Amphorae

Work made specifically for the “Noces de Cana” exhibition, Chapelle Paraire, Rodez, France.

The wedding at Cana has been portrayed for centuries — by Veronese and Tintoretto, later by Flemish artists such as Jan Cossiers and Maerten de Vos, and by many others since. Those works share Christ, Mary, dinner tables, guests, servants, grand settings, and the six jars in which the miracle occurred.

An amphora is a container of characteristic shape, used in vast numbers for transport and storage, mostly of wine. In these paintings the cliché of grand settings and depictions of Christ is set aside in favour of the humble vessels without which the miracle could not have occurred. Without something to put the water in first, there would be nothing to hold the wine.

They came in a huge variety of shapes and sizes, as do we, and are depicted so in the great works, from simple stoneware to ornate jars. They are in many ways symbolic of the common person — sometimes overlooked, put to many uses, and on occasion a vessel for greatness.