How Did Everyone Miss This in the Biggest Painting in the Louvre?

Every day thousands of people in the Louvre stand with their backs to this painting. They came for the Mona Lisa on the opposite wall. Behind them hangs the largest painting in the museum, Veronese's Wedding at Cana: almost 7 by 10 meters, more than 130 guests, and somewhere in this feast a clock that is already running. Then the painting's own story: a barrel of wine as payment, Napoleon's soldiers cutting it in half, the lie that kept it in Paris, and the restoration that tore it again.

Should the Louvre send The Wedding at Cana back to Venice? Tell me in the comments.

0:00 Everyone turns their back on this painting
0:26 A Venetian party
1:36 Where is the host?
2:28 The vertical line
3:15 A barrel of wine
4:06 Free 4K details
4:14 Cut in half by Napoleon, 1797
4:32 The lie of 1815
5:04 Red or green: the 1992 restoration
5:42 The faces in 4K
5:53 Your verdict

Paolo Veronese, The Wedding at Cana, 1562-1563, oil on canvas, 677 x 994 cm, Musée du Louvre, Paris.

Sources: Musée du Louvre; Wikipedia - "The Wedding at Cana (Veronese)"; Factum Arte (2007 facsimile, San Giorgio Maggiore).
Images (Wikimedia Commons, public domain unless noted): Veronese, The Wedding at Cana (Louvre); Charles Le Brun, The Feast in the House of Simon (Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice); Antoine-Jean Gros, Bonaparte at the Bridge of Arcole; Robert Lefèvre, Vivant Denon; Titian, self-portrait (Prado); Tintoretto, self-portrait; Jacopo Bassano (engraving); print of the French entering Venice, 1797. Photos of the Louvre, the Horses of St Mark and San Giorgio Maggiore: Wikimedia Commons, CC licenses, authors listed on the file pages.
Details of The Wedding at Cana restored in 4K by 4kResto.
Music: Josef Suk, Serenade for Strings, Op. 6 (YouTube Audio Library).

#weddingatcana #veronese #louvre #arthistory #4kResto