Elegant figures with Halberdiers near a Loggia,
oil on canvas, 240 x 207 cm, framed

The present painting represents a group of sumptuously dressed individuals beneath an overarching loggia evocative of a renaissance palazzo. An elegant lady with her back turned to the viewer occupies the centre of the scene. She is invited by a pageboy to descend a staircase; on the right a man seems to be distancing himself from her as a courtier hands him a letter. Two guards ensure that the lady is led away by the page; a jester with two parrots seated in the left foreground observes the scene, while a maiden looks on from a terrace in the background. The considerable size of the canvas and the abundant use of the prestigious ultramarine pigment, made from lapis lazuli, suggests an illustrious provenance.

This composition, enriched by a lively luminous palette and theatrically dressed figures framed by classical architecture, clearly recalls the work of Paolo Caliari, called Veronese.The elegant figures and spacious architecture seem to derive directly from his compostions: for example, the terrace raised on columns in the background recalls that of the Supper in the house of Simon in the Galleria Sabauda, Turin. The lady at the centre of the scene follows the Venetian artist’s feminine ideal, her characteristically elaborate hair recalls the style typical of the many blonde-haired women painted by Veronese, for example the figure of Saint Catherine in the Holy Family with Saint John and Saint Catherine in the Uffizi, Florence. Even the other figures, such as the jester and the guards reoccur in the Veronese´s compositions, foremost among them the Feast in the House of Levi in the Galleria dell’Accademia, Venice. The silvery tone distinctive of Veronese’s work is, however, here substituted by a more vigorous palette, and the figures’ features reveal different characterisations.