Veronese’s Inquisition and Response

Veronese was a celebrated sixteenth century Venetian artist and the only painter summoned by the Inquisition. We have the transcript of his interrogation before the tribunal of the Holy Inquisition, and his stunning response to their charges. The role of images and art became a focus for inquisitors as they searched to counter the Protestant and Lutheran reformation. Religious and government officials comprised the tribunal who sought to keep artists in line with Catholic teachings.

Born Paolo Caliari to a stonecutter, he hailed from Verona and became known as Paolo Veronese. Three decades younger than Titian, Veronese was a newcomer on the Venetian art scene who soon established a successful workshop. He built a large clientele in Venice and its surrounding territories. The Venetian republic enthusiastically supported Veronese with commissions throughout his career. He decorated palaces, churches, and religious buildings. Veronese found the conventional suited his talent and clientele. He was by nature a decorative painter in color, palette, and composition.

Veronese, Wedding Feast at Cana, self-portrait, 1562-3, Musée du Louvre, Paris, open access.

Two of his most famous commissioned works are massive paintings featuring sacred banqueting scenes, the Wedding at Cana, and the Last Supper. Both were painted for refectories, dining halls for male religious orders. These were spacious halls where the monks would gather to break bread in the presence of a sacred image.

The Wedding at Cana measures nearly twenty-two feet high and thirty-two feet wide, surpassed by the Last Supper which is over forty feet wide. At first it doesn’t appear these are religious scenes. Both canvases are populated with a multitude of figures, with Jesus in the center. Veronese delights the viewer with luxurious costumes and winsome characters. His colors are a feast for the eyes and entice the viewer to enjoy the painting. The textiles are sumptuously painted. Golds shine, pearls glow, and armor reflects light. Material splendor is the main component of his banquet scenes, and although religious in nature, they are a snapshot of Venetian aristocracy feasting and drinking.

The Wedding at Cana depicts Jesus’ first miracle to change water into wine, as it is about to run out for the guests. Goaded by his mother Mary to make more wine, Jesus fulfills her wish. Veronese included over one hundred and fifty figures. Participants are set on three levels to organize the scene, flanked by rows of columns for an illusionistic recession into space. The painted architecture gives unity to the scene, providing balance and structure. On the ground floor, dogs, a cat, servants, and a trio of musicians are placed just below Jesus. The musicians are portraits of Titian in red, painter Jacopo Bassano, and a self-portrait dressed in a white tunic playing a viola.

Veronese, Wedding Feast at Cana,1562-3, Musée du Louvre, Paris, open access.

Veronese included other sixteenth century guests: Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, Mary I of England, and Francis I King of France. Now in the Louvre, it is the largest painting in their collection. Each figure has an individual visage, pose, and clothing. No two are alike. Veronese was paid quite well for the painting – 324 ducats.

Ten years after he painted the Cana, he depicted a Last Supper which resulted in a trip to the Holy Tribunal – the Inquisition. Although common in Tuscany and Northern Italy, depictions of the last supper in refectories were not common in Venice. Veronese was certainly familiar with Leonardo da Vinci’s famous Last Supper in Milan, completed about seventy-five years earlier. Veronese chose a different approach. Set as if on a theatrical stage, Jesus appears as a minor player in the scene as he breaks bread with his disciples. The viewer is placed front and center and can “read” the painting from the center outward to the sides.

A few months after completing the painting Veronese was called to appear before the Inquisition. He was brought to trial for his less than decorous representation of the sacred meal. Usually limited to apostles and Jesus, this feast includes a variety of characters. A cat paws at something from under the table, a large dog sits with its legs open directly in front of the table and turns to look at the cat. A series of onlookers not one bit interested in the holy event are included to the right and left, lingering on the stairs and balcony. A dwarf holds a parrot on the left side as others converse and are served libations. Veronese’s Last Supper is a noisy, bustling event. One can imagine the apostles would have had a difficult time hearing Jesus with the background noise. There are more than forty figures not directly involved in the last supper, chatting and feasting.

Veronese, Last Supper, now known as Feast in the House of Levi, 1573, Gallerie dell’Accademia, Venice.

Veronese, Last Supper, now known as Feast in the House of Levi, details, 1573,

Gallerie dell’Accademia, Venice.

The Venetian Inquisition was not as fanatic or harsh as those in other regions, nonetheless, Veronese could suffer serious reputational damage and fines from their findings. Of particular concern to the inquisitor were the inclusion of figures who obviously would not be present at the supper. Characters dressed in finest brocades and silks while drinking wine and conversing, as if they are at a party, and the lack of appropriate dignity riled the conservative tribunal.

The inquisitor pointedly questioned why Veronese would include fools, drunkards, dwarfs, and especially Germans in the scene. He asked, “Who are these figures? What is the meaning of those others?” Veronese was not accused of heresy. Their concern was the ability of heretics (Protestants) to leverage the painting to their advantage and further their cause. Germans are drinking on the far right-hand side holding halberds (an axe blade on a long wood shaft). They pay no attention to the supper. Germans who had taken up the beliefs of Martin Luther were questionable figures to include in the last supper. The tribunal also asked why he included a man with a bloody nose.

To correct the deficiencies, at a minimum, Veronese was asked to paint Mary Magdalen in place of the dog. Unimpressed with the suggestion, he claimed the central scene is devoted to Jesus and the apostles; the remainder of the space he could do with it as he felt appropriate. He replied, “I could not see that the figure of Magdalen would look well there.” He neatly separated the sacred from the profane with the use of classical architecture and three arches, which in his mind, gave him freedom to conceive of figures as he liked outside of the holy supper.

Veronese refuted the charges claiming artistic license and liberty to depict the scene as he saw fit. “We painters take the same liberty which is taken by poets and fools.” He claimed freedom of expression. Artists had risen above common craftspeople to elite status, a shift he tried to leverage. Veronese cited Michelangelo’s Last Judgement as an example of artistic freedom to depict the scene in his own way. If Michelangelo could paint naked saints, why couldn’t he include dwarfs, drunkards, and Germans? The inquisitor pressed on, rightly claiming that Michelangelo did not include dogs, cats, or Germans in the Last Judgement.

Veronese’s responses did not win over the tribunal. Sensing he needed contrition, Veronese made an apology and humbly stated he did not intend any harm. He was instructed to make the needed corrections within three months, at his own expense. The tribunal wished him to repaint the dog and unnecessary figures. Veronese changed only one thing – the title. He inscribed on the balustrade to the left of the dwarf in Latin “Luke, Chapter 5.” The painting became the Feast in the House of Levi. By changing the subject he could include a variety of people, including “publicans and sinners” from the gospel (Luke 5:30). Levi, also known as Matthew, was called to be Jesus’ disciple. Levi gave a banquet at his house to honor Jesus with a large mixed crowd of people dining together. With the name change, the matter was settled and the painting was installed in the Dominican refectory of Santi Giovanni and Paolo.

Veronese is the only painter we know of who was called before the tribunal for an artwork, an unfortunate distinction, but one that did not hamper his career. He continued to paint for another fifteen years.

Sources

D’Argaville, Brian T. “Inquisition and Metamorphosis: Paolo Veronese and the ‘Ultima Cena’ of 1573.” RACAR: Revue d’art Canadienne / Canadian Art Review, vol. 16, no. 1, 1989, pp. 43–99.

Grasman, Edward. “On Closer Inspection - The Interrogation of Paolo Veronese.” Artibus et Historiae, vol. 30, no. 59, 2009, pp. 125–34.

Humfrey, Peter. Painting in Renaissance Venice. Yale University Press. 1995.

Nichols, Tom. Renaissance Art in Venice: From Tradition to Individualism. Laurence King, 2016.

“Veronese and the Inquisition.” Watson’s Art Journal, vol. 8, no. 17, 1868, pp. 233–34.