Jupiter Hurling Thunderbolts at the Vices 1556

Paolo Veronese made this monumental oil painting, Jupiter Hurling Thunderbolts at the Vices, sometime in the mid-16th century. It’s easy to overlook that this is a painting. We focus on the drama of the subject. But it's worth remembering how radical oil paint was at this time. Veronese laid down thin glazes of pigment suspended in oil, one after the other, a painstaking process. Look closely and you can see these layers. They imbue the figures with a luminous quality, giving a soft-focus effect to the figures, while also building up volume. The canvas, stretched tight, provides a stable ground for this illusion. This material support allowed Veronese to build up the image in his studio. This reflects an increasingly specialized division of labor, with the artist as a kind of manager, determining the image. Ultimately, understanding the materials and making is key to understanding how Veronese created such dynamic and energetic scenes.