Painting Detail
Marriage at CanaArtist: Benvenuto Tisi
Medium: Painting, Oil on canvas, 306x248 cm
Date: 1531
Genre: Christianity, Religious
Source: Gatchina Palace, After 1898
Benvenuto Tisi painted The Marriage at Cana for the refectory of the Monastery of San Bernardino at Ferrara where, according to a vow he had taken, he worked free of charge for some years. In 1792 the painting was acquired by Pope Pius VI for his family palace in Rome. The subject is Christ's first miracle: at the marriage feast at Cana in Galilee at which Christ was a guest, when the wine began to run out He ordered them to fill the jugs with water which He then turned into wine. The idealized images, the clear grouping of figures and particularly the powerful arches in the background are evidence of the influence of Raphael, above all the School of Athens fresco in the Vatican.
Benvenuto Tisi (or Il Garofalo) (1481 - September 6, 1559) was a Late-Renaissance-Mannerist Italian painter of the School of Ferrara. Garofalo's career began attached to the court of the Duke d'Este. His early works have been described as "idyllic", but they often conform to the elaborate conceits favored by the artistically refined Ferrarese court. His nickname, Garofalo, may derive from his habit of signing some works with a picture of a carnation (in Italian, garofano).
His youthful works include the Boar Hunt in the Palazzo Sciarra and the Virgin in the Clouds with Four Saints (1518) in the Gallerie dell'Accademia in Venice, considered one of his masterpieces. The Pietà (1527) in the Brera Gallery in Milan reveals an increasingly stylized treatment. The Madonna (1532) in the Modena Gallery is a charming picture; however, the large Triumph of Religion in the Atheneum at Ferrara has been described as a "bookish" affair, whose episodes are difficult to elucidate. Garofalo is one of the painters known and described by Vasari. From 1550 till his death Garofalo was blind. In 1520, Girolamo da Carpi is said to have apprenticed in Garofalo's workshop, and worked with him in Ferrarese projects in the 1530-40.