How did Veronese circumvent the Inquisition in regard to his painting of a Last Supper? In your answer make reference to the material (Fig. 20.16) from the Closer Look section of MyArtsLab

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

The artist changed the title to Feast in the House of Levi to avoid any condemnation by the inquisitors. Monks from the monastery of St John and Paul in Venice had commission the work to replace another painting of the Last Supper which had hung in their dining hall and had been lost to fire.

Veronese place his depiction of the Last Supper in an ornate and opulent hall, similar to those found in his own 16th century Venice. In the center of the piece is Christ, silhouetted by the sky. The artist depicted the biblical events as a party with servants, food and drink causing the head of the monastery to complain to the religious authorities on the grounds that the painting seemed "insufficiently pious".

The painting also contained guests not mentioned in the biblical account and highly unlikely to have been present such as a dwarf clown to the left of the painting, holding a parrot. To the right, also in a prominent position is a butcher. Veronese explained his presence to the inquisitors as a person who wanted to see how things were done there at the table. Farther to the right, in the foreground, German mercenaries seem to share food from the table, a depiction clearly at odds with the biblical account.

The inquisitors questioned Veronese on the inclusion of these incongruous and unlikely subjects reminding him that in Germany and places devastated by Protestantism artists filled their works with such figures to make fun of the Catholic Church. Veronese, defended his choices as artistic license. The inquisitors demanded that Veronese fix the defects of the painting at his own expense within three months. He was minimally compliant, merely adding an inscription from Luke 5 which mentioned a boisterous party Christ attended. To this day, the painting is still known as Feast in the House of Levi.