Overheard at the Louvre

On my most recent visit to the Louvre I was amused and appalled when I happened to overhear a conversation between a mother and her young son. I was standing in the gallery where Da Vinci's Mona Lisa (La Jaconde) is on display, and while there was a predictably massive crowd at the center of the room where the smiling lady holds her court, I was busy admiring Les noces de Cana by Paolo Caliari (aka Veronese), the massive work that hangs on the opposite wall. If you're not familar with this particular painting, or your Gospel stories, the marriage at Cana is where Jesus performed his first miracle by turning water into wine. For the record, I only learned this on an earlier visit to the Louvre when a Born-Again Christian who happened to be visiting at the same time explained the significance of the painting to me.It's a huge painting, and so it's easy to just stand and stare and get lost in the many mini-scenes that are taking place on the canvas, however I was snapped back to reality when I overheard this little jewel of a conversation between the mother and son:

Son (pointing to the Les noces de Cana): Ma, what is this?

Mother:.....................it's....uh......it's da Vinci's painting of the Last Supper!!

Son: WHOA!!!! How do you know?

Mother:....hmmm.....well, it's obvious that's Jesus in the middle and he's with all of his disciples and they're celebrating.

Son: Who are all of the other people?

Mother: Well, the last supper was a huge party, so I guess they're dinner guests.

Son (admiringly): How do you know all of this?

Mother (wisely): It says right there on the plaque....(points and pronounces in Spanish) "noces de Cana". Noces means night, and Cana means dinner!

Sigh....this exchange left me both laughing and cringing, not so much for the inaccuracy of the mom's explanation or her faux-Spanish reading of the caption plaque, but because she was so completely convinced that she was right when she was entirely wrong...