The Wedding Feast at Canaa

The young Leandro Bassano painted this between 1579 and 1582, thus making his debut as an autonomous painter in his father’s workshop and showing quite a different personality from that of his elder brother Francesco. After a long apprenticeship during which he had learned to highlight works conceived by his father, Leandro had the chance to show his own ability in art, though in this painting he adopts motifs and details typical of the style of Jacopo and Francesco.

In this painting the artist depicts the sacred episode as though it were a colourful animated scene of sixteenth-century life. In fact, only Christ and the Madonna wear biblical garments, all the other characters, shown in natural poses and everyday attitudes, wear the typical clothing in fashion in the painter’s day.

The spaciousness of the painting, the rich layout of the scene and the precise description of the details of the story from the gospel are an expression of the narrative style that is a distinctive feature of Leandro’s painting. The artist’s brush lingers in the analytical definition of every detail of the composition: the baskets of fruits, the straw containers, the musical instruments, the metal and terracotta vases and the various dishes of food on the table laid for the feast.

The red drape at the top in the foreground forms a kind of curtain behind which the stage opens onto a deep and dark landscape in the background, lit by a cold bright light.