_A._ He is cutting up a lamb, to send to the other end of the table. _Q._ What is he doing who is next to him? _A._ He is holding a plate to receive what St. Peter will give him. _Q._ Tell us what he is doing who is next to this last? _A._ He is using a fork as a tooth-pick. _Q._ Who do you really think were present at that supper? _A._ I believe Christ and His Apostles were present; but in the foreground of the picture I have placed figures for ornament, of my own invention. _Q._ Were you commissioned by any person to paint Germans and buffoons, and such-like things in this picture? _A._ No, my lord; my commission was to ornament the picture as I judged best, which, being large, requires many figures, as it appears to me. _Q._ Are the ornaments that the painter is in the habit of introducing in his frescoes and pictures suited and fitting to the subject and to the principal persons represented, or does he really paint such as strike his own fancy without exercising his judgment or his discretion? _A._ I design my pictures with all due consideration as to what is fitting, and to the best of my judgment. _Q._ Does it appear to you fitting that at our Lord's last supper you should paint buffoons, drunkards, Germans, dwarfs, and similar indecencies? _A._ No, my lord. _Q._ Why, then, have you painted them? _A._ I have done it because I supposed that these were not in the place where the supper was served.... _Q._ And have your predecessors, then, done such things? _A._ Michel-Angelo, in the Papal Chapel in Rome, has painted our Lord Jesus Christ, His mother, St. John and St. Peter, and all the Court of Heaven, from the Virgin Mary downwards, all naked, and in various attitudes, with little reverence. _Q._ Do you not know that in a painting like the Last Judgment, where drapery is not supposed, dresses are not required, and that disembodied spirits only are represented; but there are neither buffoons, nor dogs, nor armour, nor any other absurdity? And does it not appear to you that neither by this nor any other example you have done right in painting the picture in this manner, and that it can be proved right and decent? _A._ Illustrious lord, I do not defend it; but I thought I was doing right.... The result was that the painter was ordered to amend the picture, within the month, at his own expense; but he does not seem to have done so. There are two dogs and no Magdalen. The dwarf and the parrot are there still. Under the table is a cat. [Illustration: THE FEAST IN THE HOUSE OF LEVI FROM THE PAINTING BY VERONESE _In the Accademia_]