Feast in the House of Levi

Feast in the House of Levi

Titian, Paolo Veronese, and Jacopo Tintore were the prime artists in the Venetian art world for the largest portion of the 16th century. The piece I am most interested in is painted by Paolo Caliari for the Dominican order of SS. Giovanni e Paolo to replace an earlier painting by Titian which was destroyed by fire in 1571. The Feast in the House of Levi is a Veronese’s version of “The Last Supper”. Veronese’s version is the last of the grandiose “Suppers” . His worldly approach to the subject was not looked upon favorably by some, which caused an inquisition to try him on charges of heresy. When questioned he claimed his right to pictorial license. Paolo refused to give in to the demands of the Inquisition to eliminate the details which offended the religious theme of the Last Supper, he changed the title of the offending picture to "Feast in the House of Levi", a subject which tolerated the presence of fools and armed men.

This magn...