The contract drawn up between Veronese and the Prior of San Giorgio Maggiore for the execution of this picture has been preserved. The painter bound himself to deliver it within a year, since the contract was signed June 6, 1562 and the delivery of the canvas took place of September 8, 1563. He was to be furnished with canvas and colours, to be entitled to take his meals at the convent and receive a cask of wine as additional recompense. As to remuneration for his work, it was fixed by mutual agreement at 324 ducats, which, in the 16th century, corresponded to 972 francs in the coin of France. Taking into consideration the enhanced value of money since that epoch, these 972 francs would represent to-day 7,000 francs. Such is the price which the greatest artist of his time received for a masterpiece which to-day commands the admiration of the entire world.
Never did Veronese display so much brilliance, dispense so much imagination as in the _Wedding at Cana_; never did he show a greater dexterity in execution; for, however considerable the dimensions of the canvas may be, it demanded nothing less than genius to distribute without clash or disproportion the hundred and thirty-two personages which compose it. A painter less thoroughly sure of himself would have made a sorry mess of this Feast; Veronese has produced a composition that is admirable for its balance, in abounding charming details, and unexpected and picturesque episodes, that do not in the least detract from the effect of the painting as a whole.
On this picture, as on so many others from the brush of Veronese, one cannot, as has already been said, pass an equitable judgment, unless one accepts, without question, the master's method. Veronese had no more respect for religious tradition than he had for mythological legend. To take issue with the incongruities and anachronisms of the _Wedding at Cana_, is voluntarily to debar oneself from discussing it. If historic exactitude is the one thing that counts in a painting, then this picture simply does not exist. But happily painting has no need to justify itself to history; it is amply sufficient to itself, without borrowing anything from history, and loses nothing of its beauty if perchance it does violence to history. And of this the _Wedding at Cana_ furnishes a most eloquent proof.