OOPS EPISODE 3 – GERMANS, DWARFS AND DOGS
In 1573 Paolo Veronese painted this enormous canvas (555 x 1280 cm) for the refectory of the Venetian Giovanni e Paolo monastery. Originally commissioned as a Last Supper - a standard subject for monastic dining-halls - it was to replace a work by Titian destroyed by fire.
The splendour of the painting probably stimulated prestigious, rather than pious appetites. Christ and his apostles are seated in the middle, surrounded by contemporary, extravagantly dressed people busily interacting inside grandiose Venetian architecture. But Veronese also included frivolities, like one apostle picking his teeth, a servant with a nosebleed and non-Gospel figures like a dog, midgets, a jester with a parrot, German mercenaries, drunks and other fantasies. Overall, it looks more like a Venetian patrician banquet than a sacred subject.
Understandably, this setting provoked grumbling about irreverence with religious hardliners. Even worse, the painting caused an investigation by the Inquisition, who accused the artist of heresy, then a capital sin. The tribunal records reveal why. Veronese had to explain why he painted ‘buffoons, drunken Germans, dwarfs and other such absurdities’, considering that ‘in Germany and other countries infested by heresy, it is habitual, by means of pictures full of absurdities, to ridicule the things of the Holy Catholic Church, in order to teach false doctrine to ignorant people who have no common sense’
The artist remorsefully argued that ‘we painters use the same license as poets and jesters, and I represented those halberdiers because it seemed proper to me that the rich and magnificent master of the house would have such servants.’ After promising to remove the Germans and to replace the dog by Mary Magdalen he was acquitted, but never touched the work again. Probably he or his principals felt that the power of the Inquisition was limited in Venice. Instead, he changed its name to a less doctrine-sensitive biblical episode: Christ in the House of Levi.
(text: Jos Hanou ; for close-ups see http://www.wga.hu/html_m/
In 1573 Paolo Veronese painted this enormous canvas (555 x 1280 cm) for the refectory of the Venetian Giovanni e Paolo monastery. Originally commissioned as a Last Supper - a standard subject for monastic dining-halls - it was to replace a work by Titian destroyed by fire.
The splendour of the painting probably stimulated prestigious, rather than pious appetites. Christ and his apostles are seated in the middle, surrounded by contemporary, extravagantly dressed people busily interacting inside grandiose Venetian architecture. But Veronese also included frivolities, like one apostle picking his teeth, a servant with a nosebleed and non-Gospel figures like a dog, midgets, a jester with a parrot, German mercenaries, drunks and other fantasies. Overall, it looks more like a Venetian patrician banquet than a sacred subject.
Understandably, this setting provoked grumbling about irreverence with religious hardliners. Even worse, the painting caused an investigation by the Inquisition, who accused the artist of heresy, then a capital sin. The tribunal records reveal why. Veronese had to explain why he painted ‘buffoons, drunken Germans, dwarfs and other such absurdities’, considering that ‘in Germany and other countries infested by heresy, it is habitual, by means of pictures full of absurdities, to ridicule the things of the Holy Catholic Church, in order to teach false doctrine to ignorant people who have no common sense’
The artist remorsefully argued that ‘we painters use the same license as poets and jesters, and I represented those halberdiers because it seemed proper to me that the rich and magnificent master of the house would have such servants.’ After promising to remove the Germans and to replace the dog by Mary Magdalen he was acquitted, but never touched the work again. Probably he or his principals felt that the power of the Inquisition was limited in Venice. Instead, he changed its name to a less doctrine-sensitive biblical episode: Christ in the House of Levi.
(text: Jos Hanou ; for close-ups see http://www.wga.hu/html_m/
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