Closer Look: Veronese’s “Choice Between Virtue and Vice”

In this episode of Closer Look, Cheyenne Willis, Ayesha Bulchandani Education Intern, examines Paolo Veronese’s Choice Between Virtue and Vice, on display on the third floor of Frick Madison. Cheyenne explores the morals implied by this allegorical scene, the myths that inspired it, and the aesthetic choices of the artist including the precious pigments he used. This is the final episode in a series of three, featuring the Education Department’s 2023 summer interns each taking an in-depth look at one object in our collection.

Choice Between Virtue and Vice

0:29: Unknown publisher, reproduction of Paolo Veronese’s self-portrait detail from his “Feast in the House of Levi” (1573), ca. 1907–14, Watkinson Library, Trinity College, Hartford, Connecticut. https://www.jstor.org/stable/community.21847203

1:57: Annibale Carracci (1560–1609), “The Choice of Hercules,” 1596, oil on canvas, Capodimonte Gallery, Naples

4:24: “La Vénus de Milo (détail), Musée du Louvre,” ca. 1907–14, Watkinson Library, Trinity College, Hartford, Connecticut. https://www.jstor.org/stable/community.3244856

4:30: Lycian Sarcophagus, Gable Detail: Sphinx, early 4th century BCE, marble, Archaeological Museum, Istanbul. https://www.jstor.org/stable/community.18147851

5:57: Paolo Veronese (1528–1588), ceiling painting of the Sala dell’Olimpo, Villa Barbaro, Maser, 1561–62, fresco. https://www.jstor.org/stable/community.18112157

6:13: Paolo Veronese (1528–1588), south wall of the Sala dell’Olimpo, Villa Barbaro, Maser, 1561–62, fresco. https://www.jstor.org/stable/community.18119831

9:13: Ignazio Danti (1536–1586), “Venice: Map of City,” 16th century. https://www.jstor.org/stable/community.13890825

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