The Choice Between Virtue and Vice Veronese
Dublin Core
Title
The Choice Between Virtue and Vice Veronese
Description
The Choice Between Virtue and Vice Veronese depicts the situation of Hercules in Greek mythology encountering two women and facing a tough choice. Vice shows him a life of comfort, enticing him with the riches of life; yet Virtue summons him to work and accomplishment, showing him a rough sloping path heading to lasting happiness. After long contemplation, Hercules followed the voice of sanity, chooses Virtue, and dedicates his life to contributing to human. [1]
The protagonist in the center of the painting is a young man wearing gorgeous white satin. He is facing and leaning toward a woman in green clothes, while his back is facing another woman, as if he just escapes from her invitation, with the expression seems to have just been rescued. The painter depicted the distinct difference between the appearances of the two women representing Virtue and Vice. The Virtue is in green and relatively conservative dress, while Vice’s wearing is more gorgeous, sexy, and splendid, and half of her back is exposed. Virtue wears military-style boots, echoing the rough paths that are full of thorns mentioned in the story. With a simple hairstyle and a laurel wreath, she pulled the young man towards herself. [2] The naked woman in the lower-left corner of the painting and the blade of the knife all represent the identity of Vice. The phrase at the top left: “Honor and Virtue flourish after Death” further explains the painting and its meaning.[1]
The middle-aged Paolo Veronese was an exceptional colorist and one of Renaissance Venetian painters with suave sensuousness. He depicted ancient mythology as devices to visualize abstract ideas, often through human or goddess characters. His art is both stern and stirring. Without the dramatic contrast of Titian, his use of colors brings peace and harmony.[3] In the early 1570s, "Venus and Mars United by Love" was commissioned along with the complementary "Allegory of Wisdom and Strength." It was achieved after, under the impact of his contemporary fellow artist Tintoretto, Veronese had progressed into darker tonalities and more severe content. [2]
[1]“The Choice Between Virtue and Vice – Works – Collections – Collections.Frick.Org.” Accessed November 20, 2020.https://collections.frick.org/objects/276/the-choice-between-virtue-and-vice?ctx=68e99062-bbf7-45f7-bca6-6129f8c5de29&idx=2#showAudios.
[2] Glueck, Grace. “Veronese at the Frick: A Renaissance Explorer With a Brush (Published 2006).” The New York Times, April 14, 2006, sec. Arts. https://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/14/arts/design/veronese-at-the-frick-a-renaissance-explorer-with-a-brush.html.
[3]Schjeldahl, Peter. "LIFE IN VENICE." The New Yorker, April 24, 2006, 172. Gale OneFile: CPI.Q Accessed November 20, 2020, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A145232926/CPI?u=duke_perkins&sid=CPI&xid=06c13b94.
The protagonist in the center of the painting is a young man wearing gorgeous white satin. He is facing and leaning toward a woman in green clothes, while his back is facing another woman, as if he just escapes from her invitation, with the expression seems to have just been rescued. The painter depicted the distinct difference between the appearances of the two women representing Virtue and Vice. The Virtue is in green and relatively conservative dress, while Vice’s wearing is more gorgeous, sexy, and splendid, and half of her back is exposed. Virtue wears military-style boots, echoing the rough paths that are full of thorns mentioned in the story. With a simple hairstyle and a laurel wreath, she pulled the young man towards herself. [2] The naked woman in the lower-left corner of the painting and the blade of the knife all represent the identity of Vice. The phrase at the top left: “Honor and Virtue flourish after Death” further explains the painting and its meaning.[1]
The middle-aged Paolo Veronese was an exceptional colorist and one of Renaissance Venetian painters with suave sensuousness. He depicted ancient mythology as devices to visualize abstract ideas, often through human or goddess characters. His art is both stern and stirring. Without the dramatic contrast of Titian, his use of colors brings peace and harmony.[3] In the early 1570s, "Venus and Mars United by Love" was commissioned along with the complementary "Allegory of Wisdom and Strength." It was achieved after, under the impact of his contemporary fellow artist Tintoretto, Veronese had progressed into darker tonalities and more severe content. [2]
[1]“The Choice Between Virtue and Vice – Works – Collections – Collections.Frick.Org.” Accessed November 20, 2020.https://collections.frick.org/objects/276/the-choice-between-virtue-and-vice?ctx=68e99062-bbf7-45f7-bca6-6129f8c5de29&idx=2#showAudios.
[2] Glueck, Grace. “Veronese at the Frick: A Renaissance Explorer With a Brush (Published 2006).” The New York Times, April 14, 2006, sec. Arts. https://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/14/arts/design/veronese-at-the-frick-a-renaissance-explorer-with-a-brush.html.
[3]Schjeldahl, Peter. "LIFE IN VENICE." The New Yorker, April 24, 2006, 172. Gale OneFile: CPI.Q Accessed November 20, 2020, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A145232926/CPI?u=duke_perkins&sid=CPI&xid=06c13b94.
Creator
Paolo Veronese
Source
Glueck, Grace. “Veronese at the Frick: A Renaissance Explorer With a Brush (Published 2006).” The New York Times, April 14, 2006, sec. Arts. https://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/14/arts/design/veronese-at-the-frick-a-renaissance-explorer-with-a-brush.html.
Schjeldahl, Peter. "LIFE IN VENICE." The New Yorker, April 24, 2006, 172. Gale OneFile: CPI.Q Accessed November 20, 2020, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A145232926/CPI?u=duke_perkins&sid=CPI&xid=06c13b94.
“The Choice Between Virtue and Vice – Works – Collections – Collections.Frick.Org.” Accessed November 20, 2020.https://collections.frick.org/objects/276/the-choice-between-virtue-and-vice?ctx=68e99062-bbf7-45f7-bca6-6129f8c5de29&idx=2#showAudios.
Image Source: “The Choice Between Virtue and Vice – Works – Collections – Collections.Frick.Org.” Accessed November 20, 2020.https://collections.frick.org/objects/276/the-choice-between-virtue-and-vice?ctx=68e99062-bbf7-45f7-bca6-6129f8c5de29&idx=2#showAudios.
Schjeldahl, Peter. "LIFE IN VENICE." The New Yorker, April 24, 2006, 172. Gale OneFile: CPI.Q Accessed November 20, 2020, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A145232926/CPI?u=duke_perkins&sid=CPI&xid=06c13b94.
“The Choice Between Virtue and Vice – Works – Collections – Collections.Frick.Org.” Accessed November 20, 2020.https://collections.frick.org/objects/276/the-choice-between-virtue-and-vice?ctx=68e99062-bbf7-45f7-bca6-6129f8c5de29&idx=2#showAudios.
Image Source: “The Choice Between Virtue and Vice – Works – Collections – Collections.Frick.Org.” Accessed November 20, 2020.https://collections.frick.org/objects/276/the-choice-between-virtue-and-vice?ctx=68e99062-bbf7-45f7-bca6-6129f8c5de29&idx=2#showAudios.
Publisher
Collections.Frick.Org.
Date
ca. 1565
Contributor
Liuren Yin
Rights
Copyright © 1998-2020 The Frick Collection. All Rights Reserved.
Format
Oil on canvas, 219.1 x 169.5 cm
Type
Painting
Coverage
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, United State
Citation
Paolo Veronese, “The Choice Between Virtue and Vice Veronese,” ARTHIST 89S - Visual Culture of Venice - Fall 2020, accessed October 22, 2026, https://venice.dahvc.org/fall-2020/items/show/199.