Veronese in Murano

In 1566, the Venetian priest Francesco degli Arbori commissioned two paintings by the celebrated artist Paolo Veronese. The canvases—St. Jerome in the Wilderness and St. Agatha Visited in Prison by St. Peter—were destined to decorate a small chapel the priest had built just outside the church and convent of Santa Maria degli Angeli on the island of Murano, in the Venice Lagoon. To protect the paintings from the humidity of the chapel and the risk of theft, the nuns moved them inside the main church, and by the early nineteenth century, they had been relocated to San Pietro Martire, another church on Murano. This publication accompanies the exhibition at The Frick Collection of the two Veronese masterpieces—their first presentation outside of Italy—following their full restoration by Venetian Heritage.