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A masterpiece of the Venetian Renaissance, Paolo Veronese’s Feast in the House of Levi is a monumental canvas measuring an astonishing 12 by 42 feet. Painted in 1573 for the refectory of the Dominican convent of Santi Giovanni e Paolo, it stands among the most ambitious creations of 16h-century Venice—a work in which architecture, theater, and painting merge into a dazzling display of artistic invention and civic magnificence.

The history of the painting is inseparable from that of the space for which it was created. The convent’s original refectory occupied the ground floor, but a devastating fire in 1572 destroyed much of the building, including a Last Supper by Titian. Reconstruction began almost immediately, and a new refectory was established on the upper floor. It was for this rebuilt hall that Veronese painted his vast canvas, conceived not simply as a decoration but as an integral extension of the room itself. Disaster struck again in 1697, yet Veronese’s painting survived remarkably intact. The refectory was subsequently rebuilt and further renovated between 1746 and 1757 with new ceilings, terrazzo flooring, walnut panelling, and other architectural refinements. Its final 18th-century appearance is preserved in Francesco Guardi’s Pope Pius VI Descending the Throne to Take Leave of the Doge in the Hall of SS. Giovanni e Paolo (1783), offering a rare glimpse of the setting in which generations of friars dined beneath Veronese’s masterpiece.

In devising the composition, Veronese transformed the biblical feast into a grand theatrical spectacle. Dominating the scene are three monumental arches, likely inspired by Andrea Palladio’s architectural experiments and the multiple-focus arcade later realized in the Teatro Olimpico, Vicenza. The banquet unfolds within a vast frontal setting—a “maestoso teatro,” as Carlo Ridolfi would later describe it in 1648.

The composition is organized according to three illusionistic levels derived from contemporary stage design. The first is the proscenium, where twin stairways mediate between the viewer’s world and the sacred realm of the painting. The second is the stage itself, where the feast takes place beneath the shadow of the monumental triple loggia. The third is the backdrop, visible through the arches, where an expansive cityscape stretches into the distance. Rendered with deliberately inconsistent perspectives, the palaces and architectural fragments in the background evoke the ancient periaktoi—rotating triangular prisms used in classical theater to create changing scenery and dramatic visual effects. Through this sophisticated interplay of architecture and illusion, Veronese transformed the refectory wall into a stage on which sacred history unfolds with extraordinary vitality.

Yet for all its grandeur, the painting has remained an enigma. Few works of the Renaissance have generated as much debate about their subject, and the controversy began almost immediately after its completion. In 1573, the Venetian Inquisition summoned Veronese to explain what it regarded as the indecorous nature of the composition—above all the presence, within a supposed Last Supper, of “buffoons, drunkards, dwarfs, German soldiers, and other such scurrilities.” At the conclusion of the hearing, the painter was instructed to alter the painting. Rather than repaint the canvas, Veronese adopted a more ingenious solution: he simply changed its title. By renaming the picture The Feast in the House of Levi, he transformed the scene into a different biblical banquet, one in which such an extravagant cast of characters could be more readily justified.

The new title, however, did not resolve the question. If anything, it opened a debate that continues to this day. While the traditional identification as a Last Supper was clearly problematic—not least because the twelve apostles are difficult to distinguish amid the bustling crowd—scholars have proposed a variety of alternative interpretations. Some have identified the scene as the Feast in the House of Simon, although the absence of Mary Magdalene raises difficulties. Others have argued for the Feast in the House of the Pharisee, linking the composition to Christ’s condemnation of the scribes and Pharisees. The richness and ambiguity of the image have ensured that no single interpretation has achieved universal acceptance.

Whatever its precise subject, the painting remains remarkable for its resistance to fixed definitions. Veronese created an image so expansive and inventive that it transcends the boundaries of any single biblical episode. In this sense, the Feast in the House of Levi stands as a testament to the artistic freedom the painter famously defended before the Inquisition, when he claimed for painters “the same license as poets and fools.” His response remains one of the earliest and most eloquent affirmations of creative independence in the history of Western art.

Housed at the Conservation Archives of the Gallerie dell’Accademia is an extraordinary record of Veronese’s Feast in the House of Levi: infrared photographs, radiographic plates, and 79 historical paint samples gathered during restoration campaigns in 1968 and 1980. Together, these materials reveal a painting still full of secrets—architectural revisions, altered compositions, and even the disappearance of an entire foreground figure—offering a rare glimpse into Veronese’s creative process. Nearly sixty years after the first diagnostic campaigns, the project will re-examine the painting using today’s most advanced technologies, unlocking new insights into Veronese’s technique while shaping the future preservation of one of the greatest masterpieces of the Venetian Renaissance.

At the center of the initiative is the re-examination of the paint samples using cutting-edge analytical tools capable of identifying pigments, binders, and materials with unprecedented precision. At the same time, a new campaign of multispectral imaging—including infrared photography—will uncover hidden underdrawings, compositional changes, and layers invisible to the naked eye, bringing audiences closer than ever to Veronese’s hand, imagination, and working method. More than a testing project, this is an opportunity to rediscover how one of the defining masterpieces of Renaissance Venice was created.

Paolo Veronese (1528 – 1588)
The Feast in the House of Levi
1573, oil on canvas
560 x 1309 cm

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Rosand, David. Paolo Veronese. Frank, Mary E. (ed.). London-Turnhout: Harvey Miller Publisher, 2023, pp. 129-175

Salomon, Xavier F. Veronese. London: National Gallery Company, 2014, pp. 17-22

Vescovo, Piermario. Ut theatrum picturam: Veronese’s Stages. In Paolo Veronese, 1528-1588. Dal Pozzolo, Enrico Maria and Miguel Falomir (eds.), Exhibition catalogue (Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado, 5 May – 21 September 2025). Madrid: Museo Nacional del Prado, 2025, pp. 196-211