Johannes Stradanus (Bruges 1523-Florence 1605)
The Marriage Feast at Cana c.1580-87
Pen and brown ink with brown wash, heightened with white, on pink prepared paper | 16.5 x 12.7 cm (sheet of paper) | RCIN 904709
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A drawing of guests seated together at the sides of a long table, at the end of which are the bridal pair beneath a baldacchino. Christ, with the Virgin seated beside him, oversees the pouring of the new wine into large jars in the right foreground. A border line reducing the composition has been added at the top and the left. This design was engraved in the same direction. RCIN 904695, 904697-904713 are the preparatory drawings for the title-page and seventeen illustrations which were engraved in reverse, and published by Adriaen Collaert in Antwerp without date, under the title Beatae intactae semperg. Virginis Mariae Vita…The engravings were later used as the source for a series of engraved scenes around the Madonna and Child on a silver altar in the Museo degli Argenti, Florence.
Provenance
First recorded in a Royal Collection inventory of c.1810 (Inv. A, P.18: 'Strada & old Masters 73 Drawings 55 pages')
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Medium and techniques
Pen and brown ink with brown wash, heightened with white, on pink prepared paper
Measurements
16.5 x 12.7 cm (sheet of paper)
Object type(s)
