Feast in the House of Levi

Dorsoduro

Feast in the House of Levi
The enormous canvas was painted for the refectory of the convent of Saints John and Paul. The pagan atmosphere of the picture, which the artist intended to depict the Last Supper, led to suspicions of heresy and Veronese was summoned before the Holy Inquisition. Instead of changing the picture, the painter changed its title to Feast in the House of Levi, an episode recounted by Matthew the Evangelist when Christ sternly accuses a scribe and a Pharisee (the figures towards the front) of setting a bad example.