In spite of his keen desire to pay a visit to Rome, Veronese was kept in Venice by his ceaseless productivity, and he attained the age of forty without ever having had the chance of a sight of the Eternal City. Of all the masterpieces in that home of the Pontiffs, he knew nothing, excepting of such as he had seen copied in the form of engravings. The appointment of his friend and patron as ambassador to the Holy See, afforded him an opportunity to make the journey so many times projected and deferred.

No documents exist regarding Veronese’s sojourn in Rome, but at all events it was fairly brief. Beyond this, we are reduced to mere conjecture. Furthermore, there is no extant evidence to sustain the idea that he practised his art in the Eternal City. If he had painted any pictures there, some trace of them would surely have been discovered. It must therefore be concluded that he contented himself with admiring the masterpieces with which his illustrious predecessors, Raphael and Michelangelo, had enriched the capital of the Pontiffs.

But his temperament was too peculiar, his manner too individual, and we may as well acknowledge, his nature too superficial, to permit of his experiencing those profound and overwhelming impressions that radically modify an artistic career.

And for this we ought rather to be thankful than to complain, since it was only his obstinate insistence upon remaining himself that saved Veronese from shipwreck upon the ever threatening reef of imitation.