# The Wedding Feast at Cana (Les Noces de Cana) > Paolo Caliari, called Veronese - 1562-1563 (contract 6 June 1562; delivery due September 1563) > Canonical HTML: https://iconotheca.com/artworks/paolo-veronese/veronese-wedding-feast-at-cana-louvre/ > Published by Servola Systems GmbH. Last verified: 2026-10-08 ## Tombstone - **Artist:** Paolo Caliari, called Veronese - **Date:** 1562-1563 (contract 6 June 1562; delivery due September 1563) - **Medium:** Oil on canvas - **Dimensions:** 6.77 x 9.94 m (about 67.29 square metres) - **Object type:** Painting - **Period:** Italian, Venetian Renaissance, sixteenth century - **Current location:** Musee du Louvre, Paris, Denon wing, level 1, room 711 (Salle des Etats) - **Attribution:** accepted ## Summary The largest painting in the Louvre, 6.77 by 9.94 metres, was made on a contract of 6 June 1562 for the refectory Palladio was finishing at San Giorgio Maggiore in Venice. Veronese was to paint the banquet at Cana with as many figures as would fit, in the best colours, for a reported 324 ducats, a barrel of wine and his meals. It hung there for 234 years, above the abbot's table in a room where the monks ate in silence.Napoleon's commissioners took it in 1797 under the treaty of Milan, ripped it from its stretcher along rows of hidden nails, rolled it to Toulon and Paris, and had it divided in Paris after the November 1798 exhibition, on Cynthia Saltzman's account as Uglow gives it. In 1815 the Louvre kept it, Denon pleading that it could not be moved, and sent Le Brun's smaller Le Repas chez Simon to Venice in exchange. It is known by several titles, and its guest list and musicians are tradition, not record.A digital facsimile by Factum Arte has hung in the original refectory since 11 September 2007. The original was cleaned in 1989 to 1992, an exercise remembered for the green coat under a red repaint and for two accidents in 1992, and it hangs opposite the Mona Lisa in the Salle des Etats. It belongs to the French state, no sale of it appears in any source read, and the dispute over the 1815 exchange has not produced a return. ## Provenance Every link carries a grade. `documented` means a cited source supports it, `disputed` means the identification is argued but not established, `unknown` means we have no owner for that span and have not bridged it. - **1562-06-06-1563** Benedictine monastery of San Giorgio Maggiore, Venice (abbot Girolamo Scrocchetto; Father Alessandro da Bergomo; cellarer Mauritio da Bergomo) `[documented]` (commission) Commissioned by contract of 6 June 1562 for the end wall of Palladio's new refectory. Hanson, following Habert (1993), reports that three monks signed, that the subject was the banquet at Cana with as many figures as would fit, and that Veronese was to use the most costly pigments and deliver by the feast of the Madonna in September 1563; citing Cooper she gives the fee as 324 ducats, a barrel of wine and meals in the refectory. French Wikipedia reports a payment of 300 ducats on 6 October 1563, on a receipt it says is kept in the Archivio di Stato di Venezia. I did not see either document. - **1563-1797** Refectory of San Giorgio Maggiore, Venice `[documented]` (in situ) Hung above the abbot's table in Palladio's refectory for about 234 years. Benedetto Guidi's poem of 1565 records artists coming to see it; on 17 December 1705 the monks restricted copying to royal requests according to Lowe, and Hanson says the refectory was closed to visitors in 1705. Boschini praised it in 1660. - **1797-1798** French Republic (commissioners acting under the Treaty of Milan of 16 May 1797; list drawn by Claude-Louis Berthollet) `[documented]` (seizure and transit) Chosen as number 7 on Berthollet's list under the treaty clause requiring twenty paintings and five hundred manuscripts. Ripped off its stretcher along rows of hidden nail holes, wound on a cylinder, crated and shipped by frigate to Toulon, then by barge (Uglow) or via Arles (Greenberger) to Paris; about ten months per the Christian Science Monitor. Pietro Edwards, Venice's inspector of public pictures, advised and protested. English Wikipedia gives 11 September 1797; no primary record of the day was seen. - **1798-1815** French State: Museum central des arts, then the Louvre (Musee Napoleon from 1803) `[documented]` (state collection) Entered the Louvre in July 1798 (31 July per French Wikipedia). Divided at the central seam and mounted on two stretchers in Paris, after the November 1798 exhibition, on a decision of the Administrative Council, per Uglow; moved and reassembled for the imperial wedding of 1810. Louvre records acquisition mode as military conquest (1798). - **1815** French State, by exchange with the Emperor of Austria `[documented]` (retention by exchange) At the 1815 restitutions the Austrian commissioner (Rosa, per Chalton) was persuaded by Denon not to take it, citing the difficulty of moving it; Le Brun's Le Repas chez Simon (385 x 316 cm) went to Venice instead. The Napoleonic inventory note is quoted by Chalton as recording it as ceded to the King of France by the Emperor of Austria. Whether the exchange is legally sound is contested: in 1994 Francesco Sisinni argued it was inequitable and legally questionable because no Italian state then existed (Italian Wikipedia). - **1815-present** French State, Musee du Louvre, Paris (Departement des Peintures) `[documented]` (present collection) INV 142; MR 384; Denon wing, level 1, room 711 (Salle des Etats) per the Louvre catalogue. Moved for safety in 1870 and 1939; cleaned 1989-1992; torn in June 1992; recorded in 2006 for the Venice facsimile. A facsimile has hung in the original refectory since 11 September 2007. A Nouvelle Renaissance project announced in January 2025 will move the Mona Lisa out of the room; no change to the Veronese's position was announced in the sources read. ## Open questions - What does the receipt of 6 October 1563 say? French Wikipedia reports a payment of 300 ducats on that date and says the receipt is kept in the Archivio di Stato di Venezia; I did not see the document, and the page does not say whether the 300 was the whole fee or a final instalment of the 324 that Hanson, citing Cooper, reports. - How was the canvas divided? Uglow, from Saltzman, has it ripped along nail rows and rolled in Venice and divided in Paris after the November 1798 exhibition; Lowe says it was cut strip by strip in Venice; French and Italian Wikipedia say seven pieces, which does not match Saltzman's six strips of linen; English Wikipedia and the New York Times (quoted by Factum Arte) say it was cut for transport. The 1992 Louvre catalogue should settle the structure but was not reachable. - On which day in 1797 was it taken from the wall? English Wikipedia says 11 September; Greenberger says only September; no primary record was found. - Is any figure in the central music group identified by a document of 1562 or 1563? Boschini's list of 1674 and Priever's modern list disagree about the instruments, and the proposals that Diego Ortiz and Giorgione are in the group rest on two authors' reading of X-rays that I could not independently check. - When was the steward's tabard painted red, and by whom? Experts quoted by Lowe date it between 1607 and the middle of the nineteenth century; Lowe himself argues for 1563 and Veronese; the cleaning removed it. - Who restored the canvas in 1798 and 1799 and who made the repairs recorded in the nineteenth century? No source read names them, and Lowe says records are almost non-existent. - Who paid for canvas and colours under the 1562 contract? Hanson reports that the painter was to use the costliest pigments; a popular early biography says the monks furnished canvas and colours; the contract was not seen. - What is the full pigment record? Only the lead-yellow, copper-green, orpiment and realgar findings at the steward's tabard are reported in sources I could read; the 1992 catalogue's scientific contributions (Faillant-Dumas, Rioux, Volle) and any Louvre survey from 2021 were not found online. - Why is the installed facsimile 9.55 x 6.98 m when the Louvre gives 9.94 x 6.77 m? Factum's page does not explain it. - What value has the painting been insured at? No figure is published in the sources read. - Where will it hang once the Mona Lisa leaves the Salle des Etats under the Nouvelle Renaissance project, and will its label mention the Venetian facsimile? No announcement was found. ## Sources - [1] Musee du Louvre, collections database, 'Les Noces de Cana', Paolo Caliari called Veronese, INV 142; MR 384 (dimensions 6.77 x 9.94 m, painted 1562-1563, Denon wing level 1 room 711, 'preleve en 1797 / transporte au Louvre en 1798', acquisition mode military conquest 1798, bibliography to 2025). Consulted 8 October 2026. - [2] Musee du Louvre, 'From the Mona Lisa to The Wedding Feast at Cana - The Salle des Etats' (size, about 130 characters, 1815 exchange for Le Brun, moved in 1870 and 1939). Consulted 8 October 2026. - [3] AGORHA (INHA), notice for the Louvre painting, with the RETIF and Pomme de Mirimonde databases: historical comment 'saisie revolutionnaire en 1797; entree au Louvre en 1798', catalogue bibliography (Berenson 1932, Brejon de Lavergnee 1981, Foucart-Walter 2007, Pomme de Mirimonde 1965-1976) and links to recorded copies and prints. - [4] Kate H. Hanson, 'The Language of the Banquet: Reconsidering Paolo Veronese's Wedding at Cana', InVisible Culture 14 (University of Rochester, 2010), with footnotes citing Habert 1993, Cooper 1991, Cocke 2001, Rosand 1997, Fehl 1981, Priever 2000 and the Chambers, Pullan and Fletcher translation of the contract. Peer-reviewed journal article, secondary. - [5] Jenny Uglow, 'Napoleon's Greatest Trophy', The New York Review of Books, 21 October 2021 (review of Cynthia Saltzman, Plunder: Napoleon's Theft of Veronese's Feast, 2021). Secondary, summarises Saltzman's archival account of the 1797 removal and the 1798 cutting. - [6] Jenny Uglow, letter 'Veronese Preserv'd', The New York Review of Books, 2 December 2021 (the 2007 facsimile, Factum Arte, Fondazione Giorgio Cini, Louvre cooperation). - [7] Alex Greenberger, 'The Louvre's Looted Renaissance Masterpiece: New Book Explores the Plundering of a Veronese Painting', ARTnews, 10 May 2021 (review of Saltzman; Berthollet's list, 1815 deal, Canova, Denon, the Louvre wall label). Journalism, secondary. - [8] Arthur Tompkins, 'Art Theft History: Judge Arthur Tompkins Writes about Veronese's The Wedding at Cana', ARCA blog, March 2011 (weight, 1810 anecdote, 1870 and 1939 moves, 1992 tears). Blog post, secondary. - [9] Factum Arte, 'A facsimile of the Wedding at Cana by Paolo Veronese' (recording conditions, 1,591 scans, 3D scanning, printing, installed size 9.55 x 6.98 m, recorded November-December 2006, made January-August 2007, press quotes 2007). Maker's own account, so an interested source. - [10] Adam Lowe, 'Returning Les Noces de Cana by Paolo Caliari', Factum Arte, January 2008 (refectory and Louvre display compared, 1850s and 1989-91 cleanings, the steward's tabard, orpiment and realgar, 1958 request, 1705 copying ban). Written by the maker of the facsimile, so an interested source. - [11] Factum Arte, 'Coping with the Past', book page for Pasquale Gagliardi, Bruno Latour and Pedro Memelsdorff (eds), Civilta Veneziana Studi 52 (Olschki, 2010): the November 2007 Dialogo di San Giorgio on the facsimile. - [12] Palladio Museum (CISA), Mediateca Palladio, 'Refettorio del monastero di San Giorgio Maggiore, Venezia' (building 1560-1563, vault, windows, relation to the Cana). - [13] Musee du Louvre, collections database, drawing 'Le repas chez Simon' by Charles Le Brun, INV 27638 (records the 1815 exchange against the Veronese, the painting now in the Galleria dell'Accademia, Venice). - [14] Quentin Chalton, 'Les Noces de Cana, lorsque la copie tient lieu de restitution', Media' Pat', Le Mans Universite, 2023 (1815 exchange and the Inventaire Napoleon note, Le Brun size, campaigns for return, facsimile, Louvre label). Student master's notice, secondary. - [15] Brian Pullan, Rich and Poor in Renaissance Venice: The Social Institutions of a Catholic State, to 1620 (Oxford: Blackwell, 1971), full text as hosted on dokumen.pub (master mason and journeyman day wages 1566-74 and 1571-4; charity burial and dowry sums). - [16] Wikipedia, 'Venetian lira' (ducat as accounting unit of 6.2 lire or 124 soldi; sixteenth-century divergence of the accounting ducat and the gold zecchino). Tertiary source, to be replaced by a numismatic reference. - [17] Oxford Academic, 'Decline of a Fully Matured Economy: Rural and Urban Real Wages in the Republic of Venice, 1390-1790', Economic History Review (2026), abstract and method (Allen welfare ratio, 250 working days a year). - [18] Wikipedia, 'The Wedding at Cana (Veronese)' (contract summary, 1797 date, 1989-92 restoration and the APIAH protest, 1992 accidents, musicians tradition). Tertiary source, to be replaced by the Louvre catalogue and Habert and Volle 1992. - [19] Wikipedia (Italian), 'Nozze di Cana (Veronese)' (cut into seven pieces, 1815, 1994 request by Francesco Sisinni, 2010 letter, Diego Ortiz proposal). Tertiary source. - [20] Wikipedia (French), 'Les Noces de Cana (Veronese)' (31 July 1798 entry, 1870 Brest, 1939 evacuation, 1947 commission, restorers' names, 1992 tear, Boschini). Tertiary source. - [21] RMN-Grand Palais, Panorama de l'art, 'Les Noces de Cana' (132 figures, fifteen months, hung over 2 m, composition and details). Museum-publisher analysis, secondary. - [22] Manuel Lafarga and co-authors, theweddingatcana.org (X-ray based proposals on the central musicians: Diego Ortiz, and Giorgione beneath him). Authors' own open-access site, a proposal not endorsed in the museum sources read. - [23] Transcript of the trial of Veronese, 18 July 1573 (English translation), Renaissance Through Contemporary Art History, Utah Valley University open textbook. - [24] Wikipedia, 'Paolo Veronese' (birth, name, training, move to Venice 1553, workshop, death 19 April 1588). Tertiary source. - [25] Musee du Louvre, collections database, drawing 'Les Noces de Cana', RF 39031 (squared sketch, Sagredo collection, bought 1983; attribution disputed). - [26] Musee du Louvre, collections database, drawing 'Les Noces de Cana' after Veronese, INV 4693 (Jabach collection, Cabinet du Roi 1671). - [27] Musee du Louvre, collections database, 'Vue du Salon Carre du Louvre, avec les Noces de Cana de Veronese', Marco Terinzio Muller de Shongor, 1895, RF 1976 6. - [28] Entrevue, 'Musee du Louvre : quelles peintures vont profiter du demenagement de la Joconde ?' (Sebastien Allard on the Salle des Etats after the Mona Lisa moves). - [29] L'actualite, 'La Joconde aura sa propre salle dans le cadre d'une renovation de 10 ans du Louvre', 28 January 2025 (Nouvelle Renaissance du Louvre announcement). - [30] Web Gallery of Art, Tintoretto, 'Marriage at Cana' (1561, 435 x 535 cm, Santa Maria della Salute, from the Crociferi refectory). - [31] Web Gallery of Art, Veronese, 'Marriage at Cana' (1571-72, 207 x 457 cm, Dresden). - [32] Web Gallery of Art, Veronese, 'Feast in the House of Levi' (1573, 555 x 1280 cm, Gallerie dell'Accademia). - [33] Fr. (Francois) Crastre, Veronese (early twentieth century, English translation), Project Gutenberg eBook 41974: a popular account repeating the contract terms and the traditional guest identifications. - [34] Christian Science Monitor, review of Plunder: Napoleon's Theft of Veronese's Feast, 12 August 2021 (ten months in transit, 2010 letter to Carla Bruni). - [35] Wikipedia, 'Tintoretto' (payments of 50 ducats per canvas excluding materials, c. 1578, Doge's Palace; 2,447 ducats in all from the Scuola di San Rocco). Tertiary, derived from an old encyclopedia text; used for scale only. - [36] Philharmonie de Paris, catalogue record for Les Noces de Cana de Veronese: une oeuvre et sa restauration (Musee du Louvre, 16 November 1992 - 29 March 1993), Departement des Peintures and Service de restauration des musees de France. - [37] AGORHA (INHA, RETIF), painted copy at the Musee des Beaux-Arts, Nancy (Claude Charles, ordered by Duke Leopold in 1702, 2.5 x 3.32 m). - [38] AGORHA (INHA), engraving after the composition by N. Cochin, Bibliotheque nationale de France, linked to Pomme de Mirimonde's study of the hourglass (Gazette des beaux-arts, 1976). - [39] Musee du Louvre, collections database, drawing 'Les Noces de Cana', INV 4722, workshop of Veronese, formerly 'imitation of Veronese', Musee Napoleon inventory. - [40] AGORHA (INHA, RETIF), painted copy at the Musee d'arts de Nantes (160 x 216.5 cm, seventeenth century, Cacault collection, bought by the city 1810). - [41] Wikimedia Commons file description (via the Commons API) for the lead photograph, 'Les Noces de Cana - Paolo Veronese - Musee du Louvre Peintures INV 142 ; MR 384.jpg' (public domain, 10068 x 6742 px, photograph credited to Shonagon, 5 April 2024). - [43] AGORHA (INHA, RETIF), reduced copy of the left part by Albert Maignan, Musee de Picardie, Amiens (MP.Mn.4698, bequest 1908). - [44] AGORHA (INHA, RETIF), copy at the Musee des Beaux-Arts, Orleans (138 x 182 cm, given by M. Miron de Lamotte in 1826). - [45] Wikipedia, 'Pietro Aretino' and 'Vittoria Colonna' (death dates 21 October 1556 and 25 February 1547). Tertiary source. - [42] POP (Ministere de la Culture), Joconde notice 000PE026531: a different, anonymous sixteenth-century 'Les Noces de Cana', 148 x 112 cm, inventory 71 142, MUDO Musee de l'Oise, Beauvais (cited only to prevent confusion with INV 142). --- Images on this record are public domain or CC0 and are hosted by us. No image on this site is generated or simulated. If you quote this record, quote the provenance grades with it.