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_]

Veronese has in this room also an "Annunciation," No. 260, in which the
Virgin is very mature and solid and the details are depressingly dull.
The worst Tuscan "Annunciation" is, one feels, better than this. The
picture of S. Mark and his lion, No. 261, is better, and in 261a we
find a good vivid angel, but she has a terrific leg. The Tintorettos
include the beautiful grave picture of the Madonna and Child giving a
reception to Venetian Senators who w