Antonio Verrio - Career

Career

Verro, born either in Lecce or Naples, started his career in Lecce and was a pupil of Giovanni Andrea Coppola (1597–1659). Several works by Verro still exist in the Apulian city, including S. Francesco Savario appare al Beato Marcello Mastrilli – his first known signed work.

Around 1665, Verro moved to the region of Toulouse where he was commissioned to decorate the Château Bonrepos, the property of Pierre-Paul Riquet, promoter of the Canal du Midi. He then settled in Toulouse itself where he worked for the Carmes Déchaussées and the Capucins. Today two of his paintings, Le Mariage de la Vierge et Saint-Félix de Cantalice, are in the collection of the Musée des Augustins there. Around 1670, Verro moved to Paris where he developed an aristocratic clientele and decorated three private houses including the hotel Brûlart – the only one that still exists today (in private hands).

In March 1672, Verro crossed the Channel on the recommendation of Ralph Montagu, who had been English Ambassador Extraodinary in Paris since 1669. Thanks to Montagu, Verro made his English debut working for aristocrats such as the 1st Earl of Arlington (Euston Hall and Arlington House, now destroyed) and the 1st Duke of Lauderdale (Ham House, now a property of The National Trust), and rapidly acquired the royal patronage of Charles II. By 1675, Verro had painted the exquisite allegorical portrait of the king known as The Sea Triumph of Charles II, and was ‘denizened’ on the 5 May of that year. Soon afterwards he was engaged to decorate the North Range of Windsor Castle, where he collaborated with the architect Hugh May and the sculptor Grinling Gibbons. This was the most important commission of his entire career: twenty ceilings, three staircases, the King’s Chapel and St George’s Hall for which he was paid the colossal sum of £10195 8s 4d. On its completion, in 1684, Verro was appointed ‘Chief and first painter’. Only three ceilings have survived the redecoration of the castle commissioned by George IV during the 1820s. On the succession of James II, Verro continued his royal service and decorated Whitehall Palace (burnt in 1698) and Henry VIII’s Chapel at Windsor (destroyed). In March 1685, he was also appointed ‘Keeper of the Great Garden in St James’s Park’. At the Glorious Revolution, Verro did not receive any further royal protection from William III and had to leave the court. Verro, who had worked for the nobility while he was employed by Charles and James, returned to his aristocratic clientele. He spent the next decade at Burghley House, the property of the 5th Earl of Exeter, and Chatsworth, the property of the 4th Earl of Devonshire. Both are very fine examples of English Baroque decoration, and Burghley contains Verrio’s masterpiece, the Heaven Room. By 1699, William finally overrode the Test Act and invited Verro back to court. After having worked at Windsor again, Verro undertook the decoration of Hampton Court Palace for William. At his death, in 1702, Verro continued his royal service and painted for Queen Anne his last royal commission in the Queen’s Drawing Room. In 1705, Verrio was granted by the queen an annual pension of £200 and allowed to keep his lodgings at Hampton Court. Before his death, on 15 June 1707, Verro painted a series of portraits including his self-portrait, now in the National Portrait Gallery. Verro influenced younger artists such as Louis Laguerre and James Thornhill, and his Hampton Court Palace frescoes (now under the care of Historic Royal Palaces) constitute a priceless legacy.