Saint Lucy and a Donor

Executed in 1590, this religious painting by Paolo Veronese utilizes oil paint applied to a canvas support. The work measures approximately 180.6 cm in height and 115.3 cm in width. The medium and dimensions establish it as a substantial vertical composition, consistent with its likely original function as an altarpiece before entering the Samuel H. Kress Collection.

The work, executed in oil on canvas in 1590, was probably commissioned as an altarpiece for the Abriani Chapel of the Duomo in Montagnana, near Padua, and was later removed during the chapel's 1720s refurbishment. Its early owners included the Venetian diplomat Vincenzo Ranuzzini, who transferred it to Bologna in 1782, and subsequently the English aristocrat David John Carnegie, 10th Earl of Northesk, whose collection sold the painting at Sotheby's in 1915. The piece passed through several dealers before entering the collection of Count Alessandro Contini Bonacossi, who sold it to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation in 1954; the foundation gifted the work to the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., in 1961, where it remains as part of the Samuel H. Kress Collection.

This oil on canvas painting, titled Saint Lucy and a Donor, was created by the Venetian artist Veronese around 1590. The work presents the Christian martyr Saint Lucy alongside an unidentified donor figure. As a religious composition, it reflects the artistic conventions and devotional practices prevalent in late 16th-century Italy.