Feast in the house of Levi Video

http://smarthistory.khanacademy.org/veroneses-feast-in-the-house-of-levi.html

This video does a great job of contextualizing "Feast in the House of Levi" by Veronese.

I particularly enjoyed their discussion of the architecture as "imposing". I didn't think of this before, but now I can see that the architecture is just as distracting from the biblical scene as the numerous figures surrounding Christ. Although Christ is indeed centered within the architecture, there is little to no effort to differentiate this spiritual moment from the rest of the earthy revelry.

I also enjoyed the comparison of this piece to Leonardo's "Last Supper".  Leonardo uses hierarchy of scale and a minimalistic approach to assert Christ as the most important person at the table as well as eliminating anything that isn't necessary to depicting spirituality. While Leonardo depicts a timeless spirituality, Veronese painted the figures in contemporary Venetian clothing. Veronese attempted to bring the this scene into contemporary reality, making it more palatable for real people.

While the church this piece was commissioned for was thoroughly satisfied with the piece, the greater Catholic church was not impressed. Veronese was brought before an Inquisition where officials asked him questions regarding the content of the piece.The apostles are shown serving up their plates and looking around in mortal preoccupation.  Everyone in the piece is distracted, even the animals, who shouldn't be there as per Reformation standards.

During this time it was thought that religious art needed to have a certain piety and spirituality. If anything distracted form that spirituality, it wasn't of service to the church. The officials asked him to remove some figures, namely the dog. Veronese refused and simply changed the name of the piece to "Feast in the House of Levi" This served to appease the Catholic church and preserve Veronese's reputation.