Unfaithfulness

This is one of a series of four paintings by Veronese that concern the trials and rewards of love, although their precise meanings remain unclear. The titles are not original and were given to the paintings in 1727. The compositions are designed to be seen from below, so we know the pictures were intended for a ceiling or a series of ceilings.The paintings are recorded in 1648 in the collection of the Holy Roman Emperor in Prague. We do not know who commissioned them, but it is most likely that the Four Allegories of Love were made for an Italian patron and were still in Italy in the 1620s, when Van Dyck recorded two of the compositions in his Italian sketchbook.It is possible that the series of paintings was made for the parallel suites of rooms of a husband and wife in a Venetian palace, two of the paintings for the reception room and bedchamber of the man and two for the equivalent rooms of his spouse. This painting and Happy Union seem particularly intended for a female viewer.In this painting, titled Unfaithfulness, a naked woman with her back to the viewer sits between two clothed men, exchanging a letter with one of them. It is not clear whether she is giving the letter to him or he is passing it to her. It is inscribed with red letters which appear to spell either ‘che / uno possede‘, meaning ‘which one person possesses’, or Ch.. / mi. p(ossede), meaning ’which/who possesses me' – the dots indicating illegible letters. The inscription may mean ‘she who has one man (should be satisfied)’ or possibly ‘she who has one lover (will always want another)’.A child, similar to that in Happy Union, holds the woman by the leg, while Cupid plays music on a clavichord. The child’s pose echoes that of the woman. Cupid stands beside the courtly young man with whom the woman is exchanging the note. The woman is physically held by the child and the man on the right, although her attention is drawn to the music-making Cupid, and her other hand is joined with that of her lover on the left, around the letter that passes between them. The sinuous shape of her arms is echoed in the twisting tree trunks.This painting seems intended for a female audience and to perhaps pair with Happy Union, although none of the men are the same. Even if this picture represents indecision in courtship rather than marital deceit, there is nothing within the picture to express disapproval.The green drapery over the woman’s thigh and buttocks may have been added for the sake of decency, weakening the composition. The blue pigment smalt used for the sky in all four paintings has turned grey. The russet-coloured jacket and boots of the bearded lover have lost much of the original modelling on account of the degraded pigments, and the colour of Cupid’s wings has changed.