Restored in 2007 with Save Venice general funds.

Paolo Veronese painted the Wedding Feast at Cana for the refectory of the monastery of San Giorgio Maggiore in 1562–1563. The magnificent painting, measuring more than thirty-two feet long and twenty-two feet tall, once filled the entire far wall of the monks’ dining hall. It depicts the wedding banquet at which Christ performed his first miracle, the transformation of water into wine. He is located along the central vertical axis of the composition, and his mother, the Virgin Mary, is seated on his right; their brilliant halos set them apart from the surrounding revelers. In 1797, this painting was among the many works of art seized by Napoleon’s troops and taken to France; today it remains on display in the Louvre.

The Giorgio Cini Foundation’s small copy of Veronese’s masterpiece is an important document of the original painting, whose fame was so great that in 1705 the Benedictine monks decided to limit its reproduction. Save Venice restored this canvas and its gilded frame in preparation for a special exhibition held at the Cini Foundation in 2007 that featured a full-sized digital photographic reproduction of Veronese’s masterpiece, now on permanent display in the refectory in the position once held by the original work.

The work was restored by conservator Marina Nahabed, with the guidance of project director Giuseppe Pavanello of the Giorgio Cini Foundation.

For select projects, conservation dossiers in Italian containing limited textual and photographic documentation may be available for consultation by appointment at the Venice office of Save Venice and the Rosand Library & Study Center. For inquiries, please contact us at venice@savevenice.org.

Unidentified artist, after Paolo Veronese
Wedding Feast at Cana
Eighteenth century (?), oil on canvas
145 x 202 cm

Fondazione Giorgio Cini
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