The Feast in the House of Simon the Pharisee

Domenico Fiasella, known as Sarzana (Sarzana, La Spezia, 1589 – Genoa, 1669)
The Feast in the House of Simon the Pharisee
oil on canvas,1613
The Queen’s Chamber

The episode shown here is Christ’s meeting with a sinful woman, traditionally identified as Mary Magdalene, while dining in the house of the rich Pharisee Simon, as related in the Gospel of Luke. In his handling of light the artist displays significance knowledge of the work of Caravaggio and the artists active at the beginning of the 17th century in Rome, where he stayed to perfect his training between 1606 and 1616. The work displays evident signs of two additions revealed during restoration in 1986, one perhaps made in the late 18th-century, when it was hung in the Throne Room the other in the 19th, when it was moved to its present location to replace the David Corte’s copy of the painting of the same name by Paolo Veronese. This was in turn moved to the Veronese Room to take the place of the original when it was sent to Turin.