Paolo Caliari, called Paolo Veronese

Possibly sold by Dr Bragge, London, 1757, no. 48 (according to Cocke, 1984);

Probably the Cabinet Gallery, London (accordong to Cocke, 1984);

Senator S. Borletti, Milan, by 1934;

With Galerie Julia Kraus, Paris, from whom acquired by the present owner in the early 1970s.

G. Fiocco, Paolo Veronese, Rome 1934, p. 114;

P. Bucarelli, 'Carnet Vénitien. Paul Véronèse', Gazette des Beaux-Arts, 1935, vol. II, p. 253;

'Capolavori d'Arte in Raccolte Private', in Le Vie d'Italia (Touring Club Italiano), vol. XLI, June 1935, reproduced;

A. Morassi, 'Opere Ignote ed Inedite di Paolo Veronese', Bolletino d'Arte, XXIX, no. VI, December 1935, p. 250, reproduced p. 249, fig. 1;

R. Gallo, 'Per la datazione delle opera di Paolo Veronese', Emporium, 1939, p. 203; 

R. Marini, L'opera completa del Veronese, Milan 1968, p. 96, no. 54, reproduced;

T. Pignatti, Veronese, Venice 1976, vol. 1, p. 163, no. 321, vol. 2, reproduced fig. 688;

D. von Hadeln, Paolo Veronese, Florence 1978 (reprinted from 1935 edition), p. 154, no. 185;

P. Ticozzi, Immagini dal Veronese. Incisioni dal Sec. XVI al XIX, exhibition catalogue, Rome 1978, p. 36, under no. 19;

T. Pignatti, in Arte Veneta, vol. XXXII, 1979, p. 214;

K. Badt, Paolo Veronese, Cologne 1981, pp. 113, 114, 190;

T. Pignatti and T. Crombie, 'Paolo Veronese and his interest in landscape in the 1580s: the Rest on the Return from Egypt in Context', Apollo, September 1982, pp. 144–45, reproduced p. 142, fig. 3;

R. Pallucchini, Veronese, Milan 1984, p. 149;

R. Cocke, Veronese's Drawings, London 1984, p. 103, under no. 34;

R. Marini, Veronese, Milan 1984, no. 219, reproduced;

T. Pignatti and F. Pedrocco, Veronese. Catalogo completo dei dipinti, Florence 1991, p. 310, no. 241;

T. Pignatti and F. Pedrocco, Veronese, Milan 1995, vol. 2, p. 479, no. 380, reproduced (and p. 443, under no. 335).

ENGRAVED

By A.W. Warren, issued by G. Virtue, when it was in the Cabinet Gallery, London (according to Cocke, 1984).

The following condition report is provided by Sarah Walden who is an external specialist and not an employee of Sotheby's: Paolo Veronese. The Rest on the Flight from Egypt. This painting has a wax lining probably dating from the 1970's, with a slightly older stretcher. An original seam runs down at centre right, with another possibly, on the left of the Madonna's head. There has been some wear, probably gradually accreted over time, mainly affecting the main central figures with some also in Joseph's golden drapery and in the sky. The darker vegetation has a few old damages but retains its vigorously intact, slightly impasted brushwork. The fine grain of the canvas weave is clearly visible in Joseph's golden drapery, which has a few old damages, while his upper body and head remains quite finely intact. The angel on the left is also beautifully unworn with flowing brushwork throughout. The Madonna and Child have been cleaned rather more persistently exposing the warm ground, in the head of the Madonna and elsewhere, with thinness evident in the blue drapery also. Frequent old retouching is visible under ultra violet light in the drapery of the Child, with a little also in His head. Similar scattered retouching can be seen under UV across the arms of the upper angel, and in the nearby sky. The beautiful flowing lines of the scene retains its powerful impact nevertheless throughout. This report was not done under laboratory conditions.
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

This is a mature work by Veronese, most likely dating from the first half of the 1580s. In the decade after it was discovered it was given an earlier dating: circa 1555 by Bucarelli (1935) and circa 1560 by Morassi (1935) but aided by a better overall understanding of Veronese's stylistic development, latter-day scholars have consistently dated it later: in the 1580s by Pignatti (1976), circa 1581–83 by Marini (1984) and circa 1585 by Pignatti and Pedrocco (1991). The interrelationship of the five figures is informal, as befits the rural setting: the Virgin, Her head turned to Her right, looks at the left-hand Angel who offers Her a silver plate of dates, while the youthful Christ looks up at Joseph while being watched by the second Angel. The figure group of the Virgin and Child is especially moving: She rests her right hand on His torso, fingers splayed, while He rests his right forearm over Hers, holding a knife between forefinger and thumb, while leaning towards Her so that Their heads almost touch. Joseph is pouring wine and bread sits on a stone table draped with a white cloth, intended to be recognized by the viewer as prefiguring Christ's Passion.

Richard Cocke noticed that a figure of indeterminate sex in the upper right of a sheet of multiple figural studies, mostly of the Virgin and Child and sometimes with Joseph, by Veronese in Cleveland, which he dated to the 1550s, anticipates the figure of Joseph in this painting.¹ More recent scholars have dated the Cleveland sheet a little later, around 1570. In any event it seems to have heralded a number of paintings of the Flight into Egypt, including those in Sarasota and Ottawa which date from circa 1572,² as well as the rather later present work, which depicts a sister subject, in which the Holy Family, with a clearly older Christ Child, are attended by Angels as they picnic on Their return journey from Egypt. Veronese's treatments of both subjects are generally very similar, with a plethora of attendant Angels, and an over-arching date palm, under which the Holy Family rested on their journey to Egypt, according to the 5th-century Greek Gospel of Pseudo Matthew. Veronese has an Angel liberating dates from a branch to feed the Holy Family in the Sarasota picture, while here he is pulling a branch down to make them reachable. 

There are two similar versions of this composition by Veronese: this and one other painting, formerly belonging to Marshall Spink in Surrey. The latter is almost square in format, with the figures squashed closer together and the overhanging clump of palms more dominant. That painting was the one engraved in reverse by Pierre Brebiette, and was most likely in France in the early seventeenth century until the mid-eighteenth century.³ The two paintings have been confused in the past, most notably by Von Hadeln and Paolo Ticozzi, who thought that Brebiette's etching reproduced the present painting.⁴ The ex-Spink painting is more monochrome in tone, with predominant deep greens, and most scholars think it predates the present painting, which is much more colourful.

1. Cleveland Museum of Art, inv. 39.670; see Cocke 1984.

2. The John and Mabel Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota, and the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa; see V. Brilliant, Paolo Veronese, exhibition catalogue, Sarasota 2012, pp. 167–73, both reproduced.

3.  See P.J. Mariette, Notes sur les Peintres et les Graveurs, 1740–70, vol. II, revised ed., 1969, p. 302, n. 31. 

4. See Von Hadeln 1978 and Ticozzi 1978.