The Wedding Feast at Cana, Veronese's painting at the Louvre

The oil on canvas stages an episode from the New Testament. In the town of Cana, in Galilee, Jesus, accompanied by his mother Mary and his disciples, is invited to a wedding feast. This passage from the Gospel of Saint John recounts how Jesus performed his first miracle, turning water into wine when the drink ran short.

The scene evokes the institution of the blood of Christ, symbolised by wine. On the canvas, 132 figures appear in costumes and a setting typical of sixteenth-century Italy. The practice was nothing new: medieval illuminations had long depicted mythological or biblical scenes in the settings and dress of their own time.

Between biblical characters and contemporary figures, many remain unidentifiable. Some interpretations, however, suggest that painters of Veronese's era, such as Titian and Bassano, and even Veronese himself, are portrayed as the musicians in the foreground.

The newlyweds appear on the left, leaving the centre to Christ and his radiant halo. They are, in fact, the only figures not shown interacting with others, seeming frozen amid the bustling guests. 

The painting ranks among the most majestic creations in the Louvre. It hangs in the same room as the Mona Lisa, the museum's most admired work.

The Wedding Feast at Cana arrived at the Museum Central des Arts, as the Louvre was then known, in 1798. Like so many other paintings, it was part of the war contributions handed over by Italy to France following Napoleon's first Italian campaign, under the terms of the 1797 Treaty of Campo Formio.

In 1815, Austria, then occupying Italy, demanded the painting's return. The Louvre's administrator at the time, Vivant Denon, managed to convince the Austrians that repatriation was impossible given the canvas's dimensions. In its place, France sent The Feast in the House of Simon by Charles Le Brun. It is therefore to Napoleon that we owe the arrival of Veronese's masterpiece at the Louvre.

Thanks to a three-year restoration, you can now admire the work in all its blazing colour. Head to the Mona Lisa room (Room 711), on the first floor of the Denon Wing, to contemplate this remarkable painting.