The Marriage at Cana
XVI century. Oil on canvas. Not on displayThere is a print by Pietro Monaco (1707-1772), published by Guglielmo Zerletti in Venice in 1763, which reproduces a painting of the Marriage at Cana then attributed to Jacopo and owned by the lawyer Giulio Crivellari. In Spain, a composition with the same title though smaller (112 x 84 cm approximately) was listed in the 1711 inventory of the 9th Duke of Medinaceli. The original painting, probably by Francesco, and on which the composition would have been based is missing, though there are several versions with small variations: the one in the Louvre (152 x 214 cm) was ascribed by Ballarin to Leandro´s early period, when he collaborated with his father in Bassano, though some figures appear to be executed by a different han. Other versions, very similar to the Louvre painting, are housed in Kromeriz and Vicenza (Museo Civico). On 2 May 1997, a fourth version (98.2 x 136.5 cm), which is more similar to the print and held by Rearick to be the original, was sold at a London auction (Trafalgar Galleries). This supposed original and the Vicenza version display the iconographical peculiarity -found no where else in Bassano paintings or in any treatment of this gospel episode- of including angel-musicians strumming lutes, an action performed by a servant in the Prado version. The Prado painting is identical to the one in the Louvre except for the curtains, which are omitted. The inclusion of donors together with the holy figures, a common feature of this iconography since the 15th century, suggests that this work was probably commissioned for the wedding of the couple seated to the right of the Virgin. The Eucharistic significance of the Marriage at Cana thus reaffirmed the sacramental nature of marriage (Text drawn from Falomir, M.: Los Bassano en la España del Siglo de Oro, Museo Nacional del Prado, 2001, pp. 244-245).