Reynolds sees Veronese and Tintoretto as the two painters who represent the worst of the Venetian school. Together with the Flemish and the Dutch schools they catch 'at applause by inferior qualities' (( Reynolds, Discourses, p. 63; see also Reynolds on Tintoretto).
Veronese 's main aim in historical painting according to Reynolds, 1771, Discourse Four) is to have the
opportunity of shewing his art in composition, his dexterity of managing and disposing the masses of light and groups of figures, and of introducing a variety of Eastern dresses and characters in their rich stuffs. ( Reynolds, Discourses, p. 65)
Veronese and Tintoretto have
exhausted all the powers of florid eloquence to debauch the young and inexperienced, and have, without doubt, been the cause of turning off the attention of the connoisseur and of the patron of art, as well as that of the painter, from those higher excellencies of which the art is capable. ( Reynolds, Discourses, p. 67)
More positively at Discourse Seven, 1776, 'they tell the truth, though not the whole truth'( Reynolds, Discourses, p. 131)