Veronese’s Allegories:
Virtue, Love, and Exploration in Renaissance Venice
April 11 through July 16, 2006
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Paolo Veronese (1528–1588)
Allegory of Navigation with a Cross-Staff, c. 1565
Oil on canvas
81 x 46 in. ( 206 x 117 cm)
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Gift of the Ahmanson Foundation
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In the companion piece to Allegory of Navigation with an Astrolabe, a younger man, dressed in what can be read as an ancient costume, is set in a similar background. While the figure’s left hand rests on a marble architectural fragment, his right hand clutches an object that has been interpreted as a cross-staff (or ballestriglia). The instrument measures the altitude of the sun and the stars to determine geographical
latitude. Both figures, therefore, represent aspects of navigation, a particularly appropriate and significant topic for the seafaring, mercantile population of Venice.>>
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