The Marriage In Cana 

Gustave Doré made this engraving illustrating the biblical episode of the Marriage at Cana. Stone waterpots, such as the six prominently placed in the foreground, carry a profound weight. These vessels were not merely utilitarian; they were symbols of purification and transformation, deeply embedded in the religious consciousness of the time. The act of filling them with water, only for Christ to transform it into wine, echoes in earlier myths where water is turned into other substances, be it nectar or blood. Consider, for instance, the alchemical vessels, the retorts and alembics, in which base metals were transmuted into gold. Like these waterpots, they were containers of potential, receptacles for transformation. Even today, the waterpot carries its historical symbolic weight and its cultural memory transcends the bounds of time and space.