Veronese :: VERONESE AND THE INQUISITION

VERONESE AND THE INQUISITION

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?

(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.

PLATE VI.—CALVARY

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.

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