The walls of the Veronese Room are covered with leather wall panels—a particularly opulent type of decoration. Immensely prestigious because of its expense, this wall treatment was found in fashionable palaces and religious institutions throughout Europe from the 16th through the 18th centuries.


To create these panels, silver leaf was glued to leather hide and then coated with layers of yellow-tinted varnish to give the hangings their rich, golden color. This technique suggests the glamour of gold leaf without the expense. Imagine how the silver, when new (most of it now tarnished to black), would have reflected candlelight around an elegant room. Isabella Gardner assembled this collection from different sources, combining over 500 pieces of different shapes and sizes to create a richly patterned environment. Panels from rooms of wealthy households are punctuated with larger rectangular panels painted with religious images (the panels above the fireplace, for instance) that would have been used to decorate the front of an altar.