This work was commissioned as a replacement for Titian’s Last Supper which perished in a fire in 1571. It was painted by Veronese on the wall of the refectory in the Basilica di Santi Giovanni e Paolo. The church is one of the largest in Venice, where the funeral services of all of Venice's doges were held since the 15th century

The scene shows an ornate Roman architecture filled with human figures, among which are turban-wearing men, slaves, dwarfs, and German soldiers (who are likely Protestants) armed with halberds. These characters, along with cats and dogs, a jester with a parrot on his arm, and an Apostle picking his teeth with a fork, were regarded as inappropriate according to the new censorship law at the time

Three months after Veronese had finished this work, the Venetian Holy Tribunal summoned him to answer questions about elements deemed unfit for a depiction of the Last Supper

During the interrogation, Veronese was asked to explain why the painting contained "buffoons, drunken Germans, dwarfs and other such scurrilities" as well as extravagant costumes and settings, in what is a fantasy version of a Venetian patrician feast

Veronese defended by claiming that the canvas had a huge space to fill, thus the need to include all the figures. He also stated that these figures were at a good distance away from Christ, keeping them from tainting the image of the Last Supper

But the Holy Tribunal decided that Veronese had opened Catholicism up to censure from Protestants and ordered him to fix the painting within three months. Instead, he managed to get away by simply changing the title to The Feast in the House of Levi, an episode that is less doctrinally central. It has been speculated that the lenient treatment was because of the protection by a powerful patrician

The renamed title refers to a scene described in Luke 5:29-32

And Levi made him a great feast in his own house: and there was a great company of publicans and of others that sat down with them. But their scribes and Pharisees murmured against his disciples, saying, Why do ye eat and drink with publicans and sinners? And Jesus answering said unto them, They that are whole need not a physician; but they that are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance