These four _Feasts_ of Veronese won him a widespread renown. But there
were certain hostile spirits, uncompromising traditionalists, to whom
the fantastic elements which he introduced into the composition of his
religious pictures were necessarily strongly displeasing. To introduce
dwarfs, buffoons, men at arms under the influence of liquor, at a
feast where Jesus and his disciples take part,--did not this savour of
irreverence, nay, worse than that, of heresy?
The _Feast at the House of Levi the Publican_, executed for the
convent of San Giovanni e Paolo, in which Veronese had given free rein
to his imagination, was denounced to the Holy Office, and on July 18,
1573, the artist was summoned before the tribunal of the Inquisition.
In the Most Serene Republic this tribunal scarcely had the same
redoubtable power with which the sombre fanaticism of Philip II had
armed it in Spain. It was none the less a grave risk to incur its
displeasure at an epoch when the Papacy still held undisputed sway
over the guidance of souls. Consequently this prosecution caused
Veronese serious alarm.
M. Armand Baschet discovered quite recently in the archives of the
Frari, at Venice, the official record of the trial with all the
questions put to him and his answers.
The judges took special exception to his _Feast at the House of Levi_,
which seemed to them an outrage upon religion. Each one of the figures
in the picture was brought up separately for discussion, and the
luckless Veronese was required to make explanation. What was the
significance of that man who was bleeding at the nose? Why were those
two soldiers, on the steps of the stairway, one of them drinking and
the other eating, clad in German uniform? And, at a repast where the
Saviour figures, what was that ridiculous buffoon doing with a
parroquet on his wrist?
[Illustration: PLATE VI.--CALVARY
(In the Musée du Louvre)
In painting this subject, which so many artists have treated in a
lugubrious tone, Veronese, while preserving the intense sadness of the
scene on Calvary, has none the less succeeded in lavishing upon it his
habitual qualities as a colourist. All the actors in the divine drama
wear gloomy countenances and resplendent robes.]
Veronese defended himself as best he could. He assumed a sort of
injured innocence and apparently failed to understand the enormity of
the irreverence with which he was charged. Next, he took shelter
behind the precedent established by the great masters. He cited
Michelangelo and his _Last Judgment_:
"At Rome, in the Pope's own chapel, Michelangelo has represented Our
Lord, his Mother, Saint John, Saint Peter and the Celestial Choir, and
he has represented them all naked, even the Virgin Mary, and that,
too, in diverse attitudes, such as were certainly not inspired by our
greatest of religions."
Finally, Veronese emphatically denied the charge of any intentional
irreverence toward the Church; he declared that he had simply
permitted himself, perhaps wrongfully, a certain amount of license
such as is accorded to poets and to fools.
His contrite attitude won him the indulgence of the Tribunal. But the
judges demanded that he should correct his picture, and he was obliged
to remove the dwarfs and the fools and to modify the attitude of his
men at arms. This is the picture that may be seen to-day at the
Accademia delle Belle Arti, at Venice, retouched in accordance with
the orders of the Holy Office.