The Wedding at Cana
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| The Wedding at Cana |
| Paolo Veronese, 1563 |
| Oil on canvas |
| 666 × 990 cm |
| Louvre, Paris |
The Wedding at Cana (or The Wedding Feast at Cana) is a massive painting by the late-Renaissance or Mannerist Italian painter, Paolo Veronese. It is in the Louvre in Paris.
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[edit] History
The painting depicts the wedding feast at Cana, a miracle story from the Christian New Testament. In the story Jesus and his disciples were invited to a wedding celebration in Cana, Galilee. Towards the end of the feast, when the wine was running out, Jesus commanded servants to fill jugs with water, which he turned into wine (his first miracle of seven).
The piece was commissioned in 1562 by the Benedictine monastery of San Giorgio Maggiore in Venice, Italy), and completed in fifteen months by the year 1563. It hung 2.5 metres from the floor in the San Giorgio Maggiore monastery for 235 years, until it was plundered by Napoleon in 1797, and shipped to Paris. In the post-Napoleonic conciliation treaties which pursued some restitution of looted artworks, this was not returned, and in its stead, a feeble Charles Le Brun painting (now at Accademia) was shipped to Venice.
[edit] Painting Details
The scene depicts a mixture of contemporary and antique details. The architecture is classic Greco-Roman, a Doric and Corinthian columns surrounding an open courtyard walled by a low balustrade. In the distance stands a fanciful, arcaded tower. In the foreground, a group of musicians sits playing late Renaissance instruments (lutes and early strings). Tradition holds that the artist painted himself in this area, dressed in a white tunic and holding a viola da gamba, while Titian is seated opposite in red. The assembly is sumptuously dressed in a timeless finery, some with orientalized touches. Behind the musicians, Jesus and his mother (an elder woman in simple dress) are seated with halos. Jesus is perhaps the only one who impassively looks straight on at the observer. Above Jesus, on an elevated balcony or walkway, several men butcher the meat of an unidentified animal. To their right more meat is also being brought in.
Art critics generally think this animal is a lamb, considering Jesus is the sacrificed "Lamb of God", or Agnus Dei. The butchered lamb is therefore symbolic of his future sacrifice. Christ is placed directly under the blade. Towards the bottom left part of the picture, there is a man pouring wine from a huge, ornate jug. Next to him stands a man studying a glass of wine. On the right, a man is proffered wine by a dark-skinned boy. A dwarf holds a parrot. It should be noted that, though many of the characters in the painting are holding wine glasses, none appear to be intoxicated, but are healthily enjoying the feast.
This vertical axis is also highly symbolic. Above Christ the lamb is being butchered, beneath Christ are musicians. In front of the musicians there is an hourglass, which in art refers to "vanity." There coexist earthly pleasures such as music, as well as reminders of mortality.
The feast is well attended; over 130 figures crowd the painting, and not a single one is visibly speaking. This is because the painting was commissioned for a Benedictine Monastery, and silence in their refectory was strictly observed. The centre of the painting is dominated by a vast blue sky, important because it opened up the room where the painting was originally hung.
This was not Veronese's only sally into the depiction of throngs; the meal in his painting at the House of Levi also depicts a multitude. There were likely many reasons for this choice. Painters were often paid by the figure; it also offered an opportunity to concentrate on festive coloration, or demonstrate skill at composition, without having to overly dramatize the individual gesture. Painting crowds, however, was not without risk, for the variety of pedestrian intrusions of dogs and sundry persons into the Levi painting drew the attention of the Inquisition.
In addition, the number of figures apt for a painting became a fevered controversy for artists; for example, in the next century, Andrea Sacchi argued that only a few figures (less than a dozen) could permit an artist to honestly depict an individualized and unique expression, while Pietro da Cortona thought armies of figures could consolidate a general image. To see how this debate was viewed in subsequent centuries, we can refer to Sir Joshua Reynolds, the premier English painter of his day, [1]:
- "The subjects of the Venetian painters are mostly such as give them an opportunity of introducing a great number of figures, such as feasts, marriages, and processions, public martyrdoms, or miracles. I can easily conceive that (Paolo) Veronese, if ... asked, would say that no subject was proper for an historical picture but such as admitted at least forty figures; for in a less number, he would assert, there could be no opportunity of the painter's showing his art in composition, his dexterity of managing and disposing the masses of light, and groups of figures, and of introducing a variety of Eastern dresses and characters in their rich stuffs."
[edit] Trivia
The figures in the painting are most likely enjoying dessert, as the food on the table is sugar, fruits and (according to at least one art curator at the Louvre) quince jam. Ironically it also appears as though the main course is being prepared (butchered animals). This further credits the theory that the animals are lambs, and their purpose is symbolic, not practical.
[edit] Sources
- Louvre visitor's guide, English version, 2004
[edit] External links
- ^ in his Seven Discourses on Art to the Royal Academy of Painting in London, from Egutenberg, December 10, 1771
