Leseprobe

37 Along with Titian and Tintoretto, Veronese formed the triumvirate of painters that dominated 16th-century Venetian art. The Cuccina Cycle is one of his key works, painted in 1571 for the ballroom of the Palazzo of the Cuccinas, a merchant family of clothiers, on the Canale Grande. The series consists of three other large paint- ings: The Wedding at Cana , Christ Bearing the Cross , and The Madonna and the Cuccina Family . All but the family portrait are devoted to stations in the life of Christ. The Adoration is the earliest scene in the cycle. According to the Gospels, wise men from the East presented gifts to the newborn Christ Child (Matthew 2: 1–12). Through- out the Middle Ages, the wise men evolved in legend into the three kings Gaspar (or Casper), Melchior, and Balthazar, often said to hail from the continents Africa, Asia, and Europe. The light of the star that has led them to Bethlehem now radiates off the Virgin and Infant. The oldest wise man genuflects to humbly kiss the Child’s foot. Typical of Veronese’s art is his manner of embellishing the main narrative with several minor, extra-biblical scenes. These include the two servants stowing away the box and the shepherds with ox and donkey. Further narrative elements take the form of the kings’ exotic corteges, the young pages, and animals. With impasto brushwork, Veronese strikingly captures the materiality of the figures’ clothing – particularly of interest to the Cuccinas, who made their fortune in the textile trade.  | ah