Few paintings by Paolo Veronese have generated as much scholarly uncertainty as Ezekiel. The date of its creation, the identity of its original patron, and even the medium remain unknown, making the work a puzzle within the artist’s celebrated output. What is certain is that the painting captures a rare Old Testament subject, one seldom chosen by Venetian painters of the sixteenth century.

This rarity has led to much speculation about why Veronese was drawn to the prophet Ezekiel and the vision he received. At the heart of the painting is the dramatic moment when Ezekiel, exiled in Babylon, witnesses the valley of dry bones stir and come to life at God’s command—a vision recounted in the Book of Ezekiel, chapter 37. Veronese selects the instant when the prophet, arms outstretched, confronts the miraculous reanimation: bones knit into bodies, sinews forming, flesh returning. The composition is alive with movement—figures rising from the earth, their faces caught between terror and hope.

The use of luminous color and theatrical gestures echoes Veronese’s approach in his great banquet scenes, but here the grandeur serves a vision of divine power. Unlike Michelangelo’s muscular, solitary prophets on the Sistine ceiling, Veronese’s Ezekiel is surrounded by the tumult of resurrection, emphasizing collective salvation. The history of Ezekiel as a physical object is as shadowy as its origins. No contemporary records mention its commission, and it does not appear in early inventories of Venetian collections.

Over time, the painting has been attributed to various hands before consensus settled on Paolo Veronese, thanks to its distinctive palette and compositional bravura. Today, Ezekiel stands as a testament to Veronese’s imaginative reach and his ability to transform rare biblical subjects into grand visual drama, even as many details of its journey through the centuries remain lost to history.