Dimensions
158 x 217 x 14mm
Inspired by the story of Christ's first miracle as recounted in the Gospel of St. John, Paolo Veronese's dazzling, monumental painting The Wedding at Cana, held at the Louvre, was commissioned to be hung in the refectory of the Benedictine monastery of San Giorgio Maggiore in Venice. The artist stages a sumptuous banquet for the wedding guests at Cana, packed with intriguing details: a seemingly endless parade of precious drinking vessels, platters and cake stands containing mouth-watering desserts. Veronese transforms a religious scene into a worldly event, a glamorous ceremony whose participants include not only a colourful bevy of cosmopolitan Venetians of the artist's day, but also a generous sampling of servants, jesters and animals, all of this against the backdrop of magnificent architectural perspectives and luminous skies. Veering from realism to the fantastical, in a virtuoso display of his own vision of art and life, Veronese's masterpiece reserves at least two remarkable surprises, once the true identity of a number of personages is revealed: the bride and groom, and especially the musicians who perform for them. AUTHOR: Marco Carminati graduated with a degree in Medieval and Modern Art History at the Universita Cattolica in Milan in 1986. A professional journalist, since 1990 he has been head of the art, architecture and cultural heritage section of the 'Domenicale', the Sole 24 ORE's Sunday cultural supplement. He has written monographs on Italian Renaissance painters (Piero della Francesca, Cesare da Sesto, the illuminator Master BF), and on Leonardo Da Vinci's Mona Lisa. He recently published Il Davide in Carrozza (Milan, 2009); the first history of the fantastic adventures of works of art while being transported. SELLING POINTS: ? The Art Mysteries series examines several highly regarded masterpieces in an attempt to unravel the mysteries that surround them. Edited by Marco Carminati and Stefano Zuffi, they present an up-to-date and spectacular reading of famous paintings, investigating key clues to previously unknown background information. ILLUSTRATIONS: 22 colour
