Happy Union
Dublin Core
Title
Description
The painting of the Happy Union was most likely commissioned by a husband and wife to decorate the ceilings of their home. Veronese was chosen to create this painting, making a series called the Four Allegories of Love on the dichotomy between a healthy and unhealthy relationship [1]. Happy Union has an opposite titled Unfaithfulness, depicting a ruined and sad relationship. Veronese, born in Verona to an artistic family, made a name for himself in the Venetian art scene. He learned how to draw through copying the engravings of Albert Durer, and became very famous in Italy during the sixteenth century, painting for many churches and even the Ducal Palace [2].
In Happy Union, Veronese captures the matrimony between a man and a woman. A nude woman unites the couple with a laurel wreath, a symbol of triumph, and an olive branch, a symbol of peace. The woman is assisted by a nude boy, possibly representing the mother-son relationship of Venus and Cupid, who were Roman gods of love, fertility, and marriage. On the right corner there is a dog, which was a representation of fidelity at the time. Veronese heavily utilizes symbolism to highlight the importance of matrimony to the viewer. The dog, laurel wreath, and olive branch all represent key aspects of a healthy and successful marriage. He incorporates architecture into his painting through the nude woman sitting on a sculpted sphere with a building behind her, decorated with detailed columns. Veronese created the painting with a dull and faded color palette, with the colors being very minimal and muted, possibly trying to not be flashy and overpowering. He uses color to depict the garments of the couple and the nude woman, making the lady’s dress pink with gold detail, the man’s clothes green with gold drapery, and the nude woman’s cloth covering her back gold. The color that unifies the three figures is gold, a color of purity and righteousness. He only paints colorful clothes for the couple and the nude woman in order to draw the viewer’s attention to them as they are the key figures of this story. Veronese composes the painting using a diagonal line as the viewer’s eyes read the painting from the top left corner with the nude woman sitting on top of the sphere to the bottom right corner with the child and dog. As Xavier Solomon writes, Happy Union presents the narrative from left to right [3]. He uses this singular line composition to visually depict this story of a happy marriage as the viewers’ eyes progress through the painting.
Happy Union was created with the purpose of depicting the beauty and purity of true love. It represents what it means to be in a successful marriage, with the ideals of fidelity, love, virtue, and peace symbolized. Veronese incorporates his perspective on what it means to be in a happy union in this painting, highlighting his ideas on love.
[1] “Paolo Veronese: Happy Union: NG1326: National Gallery, London,” The National Gallery, ccessed October 21, 2020, https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/paolo-veronese-happy-union.
[2] Francois Crastre and Frederic Taber Cooper, Veronese, (New York: Frederick A. Stokes Company), 17.
[3]Xavier F. Salomon, "New Evidence for the Original Arrangement of Paolo Veronese's 'Allegories of Love'," Master Drawings 50, no. 1 (2012): 60.
Creator
Source
Crastre, Francois, and Frederic Taber Cooper. Veronese. New York, NY: Frederick A. Stokes Company, 1912.
Penny, Nicholas. "Composition, Gesture and Meaning in an Early Painting by Veronese." Artibus Et Historiae 35, no. 70 (2014): 211-19.
“Paolo Veronese.” The National Gallery. Accessed September 29, 2020. https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/artists/paolo-veronese.
“Paolo Veronese: Happy Union: NG1326: National Gallery, London.” The National Gallery. Accessed October 21, 2020. https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/paolo-veronese-happy-union.
Image Source: Veronese, Paolo. Happy Union. The National Gallery. Accessed October 21, 2020. https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/paolo-veronese-happy-union