The Marriage at Cana in an Imaginary Architectural Setting

after Giovanni Paolo Panini (Piacanza c.1692 - Rome 1765) . Oil painting on canvas, The Marriage at Cana in an Imaginary Architectural Setting, after Giovanni Paolo Panini (Piacenza c.1692 – Rome 1765), 18th century. A copy of an original in the J. B. Speed Museum, Louisville. The account of the feast at the Marriage at Cana, where Christ performed his first miracle of turning water into wine, is related in the Bible in the New Testament, John 2:1-11. The wedding celebration is taking place on a table at the far right of a large open space surrounded by a lofty classical colonnade. The table and wedding guests are dwarfed by the huge arches, surmounted by pairs of ornate composite columns, which lead at the centre through to the steps and colonnades of a larger palace. Christ can be identified in red at the centre of the table, his right arm outstretched. He gestures towards a second table covered in a white cloth on the left. Bottles are arranged against the wall in the left foreground and the floor of the room is laid with large, geometric tiles. Stourhead, Wiltshire (Accredited Museum)