The Most Overlooked Painting in the World

The Mona Lisa is visited by around 8 million people every year. It is perhaps the most famous painting in the world and the room in which it rests is the most crowded room in the Louvre. However, what many people miss out on when they push and shove to move closer to the renowned painting is the most neglected painting, “The Wedding Feast at Cana”, by the Italian artist Paolo Veronese. The most overlooked painting in the world is also the largest painting in the Louvre, the largest museum in the world. This massive painting is 6 and a half meters high, 10 meters wide, and weighs about one and a half tons with the frame. A painting that had been threatened and torn in the past is now what the Mona Lisa is staring at. The Wedding at Cana, a fascinating and intricate painting is sadly overshadowed by its roommate.

Paolo Veronese’s, “The Wedding at Cana”, depicts the biblical story of the Marriage at Cana, where Jesus Christ performs his first miracle of turning water into wine. The painting is extremely elaborate and intricate with exactly 130 human figures featured, where each one is unique and rather different from each other. Veronese’s special touch was to set this biblical story in what was at the time modern Venice. Jesus, depicted in the middle with a halo, is in traditional classical attire, surrounded by a mix of biblical figures and Venetian contemporaries set in sixteenth-century Venice. A scene that happened thousand years before shows figures dressed in contemporary clothing, which can be understood as a way to give a sense of reality and relatability to old stories. Classical costumes are seated next to the Italian fashion of the artist’s own time.

Along with the guests, servants, and musicians, the party-goers include many dogs, a cat, and also a parrot. In this painting, Jesus is not interacting with other guests. He is the only person out of the 130 who is looking straight ahead, directly at the viewers and directly at The Mona Lisa. The Wedding Feast at Cana is a profound painting that requires a long pause and in-depth examination, yet it hangs hardly noticed – the largest painting in the most visited room in the most visited museum in the world.