Artribune Podcast Explores Paolo Veronese's Inquisition Trial

The latest episode of "Storie dell'Arte," an artcrime podcast produced by Mosè Previti for Artribune, delves into the 1573 trial of Paolo Veronese before the Tribunal of the Holy Inquisition in Venice. Veronese was accused of populating his painting of the Last Supper—later renamed "The Feast in the House of Levi"—with buffoons, dwarfs, drunken Germans, and animals, deemed too irreverent for a sacred scene. The podcast examines whether Veronese acted on his own creative freedom or followed the demands of his patrons, the Dominicans of San Zanipolo. The episode uses the trial as a lens to explore 16th-century Venice, a cosmopolitan capital amid the Reformation, Counter-Reformation, Turkish piracy, and shifting alliances. It highlights the interrogation as a key to deciphering the iconography of the masterpiece now housed at the Gallerie dell'Accademia in Venice. Each episode of the podcast starts from a documented event, weaving archival sources, court records, interviews, and testimonies with original synth-based music. The series is available on Artribune's website.