page_title: The Feast in the House of Levi
section_title: Interrogation by the Inquisition
hierarchical_section_title: The Feast in the House of Levi / Interrogation by the Inquisition
caption_attribution_description: English: Transcript of Veronese Inquisition page 1
context_page_description: The Feast in the House of Levi or Christ in the House of Levi is a 1573 painting by Italian painter Paolo Veronese and one of the largest canvases of the 16th century, measuring 555 cm × 1,310 cm. It is now in the Gallerie dell'Accademia in Venice. It was painted by Veronese for the rear wall of the refectory of the Basilica di Santi Giovanni e Paolo, a Dominican friary, as a Last Supper, to replace an earlier work by Titian destroyed in the fire of 1571.
  However, the painting led to an investigation by the Roman Catholic Inquisition. Veronese was called to answer for irreverence and indecorum, and the serious offence of heresy was mentioned. He was asked to explain why the painting contained "buffoons, drunken Germans, dwarfs and other such scurrilities" as well as extravagant costumes and settings, in what is indeed a fantasy version of a Venetian patrician feast. Veronese was told that he must change his painting within a three-month period; instead, he simply changed the title to The Feast in the House of Levi, still an episode from the Gospels, but less doctrinally central, and one in which the Gospels specified "sinners" as present. After this, no more was said.
context_section_description: In Venice, a court of the Inquisition interrogated Veronese about the thematic and theologic content of The Feast in the House of Levi (1573), then called a Last Supper:
  “This day, July eighteenth, 1573. Called to the Holy Office before the sacred tribunal, Paolo Galliari Veronese, residing in the parish of Saint Samuel, and being asked as to his name and surname replied as above.
  Being asked as to his profession:
  
  Answer. I paint and make figures.
  
  Question. Do you know the reasons why you have been called here?
  
  A. No.
  
  Q. Can you imagine what those reasons may be?
  
  A. I can well imagine.
  
  Q. Say what you think about them.
  
  A. I fancy that it concerns what was said to me by the reverend fathers, or rather by the prior of the monastery of San Giovanni e Paolo, whose name I did not know, but who informed me that he had been here, and that your Most Illustrious Lordships had ordered him to cause to be placed in the picture a Magdalen instead of the dog; and I answered him that very readily I would do all that was needful for my reputation and for the honor of the picture; but that I did not understand what this figure of the Magdalen could be doing here; and this for many reasons, which I will tell, when occasion is granted me to speak.
  
  Q. What is the picture to which you have been referring?
  
  A. It is the picture which represents the Last Supper of Jesus Christ with His disciples in the house of Simon.
  
  Q. Where is this picture?
  
  A. In the refectory of the monks of San Giovanni e Paolo.
  
  Q. Is it painted in fresco or on wood or on canvas?
  
  A. It is on canvas.
  
  Q. How many feet does it measure in height?
  
  A. It may measure seventeen feet.
  
  Q. And in breadth?
  
  A. About thirty-nine.
  
  Q. How many have you represented? And what is each one doing? 
  
  A. First there is the innkeeper, Simon; then, under him, a carving squire whom I supposed to have come there for his pleasure, to see how the service of the table is managed. There are many other figures which I cannot remember, however, as it is a long time since I painted that picture.
  
  Q. Have you painted other Last Suppers besides that one?
  
  A. Yes.
  
  Q. How many have you painted? Where are they? 
  
  A. I painted one at Verona for the reverend monks of San Lazzaro; it is in their refectory. Another is in the refectory of the reverend brothers of San Giorgio here in Venice.
  
  Q. But that one is not a Last Supper, and is not even called the Supper of Our Lord.
  
  A. I painted another in the refectory of San Sebastiano in Venice, another at Padua for the Fathers of the Maddalena. I do not remember to have made any others.
  
  Q. In this Supper which you painted for San Giovanni e Paolo, what signifies the figure of him whose nose is bleeding?
  
  A. He is a servant who has a nose-bleed from some accident.
  
  Q. What signify those armed men dressed in the fashion of Germany, with halberds in their hands?
  
  A. It is necessary here that I should say a score of words.
  
  Q. Say them.
  
  A. We painters use the same license as poets and madmen, and I represented those halberdiers, the one drinking, the other eating at the foot of the stairs, but both ready to do their duty, because it seemed to me suitable and possible that the master of the house, who as I have been told was rich and magnificent, would have such servants.
  
  Q. And the one who is dressed as a jester with a parrot on his wrist, why did you put him into the picture?
  
  A. He is there as an ornament, as it is usual to insert such figures.
  
  Q. Who are the persons at the table of Our Lord?
  
  A. The twelve apostles.
  
  Q. What is Saint Peter doing, who is the first?
  
  A. He is carving the lamb in order to pass it to the other part of the table.
  
  Q. What is he doing who comes next?
  
  A. He holds a plate to see what Saint Peter will give him.
  
  Q. Tell us what the third is doing.
  
  A. He is picking his teeth with a fork.
  
  Q. And who are really the persons whom you admit to have been present at this Supper?
  
  A. I believe that there was only Christ and His Apostles; but when I have some space left over in a picture I adorn it with figures of my own inventio
caption: Manuscript of the Inquisition interrogation of Galliari, Paolo Veronese (July 1573), page1-5.
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