Reviewed by John McEwenTHAMES & HUDSON, 351pp, £60Tablet bookshop price £54                   Tel 01420 592974Veronese (1528-88) was born Paolo Bazaro, the son of a spezapreda (stone- cutter). His mother was the illegitimate daughter of a nobleman; it was then the custom for such discards to marry skilled artisans. Paolo, a sixth child, began by working for his father. Writing to a patron in 1553 he still referred to himself as a spezapreda. It seems appropriate. The splendour of his paintings, whether oil or fresco, derives from a lapidary sense of design and the symbolic inclusion of magnificent columns (the Madonna, patroness of Venice, was also the “Temple of Solomon”)