ABSTRACT
Paolo Veronese's six Feasts for monastic refectories demonstrate his mastery of narrative and response to the Council of Trent. The Venetian tradition of incidental detail was not allowed to distract from the central subject, even in the last of the series, the Feast in the House of Levi. The Feast in the House of Simon had formed a part of cycles devoted to the Magdalen on the basis of John 12:1–9. The theme of the Feast was revived in 1570 with Fra Bernardo Torlioni's commission, two years before his death, for The Feast in the House of Simon for the refectory of San Sebastiano. When Veronese referred to the Feast as a Last Supper the Inquisitor interjected 'in the house of Simon'. There were no further Feasts only the Last Supper painted at the commission of the Scuola del Sacramento, probably by 1583.
