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Course: Europe 1300 - 1800 > Unit 4
Lesson 9: Venice- Greek painters in renaissance Venice
- The Renaissance Synagogues of Venice
- Giorgione, The Tempest
- Giorgione, The Tempest
- Giorgione, Three Philosophers
- Giorgione, the Adoration of the Shepherds
- Bellini and Titian, the Feast of the Gods
- Titian, Pastoral Concert
- Titian, Noli me Tangere
- Titian, Assumption of the Virgin
- Titian, Madonna of the Pesaro Family
- Titian, Bacchus and Ariadne
- Titian, Isabella d’Este (Isabella in Black)
- Titian, two portraits of Pietro Aretino
- Titian, Venus of Urbino
- Titian, Venus of Urbino
- Titian's Venus of Urbino
- Titian, Christ Crowned with Thorns
- Titian, Pieta
- Correggio, Jupiter and Io
- Correggio, Assumption of the Virgin
- Veronese, The Family of Darius Before Alexander
- Veronese, the Dream of Saint Helena
- Paolo Veronese. Feast in the House of Levi
- Transcript of the trial of Veronese
- Tintoretto, the Miracle of the Slave
- Tintoretto, The Finding of the Body of Saint Mark
- Tintoretto, the Origin of the Milky Way
- Tintoretto, Last Supper
- Palladio, La Rotonda
- Palladio, Teatro Olimpico
- The Renaissance in Venice in the 1500s
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Paolo Veronese. Feast in the House of Levi
Paolo Veronese, Feast in the House of Levi, 1573, oil on canvas, 18 feet 3 inches x 42 feet, Accademia, Venice Speakers: Dr. Beth Harris and Dr. Steven Zucker. Created by Beth Harris and Steven Zucker.
Want to join the conversation?
- How long (on average) would it take an artist to paint one of these figures with this kind of detail and realism? How about one of those columns or any of the other major parts of the painting?(13 votes)
- Hi Ari, Its hard to say. The actual execution of a particular figure might be fairly quick assuming everything was in order - his assistants where prompt, the necessary pigments were available and properly ground, the light was good...(12 votes)
- Saying he was questioned by the Inquisition sounds really intimidating. But would it be correct to say that, even though it sounds extremely dangerous, the artist was in very little, if any, danger of being tortured or executed?(10 votes)
- Historians have noted over the years that Veronese was actually protected, at least to some extent, because of the power dynamic between the Church in Rome and the zealously guarded autonomy of the Venetian State. In other words, the power that the inquisition wielded in Venice may have been limited.(14 votes)
- The figure you identify as St. Peter seems to be dressed as a Cardinal. Peter was, of course the first Pope. Would it be correct to say that, since Jesus is alive in the painting, Peter's costume symbolizes the fact that the future Pope was outranked and that he would have to wear the red Cardinal's hat until his master passed the leadership on to him? (And that most future popes are cardinals).(4 votes)
- Peter is wearing orange with a blue cloth over his right shoulder. and if you look closely here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/profzucker/8660150225/in/photostream
you can see Peter sits right beside Christ, carving what appears to be a leg of lamb. The bigger point you raise is important, the mix of ancient with contemporary figures.(4 votes)
- I recently saw this painting in Venice and was surprised to see a partial disembodied arm on the table in the right section and above it what looked to me like a platter with a very foreshortened head on it. Can you explain this to me?(3 votes)
- It is very interesting learning about this artwork, my question is how I can find the LINE and the perspective in the piece?(1 vote)
- Be specific, and add a timestamp or section.(1 vote)
Video transcript
(lively music) Male voiceover: We're in the Academy of The Great Fine Arts Museum in Venice. And we're looking at a
massive painting by Veronese, one of the most important Venetian artists of the 16th century. This is the Feast in the House of Levi. Female voiceover: Except it's not really, because it originally, was meant to be and I supposed it still is, a Last Supper but its title got changed. But you may not even know
it was the Last Supper because it's hard to find the
Last Supper in this painting. Male voiceover: True. First of all, there are
tremendous number of figures and the architecture is so imposing. It's so grand. The specific event being rendered
is almost completely lost. Female voiceover: And it
really does seem as though Veronese so enjoyed painting
all of these figures around Chris and the Apostles, much more than he was interested in the spiritual moment
of the Last Supper. He's got dozens of figures
drinking and cavorting, welcoming others, serving
people, entertaining and in fact, when Veronese
described his profession, he said, "I paint and composed figures." and you can just see the
pleasure he had in painting so many different kinds of figures, involved in so many
different kinds of actions. Male voiceover: Even the most sacred, even the most important spiritual figures, are engaged in an action. Look at Christ, He's just
turning to the figure at his left, as Saint Peter
who is to his right seems to be carving a piece
of lamb to pass it over These are the actions of real people. Female voiceover: And
they're real people having that Last Supper in the space
just inside this loggia. So, we're looking at a three-part painting that might remind us of a
triptych with three arches and in the space between the
front row (chuckles) of arches and the second row of arches,
we see the Last Supper. but in front, we have figures from Venice (chuckles) in the 16th century. They're dressed like
contemporary Venetians. Male voiceover: We're seeing
the cosmopolitan nature that was the Venetian City state. Venice traded across the
Mediterranean East and West. They traded North and
so, here we have Germans on the right side of the painting, Patricians, we have people wearing turbans on the left side of the painting. Venice is this intersection. This place where the world meets. Female voiceover: Clearly
a sense of enourmous wealth and privilege here. In some ways, it does
just look like a banquet and not a Last Supper. Male voiceover: That's what
concerned the Inquisition. Veronese was painting during the period that we know as the Reformation and the Counter-Reformation. There were people,
especially in Northern Europe that were beginning to question
the church and its authority. Female voiceover: Particularly,
the role of images in the church and there was a concern that images have a certain decorum, have a certain propriety
and not distract the viewer. Male voiceover: Images played
a really important role in what we call the Counter-Reformation. The attempt by the Catholic Church to re-energize itself to deal
with some of the corruption that had weakened it but
to really forcefully, push forward Catholicism. Female voiceover: And
art was key to doing that and if you have art that's got lot of fun
things (chuckles) to look at and it's distracting and
doesn't help you focus on meditating on the spiritual moment or the devotional image that's depicted then art is not in the
service of the church. Male voiceover: So, the
Inquisition called the Tribunal where the artist was called to answer to what were considered a very
serious lapse of judgment. It's interesting to note that the church that commissioned the painting seems to have been fine with the final product but the Inquisition was not. Female voiceover: They
questioned the artist and they asked him what the
various apostles are doing and they said, "Did anyone
commission you to paint Germans, "buffoons and similar
things in that picture? "Who's responsible for this? "Are you responsible for
the ridiculous extravagance "of this painting?" Male voiceover: And Veronese's
response is interesting. He says, "The artist has the
kind of license that a poet has, "that this is from his imagination." He was given a very
large painting to paint and he needed to fill it with figures. Female voiceover: Well, that's right. He said, "I received the
commission to decorate the picture "as I saw fit. It is
large and it seemed to me, "it could hold many figures." Male voiceover: What the
Inquisition had originally demanded, was that some of the figures, specifically, the dog be changed but Veronese said, "No." Instead, what he was going to do, was simply change the title and so, it went from being a Last Supper to Feast in the House of Levi. Female voiceover: And
apparently, that satisfied the Tribunal, it satisfied the church, it satisfied the artist
at least to some extent in order to preserve his reputation. It occurs to me that when
Leonardo painted the Last Supper, it was so much about removing
everything that wasn't necessary to portraying in an emotionally,
spiritually powerful way this moment when Christ said,
"One of you will betray me." and when Christ said, "Take
this bread for this is my body. "Take this wine, this is
my blood and remember me." This critical moment for
the church and the creation of the Sacrament of the Eucharist. And Leonardo distilled that but Veronese exploded it and put it back into our world and to get out of that timeless world that Leonardo had putted in. Male voiceover: That's right. There is all the chaos of
people paying attention to all the different kinds of things, the way that a dinner party takes place. There is a kind of truth
here that is different from the kind of truth
that Leonardo presented. Female voiceover: Did you
see the cat under the table? Male voiceover: (laughs) Yes. Male voiceover: (laughs) Oh, that's great. Male voiceover: Maybe hoping
for some of that lamb. Female voiceover: And the
dog is watching the cat. It's filled with anecdote that really does distract
from that message. On the other hand, you're right. Maybe it makes that message
all the more palpable by embedding it in the reality
of Venice in the 16th century. (lively music)