was not present. And I found it could not be invoked. I found that the harder I tried, the more difficult became the decision as to just what I could paint, for I could not paint a commonplace item. It must be stirring and magnificent. This, then, is why I so well understand how the human hearts of men, at various times when the crossroads of life seem particularly difficult, stand in wonder and amazement as to just which way they shall turn. | <blockquote> | ||
Now I speak to you because of some of the canvases that I created. There were times when I felt pressed, through the need for my livelihood, to create on canvas some wondrous object in order that mankind might be able to glory in it. And yet I was driven, in a sense, to a pensive mood whereby I could create at will a masterpiece only to find that when I came to create it, the inspirational spark was not present. And I found it could not be invoked. I found that the harder I tried, the more difficult became the decision as to just what I could paint, for I could not paint a commonplace item. It must be stirring and magnificent. This, then, is why I so well understand how the human hearts of men, at various times when the crossroads of life seem particularly difficult, stand in wonder and amazement as to just which way they shall turn. | |||
Beloved ones, at times such as those, I myself, finding that I was indeed stymied, ceased to resist the condition, and not with a sense of indifference or aloofness or despair but with a sense of realization that God works in strange ways, mysterious and wondrous to perform his will. I determined to cease and desist in the struggle and to rest in his compassionate consciousness, knowing that, with the tides of time, I would find an answer to the searching and probing question of the hour. | |||
And then, my peace would come in great flowing waves. And with the coming of my peace and my quietude, there was reestablished a contact between myself and those masterful divine beings who ensouled in my pictures the very essence of their own life. My angelic friends of light—those messengers of hope who guided my hand in its craftsmanship and artistry—were able to express, then, in the stilled muscular control that which they could never do when the tensions of the hour took their toll over my mortal frame. | |||
I therefore urge all the students to recognize that there is a time to tense and a time to relax; there is a time to pray and a time to wait; there is a time to be devotional and a time to repose in God’s devotion. | |||
I would like to remind all who are here that, after you have poured out all of your love to God—according to the capacity of your own soul—then is the hour when you should await, expectantly, to receive the love of God in return. It is as though an emptiness comes to you, for you have given your all; and then that all comes back to you charged with his love. The love of God flows in mighty waves, sweeping o’er you as the beating sea against the cliffs of being. And the foam intrigues your consciousness as its breakers of many patterns unfold multitudinous and wondrous spraylets of beauty.<ref>Paul the Venetian, July 6, 1963.</ref> | |||
</blockquote> | |||
== See also == | == See also == | ||