Paolo Veronese - The wedding feast at Cana

• Title: The wedding feast at Cana (Nozze di Cana)
• Artist: Paolo Veronese (1528-1588)
• Date: 1563
• Medium: Oil on canvas
• Dimensions: 677 x 994 cm

The “Wedding Feast at Cana” is a gigantic painting, measuring almost 10 meters wide.

On the one hand, it is a painting of the Renaissance with the perfection in proportions of the bodies, the many details, the harmony of the scene, the architectural elements. Also Jesus in the middle glowing and marking the one-point perspective makes for a very studied harmonious composition.

On the other hand, a disbalance is created proper to Baroque- the darkness to the right versus the light to the left; the tower in the background to the side; the exaggerated brightness of Jesus; the people everywhere; the overly refined clothing of all different styles and origins in the known world; and, the intricate architecture and decorum.

Interestingly Veronese and Tintoretto were both active in Venice at the same time, but they represented very different Baroque styles.