The Last Supper
Paolo Galliari Veronese (1528-1588)
1573, oil on canvas, 18 × 42 feet
Gallerie dell’Accademia, Venice

On July 18th, 1573 Paolo Veronese was hauled before the Inquisition at Venice for questioning about his recently completed Last Supper.
Q: What is your profession?

A: I make and paint figures.

Q: Do you know the reasons why you have been called here?

A: No.

Q: Can you imagine what those reasons might be?

A: I can imagine, of course.

Q: Say what you imagine about them.

A: Your lordships had ordered the Prior of the Convent to have a Magdalen painted in the picture [of the Lord’s Last Supper] instead of the dog. I told him that I would do anything for my honor and that of the painting, but that I did not see how a figure of Magdalen would be suitable there.

Q:  What is the picture to which you have been referring?

A: It is the picture which represents the Last Supper of Jesus Christ with His disciples in the house of Simon.

Q:  How many have you represented? And what is each one doing?

A: First there is the innkeeper, Simon; then, under him, a carving squire whom I supposed to have come there for his pleasure, to see how the service of the table is managed. There are many other figures which I cannot remember, however, as it is a long time since I painted that picture.

Q: What is the significance of the man whose nose is bleeding? And those armed men dressed as Germans?

A: I intended to represent a servant whose nose is bleeding because of some accident. We painters take the same license as poets and I have represented two soldiers, one drinking and the other eating on the stairs, because I have been told that the owner of the house was rich and would have such servants.

Q: What is Saint Peter doing?

A: Carving the lamb to pass it to the other end of the table.

Q: And the one next to him?

A: He has a fork and picks his teeth with it.

Q: Did anyone commission you to paint Germans, buffoons, and similar things in your picture?

A: No, my lords, but to decorate the space.

Q: Are not the added decorations to be suitable?

A: I paint pictures as I see fit and as well as my talent permits.

Q: Do you not know that in Germany and other places infected with heresy, pictures mock and scorn the things of the Holy Catholic Church in order to teach bad doctrine to the ignorant?

A: Yes, that is wrong, but I repeat that I am bound to follow what my superiors in art have done.

Q: What have they done?

A: Michelangelo in Rome painted the Lord, His Mother, St. John, St. Peter, and the Heavenly Host in the nude - even the Virgin Mary, and in various attitudes not inspired by the most profound religious feeling.



These things having been said, the judges pronounced that the aforesaid Paolo should be obliged to correct his picture within the space of three months from the date of the reprimand, according to the judgments and decision of the Sacred Court, and altogether at the expense of the said Paolo.


Et ita decreverunt omni melius modo. (And so they decided everything for the best) 



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Veronese repainted exactly zero figures and changed the name of the Painting