Bozzetto per il Paradiso

In 1577 fire tore through the Great Council Hall of the Doge's Palace in Venice and destroyed the huge medieval painting of Paradise that filled the end wall. The republic wanted the largest picture it had ever commissioned to take its place and held a competition among its leading painters. This is Veronese's pitch for the job, a small painted proposal worked out in full. Following Dante, he sends ring upon ring of saints and blessed souls wheeling inward and upward toward the crowning of the Virgin at the top. Veronese won a share of the commission, but died in 1588 before a brush touched the wall. The enormous canvas finally hung there came from the aging Tintoretto instead. What survives of Veronese's idea is this sketch in Lille.