# The Marriage at Cana [View the canonical artwork record]() ## Artwork - Artist: [VOS, Marten de]() - Date: 1551-1600 - Technique: Oil on panel, 268 x 235 cm ## Commentary The Marriage at Cana 1596-97 Oil on panel, 268 x 235 cm O.-L. Vrouwekathedraal, Antwerp The painting shows Christ's first miracle. When the wine ran out at a wedding at which Jesus and his mother were guests, he changed the water into the finest wine - a perfect theme for the Tavern-Keepers' altar in the Antwerp Cathedral. The guild commissioned from marten de Vos, who was a very famous artist at the time. The time he spent in Venice had a noticeable effect on his work. The wedding reception is set in an attractive Renaissance interior with a table full of fine food and expensive crockery, and festively dressed guests. Three lute-players and a young singer play from a gallery. Most of the guests look like 16th-century Westerners. The three crowns above the bride and her immediate neighbours were a customary feature of weddings in de Vos's time. He tried, nevertheless, to evoke a somewhat Oriental, biblical atmosphere - several guests wear turbans, the bridegroom has a laurel crown and some of the servants' costumes are vaguely Roman. The large wine-jugs in the foreground have an especially classical appearance. Jesus and his mother stand out because of their simple, 'biblical' clothes. The guests are sure to include several senior members of the Tavern-Keepers' Guild. ## Related artworks - [Allegory of the Seven Liberal Arts]() - [Christ Triumphant over Death and Sin]() - [Nativity]() - [Portrait of Antonius Anselmus, His Wife and Their Children]() - [Return from the Flight to Egypt]() - [Scene from the Life of the Virgin]() - [St Luke Painting the Virgin Mary]() - [St Paul Bitten by a Viper on the Island of Malta]() - [The Emperor's Toll]() - [The Family of St Anne \(detail\)]() - [The Family of St Anne]() - [The Rape of Europa]() ## Attribution [Web Gallery of Art]()