The Wedding at Cana

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 the artist’s native Bologna.