Small Italian Sky-lighted hall Conversion of Saul by Paolo Veroneze

Paolo Veroneze, was born in Verona (1528-1588). 1555 he moved to Venetia. The paintings by Veroneze are usually multi-figured.

“Conversion of Saul” 1550 (west door of Isaac-cathedral; ceiling-paintings in Pavlovsk’s church).

Saul was one of the most fierce persecutors of Christians. Ones he was on his way to Damascus, all of the sudden he saw the bright light from the sky, and this light turned him blind. He was knocked down from his horse, he heard a voice – “Saul, why do you prosecute me”. Saul went to Damascus, he stayed with one of the Christians and got converted into Christianity and then became one of the most ardent follower of Christ, non less than apostle Paul.

Multi-figured composition was his difference from the other artists of Renaissance, the features of baroque-style, that became dominating in the 17^th century, hence it’s a baroque composition – it is full of movements, figures of people and horses cover one another.

For his painting he was interrogated by inquisition for not depicting the characters properly – not according to the rules of the Catholic church or for depicting characters which according to the Bible were not involved in the event depicted at all. When asked by the interrogator why he depicted people on his canvas that were not supposed to appear on it he answered, that he depicted the “right” characters at first but if an empty space happen to be left on the canvas – he fills it with the character he find appropriate.

Inquisition insisted on him changing or eliminating some of depicted people which he eventually did (after a few attempts to persuade the interrogators of inquisition, that what he did was the best thing possible).

Jacopo Robusti Tintoretto

The other artist of Venetia – Jacopo Robusti (Tintoretto = “a small dyer”) – “The nativity of St. John the Baptist” (50^th of the 16^th century). Tintoretto 1518-1594. He was pupil of Titian, admired Michelangelo. His paintings combine Titian`s exceptionally rich colour range and the power and expressiveness of Michelangelo`s drawing.

“The nativity” – subject was borrowed from the Bible, but presented as genre-scene. The parents of St John the Baptist were people of advanced age. Father’s name was Zacharias. He was a priest, his wife Elisabeth was pious. They didn’t have children.

Ones when Zacharias was in the Temple, he was approached by the archangel Gabriel, who said, that they were going to have son called John and John would turn to God many people. Zacharias didn’t believe him as his wife was of advanced age – and he was punished for his doubts. He couldn’t utter a word. In less than a year his wife gave burn to a baby. Zacharias wrote a name of John on the wooden board and immediately began to talk.

The biblical subject is treated by the artist as a genre-scene, very colorful.

Symbolic details are: a rooster who is symbol of a announcer of a new age – New Testament, fire-pan with fireballs – purity, as ash was used for cleaning things.

The big sky-lighter.

Italian art 17-18 centuries, baroque.

Luka Giordano

Luka Giordano 1632-1705. He had a nick-name – Fa Presto (working fast). About 3000 paintings. H possesses 5. “Lapithi fighting centaurs”.

Lapithi – one of the tribes, that inhabited Greece. It’s a literally subject from the “Metamorphosis” by Ovid. Centaurs were invited to the wedding of the king of Lapithi. They tried to abduct the bride and other women. They were defeated and driven out with the help of Gods of Olympus, who came to support Lapithi.

Baroque composition, full of movement, bright colors, multi-figured composition. It`s interesting that the artist kind of widens the borders of the painting – the part of body of a centaur in the foreground seems to project from the picture which is typical for Baroque style, that tends to break down the borders between the real and imaginary worlds.

Jovanni Tiepolo

In the second part of the 17^th century Venetian school was the dominated school in the Italian art. One of the artist of 18^th century representing this school– Jovanni Tiepolo 1696-1770. Decorator – painted huge frescos, chancel-compositions.

Tiepolo painted a series of ten paintings on roman history for Dolfino family palace. Dionisio Dolfin, Patriarch of Aquileia, commissioned a series of ten paintings on themes from Roman history for his Venetian palace. 5 – in the Hermitage Collection, 3 in New-York, 2 in Vienne.