By coincidence I printed this for something so I thought I'd bring it to the discussion..
Paulo Veronese's "Feast at the House of Levi"
This fucking thing is 5.5 x 13 meters!!
He was brought to the inquisition as a heretic for the controversial adding of the other folks in the scene..
Q. In this Supper which you painted for San Giovanni e Paolo, what signifies the figure of him whose nose is bleeding?
A. He is a servant who has a nose-bleed from some accident.
Q. What signify those armed men dressed in the fashion of Germany, with halberds in their hands?
A. It is necessary here that I should say a score of words.
Q. Say them.
A. We painters use the same license as poets and madmen, and I represented those halberdiers, the one drinking, the other eating at the foot of the stairs, but both ready to do their duty, because it seemed to me suitable and possible that the master of the house, who as I have been told was rich and magnificent, would have such servants.
Q. And the one who is dressed as a jester with a parrot on his wrist, why did you put him into the picture?
A. He is there as an ornament, as it is usual to insert such figures.
Q. Who are the persons at the table of Our Lord?
A. The twelve apostles.
Q. What is Saint Peter doing, who is the first?
A. He is carving the lamb in order to pass it to the other part of the table.
Q. What is he doing who comes next?
A. He holds a plate to see what Saint Peter will give him.
Q. Tell us what the third is doing.
A. He is picking his teeth with a fork.
Q. And who are really the persons whom you admit to have been present at this Supper?
A. I believe that there was only Christ and His Apostles; but when I have some space left over in a picture I adorn it with figures of my own invention."
I love the gall to be so sarcastic at your own Inquisition!
Some space? The damn thing is enormous! You have to have a wicked sense of humor to paint such an obnoxious and heretical painting for the Monsignor or a prestigious monastery.. I almost feel that he made the thing that big JUST so he could paint all those 'heretical' figures and give such a facetious explanation as to say that you painted them to fill in the extra space.. The hell you say!