bably
not very much alarmed. He was a person of great importance in Venice,
and the proceedings of the Inquisition were always jealously watched
by members of the Senate, who would not have permitted any unfair
interference with the liberties of those under the protection of the
State. The real offence was the introduction of the German soldiers, who
were peculiarly obnoxious to the Venetians; but Veronese did not care
what the subject was as long as it gave him an excuse for a great
_spectacle_. Brought to bay, he gave the true answer: "My Lords, I have
not considered all this. I was far from wishing to picture anything
disorderly. I painted the picture as it seemed best to me and as my
intellect could conceive of it." It meant that Veronese painted in the
way that he considered most artistic, without even remembering questions
of religion, and in this he summed up his whole aesthetic creed. He was
set at liberty on condition that he took out one or two of the most
offending figures. The "Feast in the House of Levi" (as he named it
after the trial) is the finest of all his great scenic effects. The air
circulates freely through the white architecture, we breathe more deeply
as we look out into the wide blue sky, and such is the sensation of
expansion, that it is hardly possible to believe we are gazing at a flat
wall. Titian's backgrounds are a blue horizon, a burning twilight.
Veronese builds marble palaces, with rosy shadows, or columns blanched
in the liquid light. His personages show little violent action. He
places them in noble poses in which they can best show off their
magnificent clothes, and he endows his patricians, his goddesses, his
sacred persons, with a uniform air of majestic indolence.

After his "trial," Veronese proceeded more triumphantly than ever. Every
prince wished to have something from his brush; the Emperor Rudolph, at
Prague, showed with pride the canvases taken later by Gustavus Adolphus.
The Duke of Modena, carrying on the traditions of Ferrara, added
Veronese's works to the treasures of the house of Este. The last ten
years of his life were given up to visiting churches on the mainland and
on the little islands round Venice, all covetous to possess something by
the brilliant Veronese, whose name was in every mouth. Torcello, Murano,
Treviso, Castelfranco, every convent and monastery loaded him with
commissions, and it is significant of the spirit of the time, that in
spite of the disappro