Biography

Italian painter, part of a family of painters. The most accomplished member of the family, Paolo Caliari, is better known as Paolo Veronese, from his birthplace. After his death in 1588, his workshop was run by his brother Benedetto Caliari and his sons Carlo Caliari and Gabriele Caliari (1568-1631), using the signature Haeredes Pauli. Only one signed work by Gabriele is known: an altarpiece of the Virgin and St Anne (Liettoli, parish church); its physical types are related to Veronese's but are rather awkward and heavy.

As the most talented member of his father's workshop, Carlo undoubtedly executed many works that are attributed to his father. Works that have been clearly isolated as Carlo's own are more precise and delicate, both technically and in the physical types; they lack Veronese's bravura, whether in the line and wash of a chiaroscuro drawing or in the richly layered pigments that make an embroidered drape.

His early signed works show the influence of both his father and the Bassano family by whom he was trained. They include Angelica and Medoro (c. 1584; private collection), which has a preciousness in the landscape and in details of foliage and coiffures that sets it apart from Veronese's work. The signed Nativity (c. 1588; Brescia, S Afra) combines narrative detail typical of the Bassano with morphological similarities to Veronese. There are similar characteristics in frescoes at the Villa Loredan, Sant'Urbano, Padua, that are assigned to Carlo. Other signed paintings - the Virgin in Glory with SS Margaret, Mary Magdalene and Frediano (c. 1588-90; Florence, Uffizi), St Agnes (Madrid, Prado) and the Vanity (private collection) - share facial type, a smooth finish and the somewhat mannered gestures also found in the attributed St Catherine (Florence, Pitti). More closely resembling works by Veronese, and perhaps later, are the signed St Augustine Giving the Rules of his Order to the Irregular Canons Lateran (Venice, Accademia) and the Virgin in Glory with Saints (c. 1602; Venice, Fondazione Cini). The signed Resurrection of Lazarus (Venice, Accademia) is rather refined, delicate and static, qualities also found in its preparatory drawing (Vienna, Albertina).