nown French portrait, and
No. 198, an old lady, by Mor.

Sala VII is Venetian again, the best picture being Romanino's
"Deposition," No. 737. An unknown treatment of Christ in the house of
Martha and Mary, No. 152, is quaint and interesting. Mary is very
comely, with long fair hair. Martha, not sufficiently resentful, lays
the table.

In Room VIII we again go north and again are among pictures that must be
cleaned if we are to see them.

And then we come to Room IX and some masterpieces. The largest picture
here is Paul Veronese's famous work, "Jesus in the House of Levi," of
which I give a reproduction opposite page 176. Veronese is not a great
favourite of mine; but there is a blandness and aristocratic ease and
mastery here that are irresistible. As an illustration of scripture it
is of course absurd; but in Venice (whose Doges, as we have seen, had so
little humour that they could commission pictures in which they were
represented on intimate terms with the Holy Family) one is accustomed to
that. As a fine massive arrangement of men, architecture, and colour, it
is superb.

It was for painting this picture as a sacred subject--or rather for
subordinating sacred history to splendid mundane effects--that the
artist was summoned before the Holy Office in the chapel of S. Theodore
on July 8, 1573. At the end of Ruskin's brief _Guide to the Principal
Pictures in the Academy of Fine Arts at Venice_, a translation of the
examination is given. Reading it, one feels that Veronese did not come
out of it too well. Whistler would have done better. I quote a little.

_Question._ Do you know the reason why you have been summoned?

_Answer._ No, my lord.

_Q._ Can you imagine it?

_A._ I can imagine it.

_Q._ Tell us what you imagine.

_A._ For the reason which the Reverend Prior of SS. Giovanni and
Paolo, whose name I know not, told me that he had been here, and
that your illustrious lordships had given him orders that I should
substitute the figure of the Magdalen for that of a dog; and I
replied that I would willingly have done this, or anything else for
my own credit and the advantage of the picture, but that I did not
think the figure of the Magdalen would be fitting or would look
well, for many reasons, which I will always assign whenever the
opportunity is given me.

_Q._ What picture is that which you have named?

_A._ It is the