The Marriage Feast at Cana

Pagani executed the present drawing in preparation for a painting commissioned by the Franchini family for their altar in the church of San Francesco, Pistoia, now in the Museo Civico there (Mazzi, op. cit., no. 41, ill.). However, he died before completing the commission, which was subsequently passed on to his student Matteo Rosselli. There are a number of significant differences between the drawing and the painting that Thiem ascribes to this change in hand (Thiem, op. cit., p. 41). Despite the depth of the drawing filled with a great number of figures, Pagani’s composition is wholly focused on Christ as he turns the wine into water; the faces of the guests are all turned towards Christ’s seated figure, momentarily suspending the festivities to watch the miraculous act. In contrast, the finished painting seems to depict the moment after the miracle has taken place: Christ's gesture is demonstrative rather than active. The focus of the seated guests is no longer as singular: faces turn to one another as if in discourse. The seated old man and his dog in the lower right of the drawing have been replaced with a youth who lifts a cup from one of the amphorae in awe. Furthermore, many of the background figures have been removed.