Garçon au lévrier

Veronese made his name in Venice with enormous, crowded banquet scenes full of silk and marble, so this is him at close range instead, a single boy of perhaps eight or nine standing on a terrace beside a greyhound almost as tall as he is. The dog leans in against the child's hand, and Veronese lets you feel the trust between them. Painted around 1570, the picture shows the easy luxury of a wealthy Venetian household, the boy in fine dark clothes against pale stone columns and an open sky. The greyhound is a costly hunting breed, kept by the rich, which marks the standing of the family even though we no longer know the boy's name.