republic of veniceconcept:movement high renaissance

The Wedding at Cana

Name: Provenio Provenance Knowledge Graph
License: https://provenio.art/terms

Oil on canvas by Paolo Veronese, 1562-1563. Musée du Louvre, Paris. The largest painting in the Louvre (6.77 × 9.94 m). Depicts the biblical miracle at the Wedding of Cana in a grand Venetian Renaissance feast setting with over 130 figures.

Notes

·Commissioned in 1562 by the Benedictine monks of the new refectory at San Giorgio Maggiore, Venice. Delivered 1563.
·Veronese populated the scene with identifiable contemporary portraits in the guise of feast guests: Charles V, Francis I of France, Mary I of England, Suleiman the Magnificent, and (as musicians at the table) Titian, Tintoretto, Bassano, and Veronese himself.
·The musicians at the centre of the table play viole da gamba; this group has been identified as a self-portrait of Veronese with Titian, Tintoretto, and Bassano.
·The painting filled the entire end wall of the San Giorgio refectory refectory, facing Tintoretto's later Last Supper across the room.
·Provenance controversy: the Louvre acknowledges the work was seized but France has maintained possession for over 200 years; a facsimile now hangs in Venice.