The Feast in the House of Levi

The Feast in the House of Levi is a vast canvas that Paolo Veronese painted in 1573 for the refectory of the Dominican friars at the Basilica of Santi Giovanni e Paolo in Venice. The friars had commissioned it as a Last Supper to replace a Titian work on the same subject, destroyed by fire in 1571. Veronese, however, stretched the theme well beyond its usual limits. Instead of the apostles gathered around Christ, he filled the scene with a crowded banquet: servants, musicians, soldiers, jesters, children and dogs, many of them seemingly indifferent to the presence of the Saviour. Christ sits at the centre of the table, yet he is hard to pick out amid the commotion, and some figures argue heatedly or turn their backs on him.

The episode behind the picture comes from the Gospel of Luke, where Levi, after being called by Jesus, hosts a great banquet for him and other tax collectors. Commentators often read the surrounding chaos as a hint of the betrayal to come. The composition is structured by tall pillars and arches that recall a triptych, and by triumphal arches of ancient Rome, which many interpret as a reference to Christ's victory over death. Stairways on either side draw the eye toward the centre, and the lack of buildings behind Christ gives the background an otherworldly air. Rather than a single vanishing point, Veronese used diagonals converging at several points, probably because of the sheer size of the canvas and the many angles from which it would be seen.

The painting attracted the attention of the Venetian Holy Inquisition, which summoned the artist in July 1573 to account for figures judged irreverent in a religious scene. Veronese argued that the empty space had to be filled and that the figures were placed well away from Christ. Before the tribunal he agreed only to change the title, which now referred to the feast in Levi's house, leaving the painting itself untouched. The case is often cited as an example of the tension between an artist's freedom and the stricter religious norms that followed the Council of Trent.

Painter

Paolo Veronese

Date

1573

Medium

oil paint, canvas

Dimensions

560 × 1039 cm

Museum

Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice

Movement

Mannerism

Genre

religious art

Depicts

feast in the house of Levi, Jesus Christ, man

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