The Wedding Feast at Cana

about 1575–1580

Medium

Pen and brown ink over black chalk, heightened with white opaque watercolor; incised for transfer; lower right section squared

Dimensions

45.1 × 36.8 cm

Status

In Museum Collection

Collect24 Art ID

C24-214203

A group of figures sit at a long table in the foreground, while behind them stairs rise to a semicircular portico. This drawing, featuring a scene of the biblical wedding feast at Cana, is the principal compositional study that Lavinia Fontana made to prepare her painting of the same subject, also at the Getty ([2022.28](https://www.getty.edu/art/collection/object/10NKF6)). Close looking and technical study of the painting and drawing reveal details of Lavinia’s creative process. Her father, Prospero, was a painter too, and she based her composition on drawings available to her in his studio. Yet she made myriad changes to create a successful scene on the copper support when she began to paint. These included enlarging the principal figures of Christ and his mother, seated at the table, modifying the vessels on the credenza at left and the wine amphorae in front of the table, and even elongating the figures in the lower right corner. Read the [online essay](https://museum-essays.getty.edu/drawings/ebernick-fontana/) for a full account of Lavinia’s creative process.