Who are all these people? As it turns out, confusion is just part of the narrative—as is observation.
Paolo Veronese, The Family of Darius before Alexander, 1565–67, oil on canvas, 236.2 x 474.9 cm (The National Gallery, London)
[0:00] [music]
Dr. Steven Zucker: [0:04] It’s opulent, it’s large, it’s full of saturated color, and it’s kind of confusing.
Dr. Beth Harris: [0:10] It’s quite confusing. We’re looking at a painting by the great Venetian painter Veronese, called “The Family of Darius before Alexander.”
Dr. Zucker: [0:18] Darius was the ruler of the Persians. The Persians had been at war with Greece. Alexander the Great, that famous Greek general, had finally conquered Darius. Here is his family asking for mercy.
Dr. Harris: [0:33] When Alexander conquered the Persians, Darius, the leader of the Persians, escaped, but his family was taken hostage. In this painting by Veronese, we see Darius’ mother pleading for mercy for his family. With her are Darius’ wife, behind her in gold, and Darius’ children.
Dr. Zucker: [0:52] Now, this was serious business because when one army conquered another, generally the conquered would be killed, could be raped, could be enslaved.
Dr. Harris: [1:01] It’s a very serious moment indeed, and Darius’ mother is making a very serious mistake, because instead of pleading for mercy with Alexander, she actually addresses Hephaestion, Alexander’s advisor.
Dr. Zucker: [1:14] The courtly figure of Alexander steps forward and smooths over the mistake.
Dr. Harris: [1:19] That’s right. Alexander says to her, “It’s okay, this is also Alexander.”
Dr. Zucker: [1:24] Now, how does that make sense?
Dr. Harris: [1:26] Well, he is saying, “It’s okay, this is my close friend, this is my close advisor since my childhood.” A very generous gesture both toward his friend Hephaestion and also toward Darius’ mother saying, “It’s okay, this mistake, it’s understandable.”
Dr. Zucker: [1:41] Alexander is being portrayed here not only as a brilliant military ruler, but also as a diplomat, also as somebody who is very much a courtly figure in the highest sense. Those would have been values that would have been very important to the Venetians at this time, to the Pisano family who had commissioned this painting from Veronese.
[1:58] But it’s interesting that the initial confusion that we feel when we look at this painting, who are all these figures, is exactly a part of the narrative itself. It is the confusion that is being represented.
Dr. Harris: [2:09] That’s right.
Dr. Zucker: [2:10] This is a grand painting on a grand scale, and it is filled to capacity with other figures who are really unnecessary, but give the painting a kind of complication and that function anecdotally. For example, on the right side, you don’t need to have a dog in the painting.
[2:24] The dog looks like it is aggressive, and it might attack those figures who are kneeling, but it’s being restrained by the guard. This, of course, stands as a kind of allusion to the restraint that Alexander himself is showing.
[2:38] Let’s walk up to this painting and really look at it closely, because it’s really beautiful. Veronese has imbued the figures in the foreground with a richness, a density that shows a brilliant coloration and brushwork.
Dr. Harris: [2:53] We see primary colors of red and yellow and blue and then secondary colors of greens and oranges. Color is so much a part of Veronese’s work and of the Venetians in general.
Dr. Zucker: [3:06] It’s interesting, because when you look at the painting closely, certainly you see color, certainly you see a bravura brushwork, and you can see that especially in the children of Darius — in for instance, the white that highlights the blue and white clothing that they wear. But line is also clearly important.
Dr. Harris: [3:24] We see contours and drawing, especially in the architecture in the background.
Dr. Zucker: [3:29] It’s almost as if those are sketches. You’ve got this beautiful architectural frieze in the background that contains even more figures up towards the top of the canvas. But if you look at the extreme left side, towards the background, you can see these beautifully foreshortened horses, and they are almost mere sketches.
Dr. Harris: [3:45] If you look closely, everything in the painting is in motion. We feel this drama happening at this moment. We feel everybody reacting. We have this sweeping diagonal from the lower left to the upper right that is the basis for the composition.
[4:00] There’s a real sense of confusion and activity and movement and a kind of theatricality here. We feel like we’re observers, just like the people that we see in the balustrade in the background.
[4:11] [music]
