Artibus et Historiae no. 7 (IV)
1983, ISSN 0391-9064Up
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ELISE GOODMAN-SOELLNER - The Poetic Iconography of Veronese's Cycle of Love
Veronese's Cycle of Love in the National Gallery, London primarily depicts the progress of courtship through vicissitudes common in the Petrarchan tradition (illustrated in the first three paintings) to a successful outcome in marriage (celebrated in the fourth). Veronese's subject matter and narrative imagery are analogous to topoi and coventions of love and courtship in Renaissance amatory poetry, music, and epithalamia. He portrays such poetic topoi as 1) Love guiding an awe-struck suitor to view his sleeping mistress, 2) love's possessiveness, 3) the disdainful Petrarchan mistress who directs Cupid to inflict torture upon her passionate admirer, and 4) Fortuna Conjugalis bestowing a crown of bounty and glory on the married couple.
