The painting opposite the Mona Lisa

Ah, the Mona Lisa. The infamous lady. Is she smiling? Is she not? What was she looking at? The modern world as a collective will never know. But today, we’re not talking about the Louvre’s leading lady. No, we’re going to talk about her roommate.

Approximately 10 metres away from the Mona Lisa is Pablo Veronese’s The Wedding at Cana painted in 1563. This magnificent painting depicts the biblical story of Jesus’ first miracle where he was persuaded by his mother to turn water into wine after the bridegroom ran out in Cana, Galilee.

This painting is almost as wide as its distance to the Mona Lisa at 6.77 metres high and 9.94 metres wide standing at 32,6 feet. Talk about dedication!
Veronese was commissioned by the Black Monks of the Order of Saint Benedict to realise a monumental painting to decorate the far wall of a new refectory of the monastery. The Italian renaissance painter was paid 324 Ducats which translates to £45,000 to £50,000 in today’s economy, alongside the cost of his personal and domestic maintenance with a barrel of wine and food in the refectory while he worked. This man got better compensation for his work than people working 80-hour weeks do now. Isn’t that sad? (with all due respect for the arts)

Among the wedding guests are notable historical figures, including monarchs Eleanor of Austria, Francis I of France, Mary I of England, Suleiman the Magnificent (tenth sultan of the Ottoman Empire), and Holy Roman Emperor Charles V; poetess Vittoria Colonna; diplomat Marcantonio Barbaro; architect Daniele Barbaro; noblewoman Giulia Gonzaga; Cardinal Pole, the last Roman Catholic Archbishop of Canterbury; master jester Triboulet; and Ottoman statesman Sokollu Mehmet Paşa, all dressed in the luxurious Occidental and Oriental fashions alla Turca popular during the Renaissance.

According to 17th-century legend and artistic tradition, the painter Paolo Veronese included himself in the banquet scene as the musician in a white tunic, playing a viola da braccio. Accompanying Veronese are Jacopo Bassano, playing the cornetto; Tintoretto, also playing a viola da braccio; Titian, dressed in red, playing the violone; and poet Pietro Aretino, considering a glass of the new red wine. A recent study suggests that the performer seated behind Veronese, playing the viola da gamba, is Diego Ortiz, a musical theorist and chapel master at the court of Naples.

This all seems like a lot of people, which it is, in all honesty. But who are we to complain? We didn’t commission the Italian. This expansive piece of art took Veronese 16 months to complete with the help of his brother, Benedetto Caliari and it was hung in the San Giorgio Monastery refectory until 1797 when soldiers of Napoleon’s French Revolutionary Army ‘relocated’ it.
Let’s talk about how many times this art changed hands. We already established that the painting was commissioned by the San Giorgio Monastery For 235 years until it was plundered by Napoleon FRA soldiers in September 1797. This they did by horizontally cutting up the painting and rolling it up to be re-assembled and re-stitched in France. A year later, the painting was stored in the first floor of the Louvre Museum.

In the early 19th century, Antonio Canova negotiated the Treaty of Tolentino for the French Repatriation of Italian works of art, he basically negotiated a deal to bring all plundered Italian art back to Italy. However, the chauvinist curator of the Musee Napoleon, Vivant Denon, deceptively claimed that Wedding in Cana was too fragile to be moved so that Veronese’s canvas could stay in France. In its place, Charles Le Brun’s Feast at the House of Simon (1653) was sent instead. (N.B we’re not miffed about this, we’re happy for Charles)

Veronese’s canvas was rolled up and stored in a box at Brest in Brittany. Fast forward to the 20th century and the painting formerly claimed to be too fragile to be moved was transported continually to safe houses in south France to prevent it being part of the Nazi plunder collected during the Second World War. This was because of the Nazi Occupation of France.
Now, the Wedding in Cana that is available to view in the Louvre is the original while the version available in the refectory of the Monastery in San Giorgio Maggiore is a computer-generated digital facsimile of The Wedding of Cana which was commissioned by Giorgio Cini Foundation, Venice, and the Musee du Louvre, Paris.

Why the original canvas wasn’t returned to Italy is probably a political matter that we have no interest in knowing about.
This is the story of ~~the painting opposite the Mona Lisa~~ the Wedding at Cana by Pablo Veronese.