The wedding at cana giotto biography summary

The wedding at cana summary

This is one of a sequence of scenes from the life of Christ by Giotto which adorn the walls of the Cappella Scrovegni. Often Christ and his mother are shown as just two guests among many at a large feast, but in this painting by Giotto, we see them sitting with the bridal party, which suggests an intimate connection between them and this family. This sense of intimacy is enhanced by the small enclosed setting.

You could imagine it being lifted away to reveal an exterior scene behind, such as the Baptism or the Raising of Lazarus, which actually the viewer in the Chapel can see to the left and right respectively. Some of the characters are easily identified. Christ and Mary are shown with haloes at either end of the table. There is another man with a halo in the left hand corner who, we would assume, is one of the apostles.

His large rounded belly marks him out. There is humour in the visual pun made by the adjacent and similarly shaped water jars, which the viewer knows will soon be full to the brim with wine. Giotto shows several stages of the story at once. On the left, Christ addresses a servant and has a hand raised in blessing. Back on the right, a servant fills the jars with water and behind her the wine steward tastes the wine.

Opinions on the identity of the others seated at the table vary. He certainly looks like St John as shown in other scenes. But in those scenes St John has a halo, whereas the young man at table beside Jesus does not.