As Bodas de Canaã (Nozze di Cana) - Paolo Veronese
Museu do Louvre, Paris, França
OST - 660x990 - Entre 1562/1563
As “Bodas de Canaã” (Nozze di Cana) é uma enorme pintura em
óleo do pintor italiano maneirista e renascentista Paolo
Veronese. Está exposta no Museu do
Louvre, em Paris, e é a maior pintura na coleção do museu.
A obra foi requerida em 1562 pelo Mosteiro Beneditino de San Giorgio Maggiore em Veneza,
e completado em 1563, quinze meses depois. Esteve pendurado no refeitório do
mosteiro durante 235 anos, até ser saqueado por Napoleão em
1797 e levado para Paris. Durante a viagem o quadro foi cortado em dois e
costurado de novo em Paris. Não foi devolvida nos tratados de conciliação
pós-napoleónica que restituiu algumas obras de arte saqueadas, e no seu lugar
para Veneza foi uma débil pintura de Charles Le
Brun (Feast in the House of Simon).
A pintura mostra as Bodas de Canaã, a história de um
milagre do Novo Testamento cristão. Na história,
Jesus e os seus discípulos foram convidados para um casamento em Canaã,
na Galileia.
Já perto do final da festa, quando o vinho começava a escassear, Jesus pediu
aos serventes para encher os cálices com água, que depois ele transformou em
vinho (o seu primeiro de sete milagres, como escrito no Evangelho de João).
Existe uma outra pintura de Paulo Veronese de 1571 sobre o
mesmo motivo na galeria de arte Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister em Dresden, Alemanha.
Paulo Veronese (1528-1588) foi um importante pintor italiano de finais do
Renascimento. A composição As Bodas de Canaã é uma representação
bíblica do artista, pintada para o refeitório do Convento de San Giorgio
Maggiore, em Veneza, sob encomenda dos monges beneditinos. O pintor gostava de
trabalhar com o tema do banquete ou jantar, como mostram muitas de suas
pinturas. Ele contextualizava os acontecimentos religiosos no luxuoso cenário
da Veneza do século XVI.
A pintura, que alude à transformação da água em vinho, possui
cerca de 130 personagens, e mostra um suntuoso banquete. Estão presentes
pessoas com vestimentas coloridas e exóticas, e também servos, anões, animais
de estimação, etc. À primeira vista parece reinar uma grande confusão visual,
até que os olhos acostumem-se com a tela, podendo extasiar-se diante dos
mínimos detalhes que não escaparam ao pincel do artista. Chama a atenção
as toalhas bordadas e a prataria luxuosa, assim como a arquitetura clássica. A
obra apresenta uma bela vista panorâmica, onde se descortinam palácios, campanários
e varandas, tendo ao fundo um céu azul com nuvens brancas. Além de mostrar
grande interesse pela arquitetura, o pintor, na sua série de pinturas bíblicas,
na qual também se inclui “Banquete na Casa de Levi”, mostra a vida de opulência
dos palácios venezianos à época.
A festa de casamento é celebrada numa praça pública, ladeada
por imensas colunas caneladas, cobertas por capitéis coríntios. Em primeiro
plano está uma imensa mesa em forma de U, onde se encontram os convidados.
Atrás desses, em segundo plano, está uma varanda alta, por onde trafegam
os servidores, carregando pratos e bandejas, tendo acesso à mesa do banquete
através de duas escadas laterais. Na parte central do primeiro plano, Jesus
Cristo, ladeado por sua mãe e discípulos, preside a mesa. Ele tanto ocupa o
centro dessa como o centro da tela. Uma auréola indicando sua divindade
distingue-o, juntamente com Maria, dos demais convidados. Também estão
representados na pintura os monges beneditinos, clientes do pintor,
luxuosamente vestidos.
Um grupo de músicos ocupa a parte central do quadro, postados
de costas para Jesus. Veronese mescla personagens bíblicos com pessoas da
época. Inclusive, segundo boatos surgidos no século XVIII, o próprio artista
encontra-se representado na obra, vestido de branco e tocando uma viola de
gamba. Ainda segundo essa mesma lenda, Ticiano seria o homem de vermelho a
tocar um violoncelo, ali também se encontrando Tintoretto e Bassano. Ou seja,
os “quatro grandes” artistas da pintura de Veneza aparecem no papel de músicos.
Como é comum às obras do pintor, ali também se encontram cães, pássaros
(inclusive um periquito seguro por um anão à esquerda) e um gato.
Um quadro do tamanho deste exigia muitas pessoas para ajudar o
pintor. Além de seus aprendizes e pintores anônimos, Veronese também contou com
a ajuda de um sobrinho e de seu irmão Benedetto Caliari. Esse último serviu
também de modelo, sendo ele o homem suntuosamente vestido que levanta uma taça
de vinho e o examina. Os convidados presentes à festa não parecem perceber a
transformação da água em vinho, preocupados em comer e divertir-se. Apenas
alguns poucos parecem dar conta do milagre, pois o lado espiritual é suplantado
pelo terreno.
Chama a atenção o grupo de ajudantes na varanda, destrinchando
carne, ação que também simboliza o sacrifício do cordeiro. O vasilhame da festa
é feito de cristal, ouro e prata. Cada convidado tem acesso, individualmente, a
garfo, faca e guardanapo. Uma das damas, à esquerda, limpa os dentes com um
palito de ouro. Os marmelos, servidos como sobremesa, simbolizam o casamento.
Muitas das pessoas em volta da mesa estão suntuosamente vestidas, sendo algumas
vindas de outras terras, como mostram suas vestimentas. Curiosos, de suas
varandas observam o desenrolar da festa.
Na sua pintura, Veronese faz uso de vários pigmentos vindos do
Oriente, como vermelhos fortes, lápis-lazúli e diversos tons de
amarelo-laranja. Com o tempo, as cores foram se apagando, mas através de uma
restauração, que durou três anos, elas foram recuperadas. Apesar do tamanho da
tela, as tropas de Napoleão, durante campanha na Itália, em 1797, sob seu
comando, enrolaram-na e enviaram-na para Paris, onde se encontra até os dias de
hoje.
The Wedding Feast at Cana (1563), by the Italian
artist Paolo Veronese (1528–88), is a representational painting that
depicts the biblical story of the Marriage at
Cana, at which Jesus converts water to wine (John 2:1–11). Executed in
the Mannerist
style (1520–1600) of the late Renaissance, the large-format
(6.77m × 9.94m) oil painting comprehends the stylistic ideal of compositional harmony,
as practised by the artists Leonardo, Raphael,
and Michelangelo.
The art of the High
Renaissance (1490–1527) emphasized human figures of ideal
proportions, balanced composition, and beauty, whereas Mannerism exaggerated
the Renaissance ideals — of figure, light, and colour — with asymmetric and
unnaturally elegant arrangements achieved by flattening the pictorial space and
distorting the human figure as an ideal preconception of the subject, rather
than as a realistic representation.
The visual tension among the elements of the picture and the
thematic instability among the human figures in The Wedding Feast at
Cana derive from Veronese's application of technical artifice, the
inclusion of sophisticated cultural codes and symbolism (social, religious,
theologic), which present a biblical story relevant to the Renaissance viewer
and to the contemporary viewer. The pictorial area (67.29 m2) of the
canvas makes The Wedding Feast at Cana the most expansive picture in
the paintings collection of the Musée du Louvre.
At Venice, on 6 June 1562, the Black Monks of the Order of Saint Benedict (OSB)
commissioned the painter Paolo Veronese to realise a monumental painting
(6.77m×9.94m) to decorate the far wall of the monastery's new refectory,
designed by the architect Andrea
Palladio, at the Basilica of San Giorgio Maggiore,
on the eponymous island. In their business
contract for the commission of The Wedding Feast at Cana, the Benedictine
monks stipulated that Veronese be paid 324 ducats; be paid the costs
of his personal and domestic maintenance; be provided a barrel of
wine; and be fed in the refectory.
Aesthetically, the Benedictine contract stipulated that the
painter represent “the history of the banquet of Christ’s miracle at Cana, in
Galilee, creating the number of [human] figures that can be fully
accommodated.” That Veronese use optimi colori (optimum colours) —
specifically, the colour ultramarine,
a deep-blue pigment made from lapis lazuli,
a semi-precious, metamorphic rock. Assisted by his brother,
Benedetto Caliari, Veronese delivered the completed painting in September 1563,
in time for the Festa della Madonna della Salute, in November.
In the 17th century, during the mid–1630s, supporters of Andrea Sacchi (1599–1661)
and supporters of Pietro da Cortona (1596–1669) argued much
about the ideal number of human figures for a representational composition. Sacchi
said that only a few figures (fewer than twelve) permit the artist to honestly
depict the unique body poses and facial expressions that communicate character;
while da Cortona said that many human figures consolidate the general image of
a painting into an epic subject from which sub-themes would develop.
In the 18th century, in Seven Discourses on
Art (1769–90), the portraitist Joshua
Reynolds (1723–92), said that:
The subjects of the Venetian painters are mostly such as
gave them an opportunity of introducing a great number of figures, such as
feasts, marriages, and processions, public martyrdoms, or miracles. I can
easily conceive that [Paolo] Veronese, if he were asked, would say that no
subject was proper for an historical picture, but such as admitted at least
forty figures; for in a less number, he would assert, there could be no opportunity
of the painter's showing his art in composition, his dexterity of managing and
disposing the masses of light, and groups of figures, and of introducing a
variety of Eastern dresses and characters in their
rich stuffs.
As a narrative painting in the Mannerist style, The
Wedding Feast at Cana combines stylistic and pictorial elements from
the Venetian school's philosophy
of colorito (priority of colour) of Titian (1488–1576)
to the compositional disegno (drawing) of the High
Renaissance (1490–1527) used in the works of Leonardo (1452–1519), Raphael (1483–1520),
and Michelangelo (1475–1564). As such,
Veronese's depiction of the crowded banquet-scene that is The Wedding
Feast at Cana is meant to be viewed upwards, from below — because the
painting's bottom-edge was 2.50 metres from the refectory floor, behind and
above the head-table seat of the abbot of the
monastery.
As stipulated in the Benedictine contract for the painting, the
canvas of monumental dimensions (6.77m x 9.94m) and area (67.29m2) was to
occupy the entire display-wall in the refectory. In the 16th century,
Palladio's great-scale design was Classically austere; the monastery dining-room
featured a vestibule with a large door, and then
stairs that led to a narrow ante-chamber,
where the entry door to the refectory was flanked with two marble lavabos,
for diners to cleanse themselves;[11] the
interior of the refectory featured barrel vaults and groin vaults,
rectangular windows, and a cornice In practise, Veronese's artistic prowess
with perspective and architecture (actual
and virtual) persuaded the viewer to see The Wedding Feast at Cana as
a spacial extension of the refectory.
In The Wedding Feast at Cana (1563), Paolo Veronese
depicts the New Testament story of the Marriage at
Cana within the historical context of the Renaissance in
the 16th century. In the Gospel of
John, the story of the first Christian miracle, Mary, her son, Jesus of
Nazareth, and some of his Apostles, attend a wedding in Cana, a city in Galilee.
In the course of the wedding banquet,
the supply of wine was becoming depleted; at Mary's request, Jesus commanded
the house servants to fill stone jugs with water, which he then transformed
into wine (John 2:1–11).
The Wedding Feast at Cana represents the water-into-wine
miracle of Jesus in the grand style of the sumptuous feasts of food and music
that were characteristic of 16th-century Venetian society; the sacred in and
among the profane world where “banquet dishes not only signify wealth, power,
and sophistication, but transfer those properties directly into the individual
diner. An exquisite dish makes the diner exquisite.”
The banquet scene is framed with Greek and Roman architecture
from Classical Antiquity and from the Renaissance,
Veronese’s contemporary era. The Græco–Roman architecture features Doric order and Corinthian
order columns surrounding a courtyard that is enclosed with a
low balustrade; in the distance, beyond the courtyard, there is an arcaded tower, by the architect
Andrea Palladio. In the foreground, musicians play stringed instruments of
the Late–Renaissance, such as the lute, the
violone, and the viola da gamba.
Among the wedding guests are historical personages, such as the
monarchs Eleanor of Austria, Francis I of France, and Mary I of
England, Suleiman the Magnificent, tenth sultan of
the Ottoman Empire, and the Holy Roman Emperor
Charles V; the poetess Vittoria
Colonna, the diplomat Marcantonio Barbaro, and the architect Daniele
Barbaro; the noblewoman Giulia
Gonzaga and Cardinal Pole,
the last Roman Catholic Archbishop of Canterbury, the master jester Triboulet and
the Ottoman statesman Sokollu Mehmet Paşa — all dressed in the
sumptuous Occidental and Oriental fashions alla
Turca popular in the Renaissance.
According to 18th-century legend and artistic tradition, the
painter of the picture (Paolo Veronese) included himself to the banquet
scene, as the musician in white tunic, who is playing a viola da
braccio. Accompanying Veronese are the principal painters of
the Venetian school: Jacopo
Bassano, playing the flute, Tintoretto,
also playing a viola da braccio, and Titian,
dressed in red, playing the violone; besides them stands the poet Pietro
Aretino considering a glass of the new red wine.
The Wedding Feast at Cana (1563) is a painting of
the Early Modern period; the religious and theological
narrative of Veronese's interpretation of the water-into-wine miracle is in two
parts.
I. On the horizontal axis — the lower-half of the painting
contains 130 human figures; the upper-half of the painting is dominated by a
cloudy sky and Geæco–Roman architecture, which frames and contains the
historical figures and Late-Renaissance personages invited to celebrate the
bride and bridegroom at their wedding feast. Some human figures are rendered
in foreshortened perspective, the stylisation
of Mannerism; the old architecture mirrors the contemporary architecture of
Andrea Palladio; the narrative treatment places the religious
subject in a cosmopolitan tableau
of historical and contemporary personages, most of whom are fashionably dressed
in costumes from the Orient — Asia as
known to Renaissance society in the 16th century.
Seated behind and above the musicians are the Virgin Mary,
Jesus of Nazareth, and some of his Apostles. Above the figure of Jesus, on an
elevated walkway, a man watches the banquet, and a serving maid awaits for the
carver to carve an animal to portions. To the right, a porter arrives with more
meat for the feasting diners to eat. The alignment of the Jesus figure under
the carver's blade and block, and the butchered animals, prefigure his
sacrifice as the Lamb of God.
bottom-right-quarter — a barefoot wine-servant pours the
new, red wine into a serving ewer, from a large, ornate oenochoe,
which earlier had been filled with water. Behind the wine servant stands the
poet Pietro Aretino, intently considering the red
wine in his glass.
bottom-left-quarter — the steward of
the house (dressed in green) supervises the black servant-boy
proffering a glass of the new, red wine to the bridegroom, the host of the
wedding feast; at the edge of the nuptial table, a dwarf holds a bright-green
parrot, and awaits instructions from the house steward.
II. On the vertical axis — the contrasts of light and
shadow symbolize the co-existence of mortality and vanitas,
the transitory pleasures of earthly life; the protocol of religious symbolism supersedes the social
protocol.
In the wedding banquet proper,
the holy guests and the mortal hosts have exchanged their social status, and so
Jesus, the Virgin Mary, and some of his Apostles, are seated in the place of
honour of the centre-span of the banquet table, whilst the bride and bridegroom
sit, as guests, at the far end of the table's right wing. Above the Jesus
figure, a carver is carving a lamb, beneath the Jesus figure, musicians play
lively music, yet, before them is an hourglass —
a reference to the futility of human vanity. Moreover,
despite the kitchen's continuing preparation of roasted meat,
the main course of a celebratory meal, the wedding guests are eating the dessertcourse,
which includes fruit and nuts, wine and sweet quince cheese (symbolically
edible marriage); that contradiction, between kitchen and diners, indicates
that the animals are symbolic and not for eating.
From the 16th to the 18th centuries, for 235 years, the
painting decorated the refectory of the church of San Giorgio Maggiore, until
11 September 1797, when soldiers of Napoleon’s French Revolutionary Army plundered
the picture as war booty, during the Italian
campaigns of the French Revolutionary Wars (1792–1802). To
readily transport the oversized painting — from a Venetian church to a Parisian
museum — the French soldiers horizontally cut the canvas of The Wedding
Feast at Cana, and rolled it like a carpet, to be re-assembled and re-stitched
in France.
In 1798, along with other plundered works of art, the
235-year-old painting was stored in the first floor of the Louvre Museum; five
years later, in 1803, that store of looted art had become the Musée
Napoléon — the personal art collection of the future Emperor of the French.
In the early 19th century, after the Napoleonic
Wars (1803–15), the repatriation and restitution of looted
works of art was integral to the post–Napoleonic conciliation treaties.
Appointed by Pope Pius VII, the Neoclassical sculptor Antonio
Canova negotiated the French repatriation of Italian works of
art that Napoleon had plundered from the Papal States with
the Treaty of Tolentino(1797) — yet, the prejudiced
curator of the Musée Napoléon, Vivant Denon,
falsely claimed that Veronese's canvas was too fragile to travel from Paris to
Venice, and Canova excluded The Wedding Feast at Cana (1563) from
repatriation to Italy, and, in its stead, sent to Venice the Feast at the
House of Simon (1653), by Charles Le
Brun.
In the late 19th century, during the Franco–Prussian War (1870–71), The
Wedding Feast at Cana, then 308 years old, was stored in a box at Brest, in
Brittany. In the 20th century, during the Second World
War (1939–45), the 382-year-old painting was rolled up for
storage, and continually transported to hiding places throughout the south of
France, lest Veronese's art become part of the Nazi plunder stolen
during the twelve-year existence (1933–45) of the Third Reich.
In the early 21st century, on 11 September 2007 — the 210th
anniversary of the Napoleonic looting in 1797 — a computer-generated, digital
facsimile of The Wedding Feast at Cana was hung in
the Palladian refectory of the Monastery of San Giorgio Maggiore, Venice. The
full-sized (6.77m x 9.94m) digital facsimile is composed of 1,591 graphic
files, and was made by Factum Arte, Madrid, on commission from
the Giorgio Cini Foundation, Venice, and the
Musée du Louvre, Paris.
In 1989, the Louvre Museum began a painting restoration of The
Wedding Feast at Cana (1563), which provoked an art-world controversy like
that caused by the eleven-year Restoration of the Sistine Chapel
frescoes (1989–99). Organised as the Association to Protect the
Integrity of Artistic Heritage (APIAH), artists protested against the
restoration of the 426-year-old painting, and publicly demanded to be included
to the matter, which demand the Louvre Museum denied.
To the APIAH, especially controversial was the Museum's removal
of a rouge marron red hueover-painting of the tabard coat
of the house steward, who is standing (left-of-centre) in the foreground
supervising the black, servant-boy handing a glass of the new, red wine to the
bridegroom. The removal of the red hue revealed the original, green colour of
the tabard. In opposing that aspect of the painting’s restoration, the APIAH
said that Veronese, himself, had changed the tabard's colour to rouge
marron instead of the green colour of the initial version of the painting.
In June 1992, three years into the restoration of the painting, The
Wedding Feast at Cana twice suffered accidental damages. In the first
accident, the canvas was spattered with rainwater that leaked into the museum
through an air vent. In the second accident, occurred two days later, the
Louvre curators were raising the 1.5-ton-painting to a higher position upon the
display-wall when a support-frame failed and collapsed. In falling to the
museum floor, the metal framework that held and transported the painting
punctured and tore the canvas; fortuitously, the five punctures and tears
affected only the architectural and background areas of the painting, and not
the faces of the wedding guests.
