| The Wedding at Cana | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Artist | Paolo Veronese |
| Year | 1563 |
| Medium | Oil on canvas |
| Dimensions | 6.77 m × 9.94 m (267 in × 391 in) |
| Location | Louvre,Paris |
The Wedding at Cana (Italian:Nozze di Cana, 1562–1563), byPaolo Veronese, is arepresentational painting that depicts the biblical story of theWedding at Cana, at which Jesus miraculously converts water intored wine (John 2:1–11). Executed in theMannerist style (1520–1600) of the lateRenaissance, the large-format (6.77 m × 9.94 m or 22 ft 3 in × 32 ft 7 in)oil painting comprehends thestylistic ideal of compositional harmony, as practised by the artistsLeonardo,Raphael, andMichelangelo.[1]: 318
The art of theHigh Renaissance (1490–1527) emphasised human figures of ideal proportions, balanced composition, and beauty, whereas Mannerism exaggerated the Renaissance ideals – of figure, light, and colour – with asymmetric and unnaturally elegant arrangements achieved by flattening the pictorial space and distorting the human figure as an ideal preconception of the subject, rather than as a realistic representation.[1]: 469 The visual tension among the elements of the picture and the thematic instability among the human figures inThe Wedding Feast at Cana derive from Veronese's application of technical artifice, the inclusion of sophisticated cultural codes and symbolism (social, religious, theologic), which present a biblical story relevant to the Renaissance viewer and to the contemporary viewer.[2]
From the 16th to the 18th centuries, the painting hung in the refectory of theSan Giorgio Monastery. In 1797, soldiers of Napoleon's French Revolutionary Army plundered the picture as war booty during the Italian campaigns of the French Revolutionary Wars (1792–1802). The pictorial area (67.29 m2) of the canvas makesThe Wedding Feast at Cana the most expansive picture in the paintings collection of theMusée du Louvre.
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At Venice, on 6 June 1562, the Black Monks of theOrder of Saint Benedict (OSB) commissioned Paolo Veronese to realise a monumental painting (6.77 m ×× 9.94 m) to decorate the far wall of the monastery's newrefectory, designed by the architectAndrea Palladio, at theSan Giorgio Monastery, on theeponymous island. In their business contract for the commission ofThe Wedding Feast at Cana, the Benedictine monks stipulated that Veronese be paid 324ducats; be paid the costs of his personal and domestic maintenance; be provided abarrel of wine; and be fed in the refectory.[3][better source needed]
Aesthetically, the Benedictine contract stipulated that the painter represent “the history of the banquet of Christ’s miracle at Cana, in Galilee, creating the number of [human] figures that can be fully accommodated”,[4] and that he useoptimi colori (optimal colours) – specifically, the colourultramarine, a deep-blue pigment made fromlapis lazuli, a semi-precious,metamorphic rock.[5] Assisted by his brother, Benedetto Caliari, Veronese delivered the completed painting in September 1563, in time for theFesta della Madonna della Salute, in November.[3]
In the 17th century, during the mid–1630s, supporters ofAndrea Sacchi (1599–1661) and supporters ofPietro da Cortona (1596–1669) argued much about the ideal number of human figures for arepresentational composition.[6] Sacchi said that only a few figures (fewer than 12) permit the artist to honestly depict the unique body poses and facial expressions that communicate character; while da Cortona said that many human figures consolidate the general image of a painting into an epic subject from which sub-themes would develop.[6] In the 18th century, inSeven Discourses on Art, the portraitistJoshua Reynolds (1723–1792) said that:
The subjects of theVenetian painters are mostly such as gave 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 he were 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 ofEastern dresses and characters in their rich stuffs.[7]
As a narrative painting in theMannerist style,The Wedding Feast at Cana combines stylistic and pictorial elements from theVenetian school's philosophy ofcolorito (priority of colour) ofTitian (1488–1576) to the compositionaldisegno (drawing) of theHigh Renaissance (1490–1527) used in the works ofLeonardo (1452–1519),Raphael (1483–1520), andMichelangelo (1475–1564).[8] As such, Veronese's depiction of the crowded banquet-scene that isThe Wedding Feast at Cana is meant to be viewed upwards, from below – because the painting's bottom-edge was 2.50 metres from the refectory floor, behind and above the head-table seat of theabbot of the monastery.[4]
As stipulated in the Benedictine contract for the painting, the canvas of monumental dimensions (6.77m x 9.94m) and area (67.29m2) was to occupy the entire display-wall in the refectory. In the 16th century, Palladio's great-scale design wasClassically austere; the monastery dining-room featured avestibule with a large door, and then stairs that led to a narrowante-chamber, where the entry door to the refectory was flanked by two marblelavabos, for diners to cleanse themselves;[9] the interior of the refectory featuredbarrel vaults andgroin vaults, rectangular windows, and acornice.[9] In practice, Veronese's artistic prowess withperspective and architecture (actual and virtual) persuaded the viewer to seeThe Wedding Feast at Cana as a spatial extension of the refectory.[9][10]
InThe Wedding Feast at Cana, Veronese represents thewater-into-wine miracle of Jesus in the grand style of the sumptuous feasts of food and music that were characteristic of 16th-century Venetian society;[3] the sacred in and among the profane world where “banquet dishes not only signify wealth, power, and sophistication, but transfer those properties directly into the individual diner. An exquisite dish makes the eater exquisite.”[11]
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The wedding banquet is framed with Greek and Roman architecture fromClassical Antiquity and with architecture of theRenaissance, Veronese's contemporary era. The Graeco-Roman architecture featuresDoric order andCorinthian order columns surrounding a courtyard that is enclosed with a low balustrade; in the distance, beyond the courtyard, there is anarcaded tower, by the architect Andrea Palladio. In the foreground, musicians play stringed instruments of theLate–Renaissance, such as the lute, the violone, and the viola da gamba.[8]
Among the wedding guests are historical personages, such as the monarchsEleanor of Austria,Francis I of France, andMary I of England,Suleiman the Magnificent, tenth sultan of the Ottoman Empire, and the Holy RomanEmperor Charles V; the poetessVittoria Colonna, the diplomatMarcantonio Barbaro, and the architectDaniele Barbaro; the noblewomanGiulia Gonzaga andCardinal Pole, the last Roman Catholic Archbishop of Canterbury, the master jesterTriboulet and the Ottoman statesmanSokollu Mehmet Paşa – all dressed in the sumptuousOccidental andOriental fashionsalla Turca popular in the Renaissance.[8]
According to 17th-century legend and artistic tradition, the painter of the picture (Paolo Veronese) included himself in the banquet scene, as the musician in a white tunic, who is playing aviola da braccio. Accompanying Veronese are the principal painters of theVenetian school:Jacopo Bassano, playing thecornetto,Tintoretto, also playing aviola da braccio, andTitian, dressed in red, playing theviolone;[13] besides them stands the poetPietro Aretino considering a glass of the new red wine.[3][12] A more recent study links the identity of the performer seated behind Veronese playingviola da gamba withDiego Ortiz, musical theorist and thenchapell master at thecourt of Naples.[14]
The Wedding Feast at Cana is a painting of theEarly Modern period (1453–1789); the religious and theological narrative of Veronese's interpretation of the water-into-wine miracle is in two parts.[10]
I. On the horizontal axis – the lower-half of the painting contains 130 human figures; the upper-half of the painting is dominated by a cloudy sky and Graeco-Roman architecture, which frames and contains the historical figures and Late-Renaissance personages invited to celebrate the bride and bridegroom at their wedding feast.[3] Some human figures are rendered inforeshortened perspective, the stylisation of Mannerism; the old architecture mirrors the contemporary architecture of Andrea Palladio; the narrative treatment places thereligious subject in acosmopolitan tableau of historical and contemporary personages, most of whom are fashionably dressed in costumes from theOrient —Asia as known toRenaissance society in the 16th century.[8]
Seated behind and above the musicians are theVirgin Mary,Jesus of Nazareth, and some of hisApostles. Above the figure of Jesus, on an elevated walkway, a man watches the banquet, and a serving maid waits for the carver to carve an animal to portions. To the right, a porter arrives with more meat for the feasting diners to eat. The alignment of the Jesus figure under the carver's blade and block, and the butchered animals, prefigure his sacrifice as theLamb of God.[3]
bottom-right-quarter – a barefoot wine-servant pours the new, red wine into a servingewer, from a large, ornateoenochoe, which earlier had been filled with water. Behind the wine servant stands the poetPietro Aretino, intently considering the red wine in his glass.[3]
bottom-left-quarter – thesteward of the house (dressed in green) supervises the black servant-boy proffering a glass of the new, red wine to the bridegroom, the host of the wedding feast; at the edge of the nuptial table, a dwarf holds a bright-green parrot, and awaits instructions from the house steward.
II. On the vertical axis – the contrasts of light and shadow symbolise the co-existence ofmortality andvanitas, the transitory pleasures of earthly life; the protocol ofreligious symbolism supersedes the social protocol.
In the weddingbanquet proper, the holy guests and the mortal hosts have exchanged their social status, and so Jesus, the Virgin Mary, and some of his Apostles, are seated in the place of honour of the centre-span of the banquet table, whilst the bride and bridegroom sit, as guests, at the far end of the table's right wing. Above the Jesus figure, a carver is carving a lamb, beneath the Jesus figure, musicians play lively music, yet, before them is anhourglass – a reference to the futility of humanvanity.[8] Moreover, despite the kitchen's continuing preparation ofroasted meat, the main course of a celebratory meal, the wedding guests are eating thedessert course, which includes fruit and nuts, wine and sweetquince cheese (symbolically edible marriage); that contradiction, between kitchen and diners, indicates that the animals are symbolic and not for eating.[10]
From the 16th to the 18th centuries, for 235 years, the painting decorated the refectory of the San Giorgio Monastery, until 11 September 1797, when soldiers of Napoleon'sFrench Revolutionary Army plundered the painting as war booty during theItalian campaigns of the French Revolutionary Wars (1792–1802). To readily transport the oversized painting – from a Venetian church to a Parisian museum – the French soldiers horizontally cut and rolled up the canvas ofThe Wedding Feast at Cana, to later be re-assembled and re-stitched in France.[15] In 1798, Veronese's 235-year-old painting was stored in the first floor of the Louvre Museum; five years later, in 1803, that store of looted art had become theMusée Napoléon, the personal art collection of the futureEmperor of the French.[16]
In the early 19th century, after theNapoleonic Wars (1803–1815), the repatriation of looted works of art was integral to the post–Napoleonic conciliation treaties of France with Europe. Appointed by Pope Pius VII, theNeoclassical sculptorAntonio Canova negotiated theTreaty of Tolentino (1797) for the French repatriation of Italian works of art that Napoleon had plundered from the Papal States. Yet the chauvinist curator of the Musée Napoléon,Vivant Denon, falsely claimed that Veronese's canvas was too fragile to travel from Paris to Venice, and Canova excludedThe Wedding Feast at Cana from repatriation to Italy, and, in its stead, sent to Venice theFeast at the House of Simon (1653), byCharles Le Brun.[15] In the late 19th century, during theFranco-Prussian War (1870–71),The Wedding Feast at Cana was stored in a box at Brest, in Brittany.
In the mid 20th century, during theNazi Occupation of France (1940–1945), the 382-year-old painting was rolled up for storage, and continually transported to hiding places throughout the south of France, lest Veronese's painting about theMarriage at Cana become part of theNazi plunder collected during the Second World War.[16]
In the early 21st century, on 11 September 2007, the 210th anniversary of the Napoleonic looting of the painting from Italy in 1797, a full-sized (6.77 m x 9.94 m) computer-generated (1,591 files),digital facsimile ofThe Wedding Feast at Cana was hung in the Palladian refectory of the Monastery of San Giorgio Maggiore, which theGiorgio Cini Foundation, Venice, and the Musée du Louvre, Paris, commissioned fromFactum Arte, in Madrid.[17]
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In 1989, the Louvre Museum began apainting restoration ofThe Wedding Feast at Cana, which provoked an art-world controversy like that caused by the 11-yearRestoration of the Sistine Chapel frescoes (1989–1999). Organised as the Association to Protect the Integrity of Artistic Heritage (APIAH), artists protested against the restoration of the 426-year-old painting, and publicly demanded to be included in the matter, which demand the Louvre Museum denied.[16]
To the APIAH, especially controversial was the Museum's removal of arouge marronred hue over-painting of thetabard coat of the house steward, who is standing (left-of-centre) in the foreground supervising the black, servant-boy handing a glass of the new, red wine to the bridegroom. The removal of the red hue revealed the original, green colour of the tabard. In opposing that aspect of the painting's restoration, the APIAH said that Veronese, himself, had changed the tabard's colour torouge marron instead of the green colour of the initial version of the painting.[17]
In June 1992, three years into the restoration of the painting,The Wedding Feast at Cana twice suffered accidental damage. In the first accident, the canvas was spattered with rainwater that leaked into the museum through an air vent. In the second accident, which occurred two days later, the Louvre curators were raising the 1.5-ton-painting to a higher position upon the display-wall when a support-frame failed and collapsed. In falling to the museum floor, the metal framework that held and transported the painting punctured and tore the canvas; fortuitously, the five punctures and tears affected only the architectural and background areas of the painting, and not the faces of the wedding guests.[16]
