Feast in the House of Simon: Veronese FROM THE PUBLISHER
Painted for the refectory of the convent of Santa Maria dei Servi in 1570-3, The Feast in the House of Simon was presented to Louis XIV by the Most Serene Republic of Venice in 1664, as a token of friendship between the two states. But it was not until 1730, during the reign of Louis XV, that this great masterpiece was to find a setting worthy of it in the Salon d'Hercule at Versailles, for which Francois Le Moyne painted a ceiling decoration a l'italienne, unique in France, using a light, luminous and sensual palette in an explicit tribute to Venetian painting.
Despite a major restoration in 1948 and two later superficial cleanings, the painting was obscured, notably by thick varnishes, and required a radical intervention. This process, started in 1994 and finished this year, was carried out by the Service de restauration des musees de France with the scientific assistance of the Laboratoire de recherche. Seventeen experts have contributed essays documenting the "resurrection" of this masterpiece by Veronese.
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