The Feast in the House of Levi

The Feast in the House of Levi by Veronese at the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool is related to — and perhaps preparatory to — his most famous and controversial painting, the vast 1573 canvas now in the Gallerie dell'Accademia that was originally titled 'The Last Supper.' When the Inquisition summoned Veronese in 1573 to explain why his painting included dwarfs, drunken German soldiers, a dog, and a parrot alongside Christ and the apostles, his response — that painters had the same license as poets and madmen — was both defiant and pragmatic; he simply retitled the work 'Feast in the House of Levi' rather than modifying it. The Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool, one of the finest regional art museums in Britain, holds this related work alongside a significant collection of Italian paintings that reflects the city's historic prosperity from Atlantic and Mediterranean trade.

The feast composition deploys Veronese's signature architectural framework — grand classical arches and columns — to create a spacious stage for the banquet scene. The brilliant chromatic range and the varied poses and interactions of the numerous figures demonstrate his supreme gift for organizing complex multi-figure compositions into harmonious, legible wholes.