VERONESE, Paolo
(b. 1528, Verona, d. 1588, Venezia)

View of the Sala del Maggior Consiglio

after 1577
Oil on canvas
Palazzo Ducale, Venice

The Sala del Maggior Consiglio (Hall of the Great Council) is the heart of the Palazzo Ducale. This immense chamber was used for assemblies of the Great Council, the largest organ of government in the Venetian state, attended by all patricians over the age of twenty-five. Devastated in the fire of 1577, it was rapidly rebuilt and redecorated. The thirty-five ceiling canvases, some of them by Veronese, celebrate the glory of Venice allegorically and illustrate the Republic's military history. On the end wall Tintoretto and his pupils painted the enormous representation of Paradise.