Christ Preaching in the Temple

Christ sits on a raised pedestal and gestures eloquently to his apostles seated below him. Paolo Veronese produced this preliminary sketch as he began to work out his first thoughts for the complex final composition of a painting. He left out the background, concentrating instead on the arrangement of the seated figures, positioned to illustrate different attitudes of listening and contemplation.

Veronese swiftly sketched the figures, outlining only the basic forms and used parallel hatching to suggest areas of shadow, texture, and depth. He used a simple oval form bisected by two lines to suggest the head, eyes, and mouth of Christ and his disciples and did not even bother to draw in their clothing.