Portrait of a Gentleman of the Soranzo Family

In the last decade of his life Veronese was busy with large public commissions, above all for the Doge's Palace in Venice, and he painted few portraits. This full-length one is a rare late example. The man sits in a carved chair before a column and a heavy green curtain, dressed in black satin trimmed with ermine, in colours so restrained they are almost monochrome. He has long been identified as a member of the Soranzo, one of the city's leading noble families, and the link is plausible. A Soranzo may have helped the young painter move from Verona to Venice, and one of his first jobs was frescoing the family's country villa, La Soranza. In the 17th century the portrait hung in the Venetian house of the merchant Jan Reynst, and it came to the National Gallery in 2022 from the collection of the Earls of Harewood.