The Wedding at Cana
c. 1686
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
188 × 248.4 cm (74 × 97 3/4 in.); Framed: 215.9 × 273.7 cm (85 × 107 3/4 in.)
Classification
oil on canvas
Department
Painting and Sculpture of Europe
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
2166
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
Giuseppe Maria Crespi filled this depiction of the wedding feast where Jesus performed his first miracle with luxurious accessories and smaller interactions between characters within the larger narrative. On the left, Jesus converses with his mother; on the right, the wedding’s astonished host and his servant taste the water Jesus has miraculously turned into wine. The painting brings together the Venetian tradition of color and grandeur with the close observation of figures characteristic of th...
About the Artist
Giuseppe Maria Crespi · 1665–1747
Giuseppe Maria Crespi (1665–1747) was an Italian painter of the late Baroque period whose innovative genre scenes and unorthodox approach to religious painting made him one of the most original artists of early eighteenth-century Bologna. Born in Bologna, he trained under Domenico Maria Canuti, Carlo Cignani, and in the tradition of the Carracci academy, but developed a markedly personal style tha...