608
Relentlessly the inquisitors pressed
the good Veronese further :
Q. Who do you really believe were
present at that Supper?
A. I believe Christ and His Apostles
were present, but if in a picture there
remains unfilled space,
I
adorn it
with figures, according to my inven–
tions.
Q. Did anyone commission you to
paint in that picture Germans, jesters,
and such things?
A. No, my lord. But
I
was commis–
sioned to adorn the picture as
I
judged best, and it is large, and had
room for many figures, as it seemed
to me.
Was this then all done "at his own
pleasure," following the "vagaries of
his fancy," without any "discretion
or judgment"? "I do my painting
with such consideration as is suitable
and as my mind can comprehend."
Veronese was then asked whether
he thought it "suitable" that "in our
Lord's Last Supper one should paint
jesters, drunkards, Germans, dwarfs,
and similar scurrilities" ? "-Are you
not aware that in Germany and other
places infected with heresy there is
the custom of using strange and scur–
rilous pictures and similar inventions
for mocking, abusing, and ridiculing
the things of the Holy Catholic
Church, in order to teach the false
doctrine to the illiterate and ignorant ?"
The painter attempted, vainly, to
cite the precedent of Michelangelo
who at Rome in the Pontifical Chapel
has painted-"with little reverence"–
Jesus, his holy Mother, John, Peter
and the Court of Heaven, all of them
naked. The answer was that in the
Last Judgment there was no need of
painting clothes, "and in those figures
there is nothing that is not spiritual,
and there are no jesters, dogs, weap–
ons, or such like buffooneries".. ..
"And do you presume, on account
of this or of any other example, that
you have done right in painting in
the way it is? And do you intend
to
defend yourself pleading that the pic–
ture is quite right and proper?"
No, Veronese did not attempt,
to defend it, although he added
that "I thought 1 was doing
right. . . ." The decision of the
Tribunal was that the painter
should be required and obliged to
correct and amend the picture in
question at his own expense with–
in three months.
The alterations were carried out
only in part. The "bleeding nose"
was deleted. But the dog re–
mained, with the dwarf, the par–
rot, and the German halberdiers.
The title was changed to
Supper
in the House of Levi.
And this
is
the point of what 1
have been trying to say: the pic–
ture hangs today in the Academy
of Venice. One wonders whether
in the struggle for cultural free–
dom today it will be the picture
-or the artist-who will hang.
Melvin
J.
Lasky
LIBERAL PRESS, INC.
printers of
PARTISAN REVIEW
•
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AVENUE
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