The Marriage at Cana

c. 1495/1497

Master of the Catholic Kings

Artist, Spanish, active c. 1485/1500

Three men and two women sit or stand along the far side of a long table, with more people looking on or gathered in other rooms behind them in this tall, vertical painting. All the people have pale skin. The long table stretches nearly the width of the painting. Near the left edge of the painting, a woman wearing a teal-blue robe over a white head scarf holds her hands together in front of her chest in prayer, and she looks down and to our right toward the tabletop. Next to her, a bearded man wearing a loose, eggplant-purple robe, Jesus, holds his right hand, to our left, up in front of his chest with his first two fingers raised, and the other hand rests on the table. His long, wavy brown hair hangs by his face, and he looks down toward the table with hooded eyes, his head tilted slightly to our left. Gold lines radiate out from the woman and Jesus’s heads. At his left shoulder, to our right, a man wearing a sky-blue cap and an emerald-green robe holds an oval-shaped bowl filled with a red liquid toward Jesus with one hand, and the other rests on the table. He looks to our left with light brown eyes under arched brows, and he has deep wrinkles across his forehead, at the corners of his eyes, along his chin line, and around his mouth. To our right and at the end of the table, a young, cleanshaven man sits next to a woman. Both have wavy blond hair, and they look down at the table. The man wears a crimson-red cap and a white fur-lined red cloak with a gold, jeweled clasp lined with teardrop pearls. His right hand, to our left, is lifted toward the woman sitting next to him. The woman wears a pearl-and-jewel headband around a white cloth that drapes down the back of her head. Her pine-green dress is patterned with shimmering gold, stylized leaf designs and has full, loose, white sleeves. She wears three gold rings on the hand resting on the table and two jeweled, gold bands on the other, which rests on her belly. Two younger people, both with brown, shoulder-length hair, stand on our side of the table, facing away from us as they look toward the woman to our right. The one to our left wears a brick-red tunic, and he holds a shallow, round bowl. The one to our right wears teal blue and holds a gold goblet on the table. With his other hand, he points down at six tall jugs on the geometrically patterned floor, and a brown dog stands at his feet. The table is covered with a white cloth, which is decorated with bands of stylized leaves and borders on the side facing us. Along the bottom of the cloth, above long fringe, a Latin inscription reads, “AVE GRACIA PLENA DOMINVS TECV BENEDICTATV INMVILEDIDVS ET BENEDICTVS.” Two gold plates, a few pieces of round, flat bread, and two knives are spaced along the tabletop. Behind the group at the table, one person stands to our left, another at the center, and a trio of men stand to our right. The far wall of the room is peirced with two tall, narrow arches of wood or dark stone to our left. At the top of the column separating the arches, there is white statue of a man holding up two round-topped tablets. The archway to our right opens onto a room with a bed covered with a ruby-red cover and a white pillow. Under the other arch, to our left, one woman and three men sit or stand around a round table in front of a tall fireplace mantle. One of the men holds a large, pewter-silver pitcher up to his lips, and the other three look on. The round table is covered with a white cloth and set with a few dishes. A door on the far wall of that room opens onto a street view lined with buildings.

Media Options

This object’s media is free and in the public domain. Read our full Open Access policy for images.

Christ is shown here at the scene of his first miracle—the transformation of water into wine. He stands at the banquet table of a wedding, his right hand raised in a gesture of benediction, while a servant, pointing to the clay jars on the floor as if to explain what has just taken place, offers the bridal pair a goblet of the transformed liquid.

That the artist has absorbed the traditions of 15th–century Flemish painting is evident in his mastery of the oil technique and his meticulous rendering of texture and minute detail. Combined with these elements are purely Spanish ones, such as the solemn faces with downturned mouths and the recognizably Spanish costumes.

The unidentified artist's name is derived from his principal work, The Altarpiece of the Catholic Kings, of which this panel is a part. Visible among the heraldic devices are the insignia of provinces united by the marriage of Ferdinand and Isabella. The additional presence of the Holy Roman Emperor's coat–of–arms implies that The Marriage at Cana also alludes to two contemporary weddings significant in European history—those of Ferdinand and Isabella's daughter Juana in 1496 to, Philip the Fair, the son of the Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I of Austria, and their son Juan in 1497 to the Holy Roman Emperor's daughter, Margaret of Austria.

On View

West Building Main Floor, Gallery 38


Artwork overview

  • Medium

    oil on panel

  • Credit Line

    Samuel H. Kress Collection

  • Dimensions

    overall (original painted surface): 137.1 x 92.7 cm (54 x 36 1/2 in.)
    overall (with addition at bottom): 153.1 x 92.7 cm (60 1/4 x 36 1/2 in.)
    overall (with added border strips): 155.7 x 95.8 cm (61 5/16 x 37 11/16 in.)
    framed: 184.8 x 130.5 x 12.7 cm (72 3/4 x 51 3/8 x 5 in.)

  • Accession

    1952.5.42


Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Possibly commissioned for a convent or church in Valladolid, Spain.[1] Before 1919, José María de Palacio, Conde de las Almenas, Madrid;[2] sold 28 March 1919 to (Frank Partridge and Sons, Ltd., London).[3] Dr. Preston Pope Satterwhite [1867-1948], New York, by 1933;[4] possibly purchased by (French & Co., New York).[5] purchased 1941 by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York;[6] gift 1952 to NGA.
[1] The probable patronage of the Catholic Kings has led Van der Put and subsequent commentators to posit that the altarpiece was commissioned for a church or convent in Valladolid. Albert van der Put, typescript, c. 1922, in NGA curatorial files. The painting has qualities characteristic of Spanish paintings in northern Castile during the reign of the Catholic Kings. Among cities in the region, Valladolid was the one most favored by the monarchs, who occasionally held court there. The theory that the panels were intended for an institution in Valladolid is plausible, but cannot be regarded as certain. Even if the paintings were created in northern Castile, they could have been commissioned for an institution in another part of Spain.
[2] This painting is shown hanging on a wall of the Madrid residence of the Conde de las Almenas in a photograph in Arthur Byne and Mildred Shapley, Spanish Interiors and Furniture, 2 vols. (New York, 1922), 2: pl. 109.
[3] Frank Partridge, memorandum, 1924, in the files of the Frick Art Reference Library, New York.
[4] Chandler R. Post, A History of Spanish Painting (Cambridge, Mass., 1933), v. IV, pt. II, 418.
[5] From Colin Eisler, Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: European Schools Excluding Italian (Oxford, 1977), 178 and provenance card, NGA curatorial files; however in her 26 August 1988 letter, Martha Hepworth of the Getty Provenance Index indicates that these panels do not appear in the French & Co. stock books, which are now at the Getty. Robert Samuels, Jr., a representative of French & Co., searched the French & Co. records still kept at the New York office, but also was unable to find any references to the two panels.
[6] Provenance card, NGA curatorial files. See also The Kress Collection Digital Archive, https://kress.nga.gov/Detail/objects/2238.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1935

  • Exhibition of Spanish Painting, The Brooklyn Museum, 1935, no. 6.

1937

  • Spanish Paintings, Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1937, no cat.

1941

  • Spanish Painting, The Toledo [Ohio] Museum of Art, 1941, no. 27.

1951

  • Paintings and Sculpture from the Samuel H. Kress Collection, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1951, 180, no. 79.

Bibliography

1913

  • Mayer, August L. Geschichte der spanishchen Malerei. Leipzig, 1922: 145, fig. 113 (also Spanish ed. Madrid, 1942: 166, fig. 135).

1933

  • Post, Chandler Rathfon. A History of Spanish Painting. 14 vols. Cambridge, Mass., 1930-1966: 4, pt 2:418-419, fig. 164.

1935

  • Mayer, August L. "Pinturas castellanas procedentes de la colección Rojo y Sojo." Revista española de arte 12 (1934-1935): 205, 110.

  • Philipps, Gerry. "Spanish Painting at Brooklyn." Magazine of Art 28 (1935): 675, repro.

1937

  • Clifford, Henry. "Great Spanish Painters: A Timely Show." Art News 35 (17 April, 1937): 9, repro. 8.

1939

  • Mayer, August L. "Late XVth Century Castilian Painting." Apollo 29 (1939): 281.

1941

  • Frothingham, Alice W. Hispanic Glass. New York, 1941: 29, fig. 20.

1952

  • Brans, J. V. L. Isabel la católica y el arte hispanoflamenco. Madrid, 1952: 130-132.

1955

  • Gudiol y Ricart, José. Pintura gótica. Ars Hispaniae 9. Madrid, 1955: 355, fig. 311.

1956

  • King, Marian. Portrait of Jesus: Paintings and Engravings from the National Gallery. Philadelphia, 1956: 28, repro. 29.

1958

  • Gaya Nuño, Juan Anotonio. La pintura española fuera de España; historia y catàlogo. Madrid, 1958: 274, no. 2246.

1959

  • Paintings and Sculpture from the Samuel H. Kress Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1959: 263, repro.

1965

  • Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 86.

1966

  • Gudiol y Ricart, José. "El Pintor Diego de la Cruz." Goya 70 (1966): 214-215.

1968

  • National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 75, repro.

  • Cuttler, Charles D. Northern Painting from Pucelle to Brueghel. New York, 1968: 254, fig. 317.

1975

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 224, repro.

1977

  • Eisler, Colin. Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: European Schools Excluding Italian. Oxford, 1977: 177-178, 181-182, fig. 183.

1979

  • Anderson, Ruth Mathilda. Hispanic Costume: 1480-1530. New York, 1979: 35, 49, 83, 109, 169, 189, figs. 26, 84, 205, 269, color pl. 11.

1981

  • O'Meara, Carra Fergusson. "In the Hearth of the Virginal Womb: The Iconography of the Holocaust in Late Medieval Art." The Art Bulletin 63, no. 1 (March 1981): 86, n. 58.

1982

  • Abrams, Richard I. and Warner A. Hutchinson. An Illustrated Life of Jesus, From the National Gallery of Art Collection. Nashville, 1982

1984

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 142, no. 144, color repro.

1985

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 255, repro.

1990

  • Brown, Jonathan, and Richard G. Mann. Spanish Paintings of the Fifteenth through Nineteenth Centuries. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 1990: 93-101, color repro. 95.

1992

  • National Gallery of Art, Washington. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 76, repro.

2004

  • Hand, John Oliver. National Gallery of Art: Master Paintings from the Collection. Washington and New York, 2004: 70-71, no. 51, color repro.

Inscriptions

on border of tablecloth: AVEGRATIAPLENADOMINUSTECU BENEDICTATUINMUILERIBUS (Hail full of grace, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women) (Luke 1:28); on border of Christ's tunic: QUID MIHI ET TIBI EST MULLER (What have I to do with thee, woman?) (John 2:4); on towel over shoulders of attendant on right: SARNVMT / AEND*VI; on border of Mary's mantle (in relief, deciphered with infrared reflectography): OVOSONRVM

Wikidata ID

Q20174659


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