National Gallery of Art :: The Collection :: The Marriage at Cana
  • Overview
  • Inscription
  • Provenance
  • Exhibition History
  • Bibliography

Overview

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 the son of the Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I of Austria, and their son Juan in 1497 to the Holy Roman Emperor's daughter.

Inscription

on border of tablecloth: AVE*GRATIA*PLENA*DOMINUS*TECU BENEDICTATU*INMUILERIBUS (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: SA*RN*VMT / AEN*D*VI; on border of Mary's mantle (in relief, deciphered with infrared reflectography): OVOSONRVM

Marks and Labels

null

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.

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.
1935
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
Cuttler, Charles D. Northern Painting from Pucelle to Brueghel. New York, 1968: 254, fig. 317.
1968
European Paintings and Sculpture: Illustrations (Companion to the Summary Catalogue, 1965). Washington, 1968: 75, repro.
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.

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