THE WEDDING AT CANA
- Seda DOGAN DEMIREL
- Aug 3, 2025
- 8 min read
Updated: Nov 23, 2025
Date: 1563
Artist: Paolo Veronese
Art Movement / Period: Mannerism / Late Renaissance
The Painting Most People Turn Their Backs On: Veronese’s Wedding at Cana
When you visit the Louvre, follow the crowd heading for the Mona Lisa. Once you are standing in front of the world’s most famous painting, turn around. There you will see “The Wedding at Cana,” a wall-sized work. At roughly 70 square metres, it is the largest painting in the museum. Because it hangs in the same room as the Mona Lisa, it is in direct competition and is often overlooked; some visitors even mistake it for Leonardo da Vinci’s “Last Supper.”
Art historian Patricia Fortini Brown calls The Wedding at Cana “a work that captures the splendor of High Venetian Renaissance art in a dazzling visual display.”
The painting was ordered on 6 June 1562 for the dining hall of the Benedictine monastery of San Giorgio Maggiore in Venice. The monks wanted a mural-sized canvas that would cover an entire wall. Veronese was to receive 324 ducats, free lodging, and a barrel of wine. The contract also required him to use top-quality pigments—especially ultramarine, then the most expensive color.
Veronese was 34 years old when he accepted the commission. It became a turning point in his career, since it was his first truly monumental project. With help from his brother Benedetto Caliari, he finished the vast canvas in 15 months. The work established him as one of Venice’s leading painters, blending a lively 16th-century Venetian scene with deep Christian symbolism that has impressed viewers for generations.
From Stone Jars to Wine Cups: The Moment Water Turned into Wine
The Wedding at Cana shows the first public miracle of Jesus recorded in the Bible (John 2:1–11).
The lower foreground of the painting focuses on this scene exactly as John tells it—the only Gospel that includes the story.
According to the text, Jesus, His mother Mary and several disciples are invited to a wedding in Cana of Galilee. During the feast the wine runs out. Mary says, “They have no more wine.” Jesus replies, “My hour has not yet come,” as if He will not intervene. Yet Mary tells the servants, “Do whatever He tells you.”
Jesus orders the servants to fill large stone jars with water. His sharp gaze, combined with Mary’s words, adds weight to the command: “Obey and carry out what He says.”
He then tells the servants to draw from the jars and take it to the master of the banquet.
When the steward tastes the drink, he is amazed. Normally the cheaper wine is served near the end of a feast, but here the best wine has been kept for last. Only then does the steward realize that the water has turned into wine.
At a deeper level, the painting’s message is obedience. It suggests that true happiness is often in direct proportion to how closely we follow the instructions of Jesus.
The Dance of Sacred and Secular
Although the subject is biblical, Veronese sets the scene in sixteenth-century Venice. He masterfully brings together two eras separated by more than 1500 years, blending the holy with the contemporary. Wanting to stress the lesson of obedience, he carefully arranges every figure in the painting, filling the canvas with about 130 people. Among the jesters, parrots, servants and dwarfs we also see Venetian nobles and foreign guests in exotic clothes.
Some guests wear garments typical of biblical times, while others look as if they have just stepped off Venice’s Piazza San Marco. For this reason, the large cast of characters has been a subject of scholarly debate for many years.
Although scholars cannot confirm every face with certainty, the painting is thought to include several leading figures of the day—such as Queen Mary I of England, Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent of the Ottoman Empire, King Francis I of France, Archduchess Eleanor of Austria, and the poet Vittoria Colonna. The presence of Suleiman and other turbaned guests highlights Venice’s close links with the Middle East.
Some viewers believe that the woman standing beside Sultan Suleiman is his wife Hürrem (Roxelana), yet neither the Louvre catalogue nor other academic studies support this identification.
Art historians believe that the musicians in the foreground are portraits of artists themselves. The man in white playing the viola da gamba is thought to be Veronese, while the other players may represent Titian, Bassano, and Tintoretto. The figure just to Veronese’s left, examining a wine glass, is usually identified as the poet and writer Pietro Aretino.
For today’s viewer, the painting also serves as a window onto a Renaissance banquet in Venice. Its secular side is very pronounced, offering rich details about 16th-century table customs: every guest has a napkin, a fork, and an individual trencher. At the centre of the composition, trays of quince paste are set out. This sweet—served at wedding feasts in John’s Gospel, where the miracle occurs at the end of the meal—was the traditional dessert of the occasion.
In the wedding scene Jesus, rather unexpectedly, sits at the very centre of the painting, surrounded by Mary and the apostles, while the bride and groom are pushed to the left. Jesus looks straight out at the viewer, which stresses His central place. Everyone else is busy and caught in action.
To Mary’s left we see the bride, the groom and ten other wealthy guests—twelve figures in total. To Jesus’ right stand another twelve people, dressed more simply; they represent His apostles. This layout follows the words of John’s Gospel (2:1–2).
The Late-Added Abbot
If you count the people to Jesus’ right today, you will notice thirteen figures instead of twelve.
The extra person is the man in a black habit standing next to the bearded guest in yellow.
Research during the 1989-1992 restoration showed that this figure was added after the painting was almost finished. When a new abbot was appointed to the monastery, the monks wanted him included in the scene. Veronese’s workshop painted the abbot on paper and pasted the piece onto the canvas, slightly disturbing the painter’s carefully balanced composition.
The man in blue standing beside the bride is hard to miss. His nose and cheeks are flushed from wine, and with the full goblet in his left hand he seems to be talking to the servant in the cap about the drink. His glance appears to drift toward the bride’s décolletage; perhaps he is complaining about the old wine in his cup and wanting to taste the new.
The bride looks straight at us, but her face is blank—she does not seem happy, maybe because there is no wine left at her banquet. The groom also looks thoughtful. He is probably watching the steward in the green jacket, who is reaching into his pockets and loosening his belt, as if annoyed. The groom, unsure what to say, tastes the wine and is startled by its unknown source. On the left, one servant offers the groom an empty jar, while a young Black page hands him a full goblet. The jar is empty, yet the cup is full; farther right another jar is still brimming with wine.
The Scene above Jesus and Mary: The Sacrifice
At the very top of the painting, Veronese shows his skill with perspective while adding a deeper meaning. Servants and butchers are busy slicing meat—most clearly, a lamb.
These “behind-the-scenes” details make the scene more realistic and reveal a social hierarchy. More importantly, the slaughtered lamb alludes to the “Lamb of God” (Agnus Dei) and foreshadows Christ’s future sacrifice on the cross.
There is a deliberate time shift here: according to the Gospel, the miracle happens at the end of the meal, and we can see desserts on the table. Yet the butchering still goes on. By doing this, Veronese—helped by the hour-glass motif—collapses ordinary time. He links the Old and New Covenants, purification and sacrifice, water and wine (and finally blood), into one layered image.
Art historian Tom Nichols notes that Veronese used contemporary Venetian details anachronistically “to make the sacred story feel closer and more understandable to a 16th-century viewer.”
Mannerist or Proto-Baroque?
This huge painting can be considered in two parts. In the lower part is the banquet, in the upper part the architectural structure and the sky. The perspective lines of the floor in the foreground reach a vanishing point at the level of Jesus. In the same way, the vanishing point of the architecture also directs toward Jesus.
Below is the earthly, above is the heavenly; the one that links the two is Jesus, the God-man.
“The Word became flesh” (the Incarnation) is one of the founding principles of Christian belief expressed in John’s Gospel (14:9-11).
The chief feature of Baroque painting is likewise to arrange the scene in an upper–lower form and to unite these two layers generally with Jesus or Mary. In line with the Council of Trent’s principle of a “plain, comprehensible and hierarchical” composition, many Baroque works were constructed in this way. Since The Wedding at Cana, commissioned and completed in 1562-1563, was painted in the last year of the Council, it bears, besides its Mannerist style, proto-Baroque qualities.
The Theatre of Figures: The Magic of Mannerism
Mannerism is the final period of the Renaissance that follows the High Renaissance. The complex composition of The Wedding at Cana contains all the distinguishing features of Mannerism. Crowded groups of figures appear in the painting. It presents a complex and crowded arrangement peculiar to Mannerism, looking like a theatrical stage. The proportions of some figures are elongated. Artificial and dramatic poses dominate. Bright and saturated tones are fundamental characteristics both of Mannerism and of Venetian painting.
Napoleon’s Favourite – The Journey of The Wedding at Cana
This painting, whose fame had spread throughout Europe and which people came to admire with awe, was stolen in 1797 by Bonaparte’s armies. The large canvas was cut in two for transport. After a long journey it was brought by ship to the Louvre and re-assembled in Paris.
Although the Congress of Vienna in 1815 demanded the return of looted works, French officials argued that the fragile condition of the painting would make its return to Venice dangerous. Instead, they sent Austria (which was ruling Venice at that time) a large painting by Charles Le Brun. That exchange was reasonable for that day, yet today it is a matter of debate.
During the Franco-Prussian War of 1870 (to Brittany) and again in the Second World War (between 1939 and 1942 to southern France) the painting was removed from the Louvre twice for safety reasons.
Veronese’s masterpiece offers a unique adventure, combining its historical journey, its Gospel narrative, the rich life of sixteenth-century Venice and the drama of Napoleonic plunder.
References:
Collections Louvre Museums
Google Arts and Culture
ArtsStoryWalks, Wedding Feast in Cana
The Art Story, "Paolo Veronese"
Broaden Horizons, "Louvre Wedding at Cana"
Factum Arte, "A Facsimile of The Wedding at Cana By Paolo Veronese"
Wikimedia Commons
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