Dives and Lazarus

religious

Like Paris Bordone, Bonifacio Veronese fails to convey the spiritual complexity of the world of the Mannerists, but used their formulae as a means of renewing and developing his innate gifts as a narrator. Thus he exploited the sensuous richness of the range of colours derived from Palma il Vecchio in his dynamic formal articulations and complex perspective-spacial proposals which were inspired in particular by prints of paintings by Raphael and the Roman artists. The most inspired poetic achievement of the fascinating decorative liberty attained by Bonifacio Veronese in the course of the fourth decade of the sixteenth century is without doubt this representation of 'Dives and Lazarus' which is mentioned in 1660 by Boschini as hanging in Palazzo Giustiniani at San Stae.

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About the Artist

Bonifacio Veronese

1487 – 1557

Italian painter, originally Bonifazio de' Pitati. He was born in Verona but trained under Palma Vecchio and ran a large workshop in Venice. His style was greatly influenced by Giorgione and Titian, and to some extent his name is used to cover works which the owner dare not quite attribute to either of them, but there is a fine picture in Birmingham which is closer to Bassano. Other examples are in Adelaide, Boston, Dresden, Florence (Pitti, Uffizi), London (National Gallery), Milan (Brera and Ambrosiana), San Francisco, Venice and Vienna. There are also many cassoni and furniture decorations attributed to him. He had a lasting influence on Tintoretto.

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