A Painting on Trial · Paolo Valiari (Veronese)

A painting in progress Academy Gallery, Venice Food at Levi's house 1573 De Paolo Cagliari Veronese The scene at Levi's which occupies an entire wall of the Academy Gallery in Venice It was painted by Veronese between 1571 and 1573. Large-scale painting, measuring 13 meters 10 by 5 meters 50. Very balanced, adhering in its structure to classical compositional norms. All the characters are gathered in the lower third. of a rectangle of an unusual length. The arches of a gallery open toward the outside Cut the scene into three parts. Capitals, columns, constructions They are inspired by Andrea Palladio. the architect who at that time Remodel Venice, drawing inspiration from antiquity. Staircases with balustrades They reinforce symmetry and emphasize the effect of perspective. The vanishing lines of the perspectives converge on the character of Christ What occupies the center of the table. Christ is surrounded by Saint John, Saint Peter and other apostles. Facing them, Judas and Levi They occupy symmetrical positions with respect to the center of the table. Below the left arcade, Several apostles are surrounded by a crowd of servants. They serve wine, they pass the dishes. They bring the dishes toward the table. Below the right arcade, the rest of the banquet, other apostles, pages, servers, and soldiers. Among these main scenes, Two important figures in front of the columns. On the right, the dining hall supervisor or the cook in colorful clothes. On the left, a character in a green suit, Perhaps a self-portrait by Veronese. All groups are interconnected. by the gesture or the look. Some characters are grafted into other characters. Secondary scenes fit into the main scene. Despite the abundance of characters, The entire composition shows that it is about the dinner. the last meal that Christ took with his disciples, one of the episodes in the New Testament more represented by the painters. Veronese had already become famous for painting other meals, like the weddings of Cana, the food of those from Simon or the dinner of Saint Gregory. These fabrics were generally entrusted to religious orders to decorate the refectories of convents. The monks then had under their eyes while they were eating, a memory of the sacrament of the Eucharist. The specific formats were determined by the architecture of the places to whom the fabrics were intended. For the Benedictine monastery of San Jorge Mayor, Veronese had painted the Wedding at Cana in 1563. The painting, today in the Museum of Lourdes, It was for a long time the pride of the monastery. Similarly, Veronese painted this painting to replace a scene by Titian destroyed in 1571 in the fire at the refectory of the Dominican convent Saint John and Saint Paul, convent today integrated into the buildings of the Venice Hospital The chronicles state that the soldiers were lodged through this convent, perhaps during the course of a drunken stupor, They would have set fire to the refectory. which was completely destroyed. A monk, Father Andrea de Buoni, here represented gather various offerings And he entrusted Veronese with a new painting. The sum is modest. for the price of a portrait, But the painter agrees. The scenes obey until then a very minimalist model What would Leonardo da Vinci have coded in Milan? The moment chosen is the one in which Christ declares One of you will betray me. Several of the apostles express their astonishment. Judas makes a gesture of recoil. Veronese completely transforms the space and the spirit of the scene. Of the 15 traditional characters Go up to about 50. He stages a grand Venetian-style banquet. where it gathers characters richly dressed and festive. Finish your painting and hands it over to the Dominican convent April 20, 1573 Three months later He is summoned by the tribunal of the Inquisition. Summoned to the Holy Office before the sacred tribunal, Master Paul Cagliari, Veronese, who lived in the parish of Saint Samuel, He has inquired about his last name and first name. Answer as shown below. I paint and make figures. Do you have knowledge of the reasons? for which he has been called? No, sir. Can you imagine what those reasons might be? The prior of the convent of Saints John and Paul He declared that he had come here. and may it please Your Illustrious Lordships He had been entrusted with carrying out the execution in the painting. a muffin instead of a dog. And I replied to him that with great willingness I would do whatever needed to be done. By my honor and by the honor of the regiment, but he didn't understand what he could do here That figure of the Magdalene. In this scene that you have made for Saint John and Saint Paul What does the figure of that one mean? What causes nosebleeds? It is a server that any accident whatsoever It makes him bleed from the nose. What do those armed people mean? and dressed in the fashion of Germany What holds the halberds? Here I need to say about 20 words. Tell them. We, the painters, We take the licenses what poets and madmen take And I made these halberdiers, One drinking, the other eating under a staircase All ready, moreover, to fulfill their services, Well, it seemed convenient and possible to me. that the master of the house, rich and magnificent, according to what I have been told, should have such servers. And that jester's dress with a parrot on the wrist, What effect have you represented it as having? in this painting? As an ornament, sir, according to custom. At the table of our Lord, Who are the ones who are present? The twelve apostles. What does Saint Peter do, What is the first one? Cut the lamb to make it go through on the other side of the table. What does the one behind do? The teeth came loose. with a small fork. Who are they really the people whom you admit Have you attended this dinner? I think they weren't there more than Christ and His apostles, but when in a painting I have space left, I decorate it with figures, just as it comes to me according to my creativity. Do you find it convenient? at the Last Supper of our Lord to portray clowns drunk Germans weapons, dwarves and other nonsense? But no. Why has he painted them You then? I've done it assuming Who are those people? They are out of place. where the dinner was held. Don't you know that in Germany and other infested places heresy They have the habit, with their paintings full of needs, to belittle and ridicule the things of the holy Catholic Church to teach the false doctrine to the ignorant people unprovided Of good sense? I agree that it's wrong. but I say again what I have said What is a duty for me Follow the examples What they have given me my elders I hadn't taken in consideration So many things. I had been away of imagining a disorder so big, the more so that I have put these clowns out of place where is it located Our Lord. Having been said those things, The judges have pronounced What's your opinion, Paul? should correct and fix his painting in the space three months a date of the day of the reprimand and that according to discretion and the decision the Holy Tribunal at one's own expense the said Paul. But Veronese He did not correct anything. Added negligently a double inscription He found a minor episode of the Gospel of Saint Luke what account A big meal was made. About Levi's. Simon has become Levi and the Last Supper It has become food About Levi's part. Strange process. First, why the Inquisition He was heading toward a painter whose celebrity It was immense. Then, why this Roman Inquisition It didn't have much power. In Venice where he could not act more than in presence of representatives of the civilian government. Therefore, The process was not disclosed. It was quickly forgotten and Veronese's race continued without any other political issue No religious person. Strange painting as well. It is the representation of the mystery of the Eucharist. The bread and the wine, symbols of the flesh and the blood of Christ They are present everywhere But the praise of the true He drinks wine on the stairs on the right hanging with the server It bleeds from the nose on the stairs from the left He is the character of Green. perhaps Veronese himself, the one that shows the bread and the wine and not to Christ. Those plates where they come to be located over their heads irresistibly attracts aureolas And even the parrot, presented in a scene religious in which Veronese I would normally paint rather to the dove of the Holy Spirit. It is unknown No image of the ateliers of the painters of the Renaissance. They should be there full of materials for the painting and also of the objects more diverse used as models. The colors of the painters at the end of the sixteenth century They were mostly about mineral pigments stones extracted of the mines of quarries and ground to a powder or in mortar. Thus, Veronese's palette may be composed for a dozen of minerals basic one. The pigment more abundant It is the target Del Vallalde, a lead carbonate almost always used in mixture with everyone other pigments Red pigment current, the hematite, an iron oxide what is involved in the composition of the Reds firmer. Another red, cinnabar a mercury sulfide crimson ink used in mixture for the flesh tones or for the garments. Red dyes orange-colored they are obtained with the Minho, an iron oxide or realgar, an arsenic sulfide The attire, whose name means gold pigment It is an arsenic sulfide. used for reflections of the yellow garments. The litargirium, a lead oxide, It is light yellow. more abundant from Veronese's palette. Azurite, a copper carbonate, a deep blue used only mixed with white from Vallalde. Lapis lazuli, a precious stone give me the blue one from overseas, Very strange at a meal at Levi's house This color very expensive abundance, on the contrary in mystical weddings of Saint Catherine Malachite, a copper carbonate, It is used by Veronese in the powders of grain more or less fine to obtain various shades of green. This pigment It is the origin of the famous Veronese green Veronese also used various common pigments to those he mixed. Red lacquer, violet lacquer, ochre oxide brown, brownish ochre yellow All the colors, all the textures, all effects of light, have been obtained by the simple mixture of those pigments basic Given its size no habitual the food at Levi's house needed the union of a large number pieces of fabric of linen Veronese carried out multiple sketches preparatory schools that, the majority of time, emptied into in a design general location of the architectures and the characters the painter was translating afterward on the fabric by a system of the squad From the food at Levi's house They are not known today more than sketches. But beneath of the paint layers it stands out, thanks to photography infrared the grid of location and the drawing. The linen cloth It was first soaked with a mixture animal cola and fine plaster, until the attainment of a surface United The drawing It was done charcoal or with the tip with a brush endued with brown ocher. The colors They were prepared. the linseed oil. Your application was done in the midst of dye from the first a touch of paint The characters They were painted in two times a clear layer what it formed the basis of the model and a darker one for the shadows. The various forms chiaroscuro They were obtained varying the proportions among light pigments the dark pigments. But Veronese I didn't use black and throughout the entire composition the light brushstrokes they mirrored the reflections of light. The analysis with X-rays shows that this character, inspired by the bust the Roman emperor Vitellius is entirely located from the earliest brushstrokes The slenderness from the layer and the technique pictorial style of Veronese They are very trendy. in evidence by the analysis of samples microscopic That's how it is how is it reflected over the shoulder the halberdier from the left light touches white of dawn yalde on the subject of the fund of Azurita. From left to the right white preparation of plaster and glue, azurite grains mixed with a little red lacquer and traces of white at dawn mixed with azurite. The reasons of the jacket the character in green From left to the right brown brands from the original drawing, green malachite grains with some remnants Azurite and the fine brushstroke yellowish jaundice. The shirt red rays the black server who goes up the stairs. Above of the preparation the plaster a layer of white at dawn and a thin layer from the theater the red lasso in which are distinguished some grains black coal and Azurita. The analysis in reflectography infrared shows a character what was found in front of Levy It was coated. Undoubtedly a deleted page by Veronese in order to rebalance the center of the painting Perhaps in relation with the disappearance the old man the position of the head Levy has been slightly modified They can still be seen the footprints below the background pale blue Therefore regrets They are very few in number. Some other refinements concerning to the position of the characters to the perspective of the constructions and from the columns. A Veronese He likes to saturate the space of characters and create groups of opposition. Behind the profile Levy regular arise A boring profile. Behind the gloomy Judas a gentle face like Leonardo da Vinci. And behind the pale cook An African face. The black one call the white one like the cat Call the dog. They meet again this system from the opposition in the treatment of the color. The sky and the architectures from the bottom They are treated in cool colors. On the contrary architectures in close-up They are treated in warm colors. This procedure emphasizes the illusion from the depths from the perspective of dada From afar The painting seems uniform ink quite neutral, slightly contrasting and of a notable homogeneity But when one It is approaching the details and the vibrant colors appear and thus one has then an impression of great diversity. However the food palette Levy's House It's quite simple. All tones they are obtained due to decrease of the base colors and the components colorados they balance out everywhere in the painting For example in the area from the balustrade a range of red and one in yellow they are doing counterpoint a range warm grays. With very few base colors has been obtained a variety very large of colored effects. But what makes it more notable the chromatic system Veronese It is the setting (of the sun) in opposition of the colors complementary The Two Greens from the layer the main character they oppose exactly to the two pinks of the bold. The system It's sometimes Even more complex. The blue of the garments of San Pedro is located between the bright yellow the character standing and the red of Levy. Now if they were mixed these two last colors one would obtain an orange What is the complementary? of the blue The colors from all of this central area Therefore, they are connected to each other and distributed in a way very rigorous in order to obtain the greatest luminosity The painting today at the gallery from the academy remained a long time in the refectory from San Juan and Saint Paul. In 1697 again a fire It devastates the convent. It is said a monk therefore there would be cut the fabric in three And I would have saved her pulling her out through the windows Restored the painting It is still there. Regarding the substance during a reception of the Pope in Venice What's the painting by Guardi? In 1786. Confiscated by the armies Napoleonic Food at home Levi 15 years old in the museum from the Louvre. Returned to Italy at the fall of the empire It is located in the ancient Convent of Charity. Transformed in gallery-museum from the academy to receive there the works of the painters Venetians At that time is added to the painting by Veronese a cornice what it seems prolong architectures graffiti From 1980 the restoration of the fabric was carried out in San Gregorio a Gothic church from Venice transformed in the restoration workshop of art objects. The defeated ancient what they were soldering the three great ones pieces of fabric were removed. Tears They were repaired. In the 19th century the restorers They had believed relevant repainting entire zones of the painting transforming completely the colors and their relationship. The sky in particular It had been repainted with modern pigments like Prussian blue and it had been given to him a pink dominant In the same way the garments or the faces of the characters had been placed To your liking for the day. To that had been added oxidation of the layers successive coats of varnish. Cleanings carried out during the campaign of restoration allowed to restore a sky closer to the original and over all the surface area of the fabric. The colors Veronese met again her purity. Afterwards of these operations the three panels were gathered and stuck together on a fabric support But taking advantage of the intervals between the parties corresponding to the losses that had suffered the cloth in the 17th century after his haircut and its adjustment approximate 8 centimeters on the left and 5 to the right. These missing parts have been able to afterwards be repainted based on in the copies or in the engravings of the painting executed before the fire For example In this photograph with grazing lighting It seems that the two of them are visible edges of the fabric had been carefully readjusted and that arm the cook had been reduced. The New Separation of the panels Restore the ratio exacta Similarly the suture on the left passed through of the jester. The restorers precedents had reinvented a bird's head serving oneself from the neck area of the character The Last Restoration has returned to the scene in its original form. They have been recovered likewise the edges of the painting what due to lack of space in the museum, They must have been folded against the frame. 9 centimeters to the right 8 to the left. For a long time It had been seen a meal at the Levy house reduced, yellowish, opaque, with falsified colors. It can be seen from now on the painting just as I had painted it Veronese For the general public Veronese has become especially a common name, the one of a color on the other hand Quite poorly defined. He has forgotten perhaps the decisive influence the painter has had on sensitivity Moderna the color through Tiepolo, Fragonard Delacroix O Renoir. Life of the man It is quite little known, but the work It's there, immense The frescoes Barbaro Villa in Marseille near Treviso Where is Veronese? Play and invent three centuries earlier Impressionist painting The paintings from the Church of San Sebastián the painter spent his life decorating And where is he buried? The paintings The Palace of the Dukes where he decorated various rooms at various stages of his career. Well, then, those numerous canvases since the 17th century European collectors they were pulled out at a price of gold. In the heart from this abundant production the food at Levy's house remains enigmatic. What is Judas looking at? What is Levy looking at? What does Saint Peter dream about? What can you say This green character What would Veronese be? What is a reflection after all It is nothing more than a trace. white on a background Of what color? That is to say that all art It's an illusion and this illusion of illusion? Or even if The true owner from home It is not always whoever thinks he is? And is it that at the end of the Renaissance Christ occupies well the center of the painting according to a classical principle but already He Move to the back plane Yes, he is the painter in person. Who is coming to take over the close-up from the scene