print
- Museum number
- U,5.135
- Description
-
The marriage at Cana (John 2:1-11); Christ and the Virgin seated at centre, the bride and groom at left, attendants bringing plates of food and servants in the foreground filling jars with water, pillars and an archway behind. 1576
Engraving
- Production date
- 1576
- Dimensions
-
Height: 335 millimetres
-
Width: 252 millimetres
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- A related drawing by Sabatini is in the BM (1990,0407.16). See Michael Bury, 'The Print in Italy 1550-1620', BM, London 2001, no.8. The following text comes from his cat.7:
The date on the present impression has been rather crudely altered from 1576 to 1577.
Sabatini came from Bologna but was working for Gregory XIII in the Vatican from 1573 until his death in August 1576. He may have commissioned the plate from Cort and intended to publish it himself. Bierens de Haan recorded an impression in Dresden with the date 1576, but as it did not yet have Sabatini's name it is most likely to have been a proof. After Sabatini's death the date was altered and the plate printed. The crudity with which the alteration of the date was carried out precludes Cort's participation at that stage; the plate must have left his hands. It was subsequently sold to the Roman print dealer Lorenzo Vaccari, whose address appears on the third state (adopting Bierens de Haan's numbering of the states).
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
2001/2 Sep-Jan, BM, The Print in Italy 1550-1620
2002 Feb-Mar, New York, Miriam & Ira D Wallach AG, The Print in Italy
2002/3 Sep-Jan, Ottawa, NG of Canada, The Print in Italy 1550-1620
2003 Feb-Apr, Edinburgh, NG of Scotland, The Print in Italy 1550-1620
- Acquisition date
- 1753
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- U,5.135