Image Details

Scala/Art Resource, N.Y.

Paolo Veronese’s 18- by 42-foot masterpiece is called “The Feast in the House of Levi”—a reference to the famous banquet of tax collectors and sinners described in Luke 5. But the central section of this late-16th-century painting looks more like a Last Supper, with Jesus surrounded by his disciples. And, in truth, that’s what Veronese set out to paint. His unusual take on the biblical event was deemed irreverent and heretical by the church’s highest court, the Inquisition. Only by changing the title could he save face (and his painting).