Paolo Veronese in front of the Inquisition. Report of the session of the inquisitors

Translation by Francesco Mazzaferro

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Paolo Veronese in front of the Inquisition 

Report of the session of the inquisitors 

Fig. 1) Paolo Veronese, The Feast in the House of Levi, Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice

The exhibition "Paolo Veronese. The illusion of reality" (https://museodicastelvecchio.comune.verona.it/nqcontent.cfm?a_id=42810). opens today in Verona, at the Palazzo della Gran Guardia. A clarification on the works on display. In the exhibition you will see a 'Feast in the House of Levi', recently restored. In fact, it is not really the large canvas discussed below (now in the Gallerie dell'Accademia, in Venice), but the work of the 'heirs of Paolo Veronese' (from 1591 onwards), i.e. performed by artists of his workshop after the death of Paolo (1588) for the Church of St. James at the Giudecca, also in Venice. 

Instead performed in the Refectory of S. Giovanni e Paolo in Venice in 1573, the work for which Veronese ended before the Inquisition was originally a "Last Supper" (Fig. 1). Soon Veronese was accused, because the canvas showed characters and situations which were considered as totally offensive to the doctrine of the Catholic Church. As we have the minutes of the Process at the Inquisition, we know all about the accusations made to the painter and his answers. The final sentence, to correct at his own expense indecent details according to the instructions of the inquisitors, was reduced in practice to changing the title of the work, which became "Feast in the House of Levi" instead of the more challenging "Last Supper". We display below the entire contents of the minutes of the interrogation. The text is taken from "Lettere di grandi artisti da Ghiberti a Gainsborough” (Letters of the great artists from Ghiberti to Gainsborough)", edited by Richard Friedenthal, Milano, Alfieri & Lacroix, 1966 vol. 1, p. 113-118.

Venice, July 18, 1573 

[Original in Latin] Mr. Paolo Caliari of Verona is called by the Holy Office before the Holy Tribunal. He lives in the parish of St. Samuel. He has been asked for the name and surname. 

He replied as above. 

The profession was sought. 

[Original in vernacular]

Answer: I paint and do figures. 

Question: Do you know the reason why you have been called? 

Answer: No, I do not. 

Question: Can you can imagine it? 

Answer: Yes, I can well imagine. 

Question: Say what you imagine. 

Answer: As far as I have been told by the Reverend Fathers, in particular, the Prior of St. John and Paul, whose name I do not know. He told me that he was here, and that Your Illustrious Lordships ordered that he would commission me to paint the Magdalene instead of a dog. I said I would do it - and even more - for the honour of myself and the painting; but I did not think that the figure of Mary Magdalene could appear in such a way that would display her well, for many reasons that I will explain, provided I will be ever given the opportunity. 

Fig. 2) Cover of Veronese Inquisition Transcript

Question: What is this painting that you just named? 

Answer: This is a painting of the Last Supper, which Jesus Christ did with his apostles in the house of Simeon. 

Question: Where is this picture? 

Answer: In the refectory of the monks of St. John and Paul. 

Question: Is it a fresco, a table or a canvas? 

Answer: A canvas. 

Question: How many feet is it high? 

Answer: It could be 17 feet. 

Question: And how wide? 

Answer: Around 39. 

Question: And at this Lord's Supper did you paint other Ministers? 

Answer: Yes, Sir. 

Question: Tell me how many Ministers, and what each of them does. 

Answer: Simon, the master of the guesthouse. In addition, below this figure, a servant. I pretended that he had come on his own initiative to see how things were going at the table. 

He added: There are many figures, and as I hung the picture some time ago, I do not remember them 

Fig. 3) The Feast in the House of Levi (detail)

Question: Did you paint other dinners than that one? 

Answer: Yes, Sir. 

Question: How many did you paint and in what place? 

Answer: I made one in Verona, at the Reverend Monks of St. Lazarus, in their refectory.  I made one in the refectory of the Reverend Fathers of St. George, here in Venice. 

Question: This is not a supper. The question is on the Lord's Supper. 

Answer: I made one in the refectory of the Serves in Venice and one in the refectory of San Sebastian, here in Venice. And I made ​​one in Padua at the Fathers of the Maddalena. I do not remember having done more. 

Question: In John and Paul's dinner, what does mean the painting of the person to whom the blood comes from the nose? 

Answer: It is a servant. For some accident, the blood may have come from the nose. 

Question: What do the German armed soldiers mean each with a halberd in his hand? [Fig. 4]

Answer: I need to dwell here for a few minutes. 

He was told: Say. 

Answer: We painters use to take the same license as poets and madmen. I made the two halberdiers - one drinking and the other eating, each near a scale that gives no access to the room where Jesus is - and I put them there so that they can make some service. Since the landlord was very rich - from what I was told – he had to have servants of that type. 

Fig. 4) Paolo Veronese, The Feast in the House of Levi (detail)

Question: Why did you paint the man dressed as a clown, with a parrot in his hand, in the canvas [(fig. 3]? 

Answer: To ornament, as it is often done. 

Question: Who sits at the table of the Lord? 

Answer: The twelve apostles. 

Question: What is St. Peter doing, the first of the apostles? 

Answer: He looks at the lamb, to forward it to the other side of the table. 

Question: Say what the other is doing, who is the closest to St. Peter. 

Answer: That one has a fork, and takes care of the teeth. 

Question: And who do you really believe to be at that Supper? 

Answer: I think there was Christ with the Apostles. But if space was left in the painting, I adorned it with figures, according to my taste. 

Question: Was there anyone who has asked you to paint Germans, buffoons, and the like in that picture? 

Answer: No, Sir. But the task was that I would decorate the painting according to my taste. It is a big picture, able to hold many shapes. I did what I thought to be the best. 

Question: I would like to know if the ornaments that you, as a painter, usually do around the paintings or canvases, are usually opportune and proportionate to the subject matter and the main figures, or really you do them at your good pleasure, as it is dictated by your imagination, without any discretion and judgment. 

Answer: I make paintings according to the considerations that are convenient, as far as my intellect can understand. 

He is asked whether it might seem fitting to him that in a Last Supper is convenient to paint buffoons, drunkards, Germans, dwarfs and similar profanity. 

Answer: No, Sir. 

Question: Do you not know that in Germany and other places infected with heresy, there is the habit - in different paints, full of profanity and similar inventions - to dishonour and ridicule of the Holy Catholic Church, in order to teach the wrong doctrine to idiots and ignorant people? 

Answer: Yes, Sir, I know, and it is bad. But I will say what I already said, since I have an obligation to follow what my predecessors have done. 

Paolo Veronese, The Feast in the House of Levi (detail)

Question: What did your predecessors? Have they done such a thing? 

Answer: Michelangelo in Rome, inside the Sistine Chapel, painted our Lord Jesus Christ, His Mother and St. John, St. Peter and the Heavenly Court all naked (with the exception of the Virgin Mary), in different positions, and each with little reverence. 

Question: Do you not know that in the Last Judgment it is not assumed to be dressed or alike? In those figures, there is nothing that is not spiritual: there are no clowns, no dogs, no weapons, and no similar frolics. Does this or any other example make you think you did well to paint this picture in that way? Do you want to defend that painting as a good and decent one? 

Answer: Most Illustrious Lord, I do not want to defend it. I thought I would do well. I have not thought about many facts, thinking of not doing any harm. Especially since those figures of buffoons are outside the rooms where our Lord is placed. 

[Text in Latin] Based on the above, the Lords decreed that the above-named Mr Paolo is forced to correct and amend the picture, at the discretion of the Holy Tribunal within three months from the date of the judgment of this sacred Court, at his own expense, with the threat of sanctions to be imposed by this Holy Tribunal. And so it is determined in the best possible way.