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La Victoire de Samothrace, Unknown, 190 BC

The Wedding Feast at Cana

Veronese

1563

The Wedding Feast at Cana is the largest painting of the Louvre, measuring a massive 7 x 10m.

It's considered a masterpiece of Renaissance painting.

It was commissioned by the San Giorgio Maggiore Convent in Venice to decorate their dining room.

It represents the Biblical episode of Jesus Christ transforming water into wine.

The story goes that Jesus, his mother Mary and his disciples were invited to a wedding.

When the wine ran out, Jesus transformed the water into wine - his first miracle.

Although it's a wedding, Jesus is represented at the centre, with the bride and groom relegated to the bottom left corner.

Veronese represented more than 130 guests, cheekily mixing some guests from the Renaissance (French King Francis I, the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, who were rivals) with some from the Bible (Jesus, Mary and the Apostles).

He also sneaked himself in, as the musician in white!

The painting is also loved for its many details - try spotting the woman with the toothpick, the ogling husband, the jealous wife, the cats and dogs...