The Marriage at Cana, Jan Cornelisz Vermeyen, c. 1530 - c. 1532 – (Jan Cornelisz Vermeyen (Jan Mayo)) ◄ Previous Next ►

Artist: Jan Cornelisz Vermeyen (Jan Mayo)

Date: 1532

Size: 67 x 85 cm

Technique: Oil On Panel

The subject of this candle-lit scene of a group of people sitting at table is very probably the calling of St John the Evangelist during the wedding feast at Cana. In the past it was thought to depict the meal in the house of Martha and Mary (Luke 10:38-42).9 Scenes of the marriage at Cana as described in John 2:1-11 generally focused on Christ’s miracle of turning barrels of water into wine, and those barrels are always an essential part of the composition. This painting depicts a moment that preceded the miracle. According to a late-medieval tradition, the wedding feast at Cana celebrated the marriage of John the Evangelist and Mary Magdalen. Seated in the centre behind the table are the beardless John and his bride, with the apostles Peter and Andrew to the left of them, at the moment when the meal is being served. In the foreground the Virgin Mary turns to her right and grasps the shoulder of the servant who tells her that there is no wine. When she passes the news on to Christ he reacts dismissively. She then tells the servants to follow the instructions of her son, who tells them to fill the barrels with water, whereupon it turns into wine (John 2:3-10). At that moment John realises that there is a higher purpose to life and that he must follow Christ. He, ultimately followed by Mary Magdalen, opted for a spiritual rather than a physical marriage. The moment depicted in this painting follows the interpretation of Ludolf of Saxony and Pseudo-Bonaventure of the events that took place during the marriage at Cana.10 Although the bridal couple can be identified as John and Mary Magdalen in several scenes of the marriage at Cana from Giotto to Jheronimus Bosch, the barrels of water alluding to the miracle are always shown.11 The way in which the Rijksmuseum scene is viewed from above with the figures closely packed around the circular table is highly original. The lighting of the faces and figures is capricious and imparts remarkable liveliness to the scene. As Bruyn so aptly put it: ‘Each head is an adventure of forms looming up out of the darkness, and if ever a painting was built up from darkness to light, then this is it. [...] The way in which glancing light and half-shadows alternate is typical of a pictorial sensitivity that appears to be without precedent’.12 There is little doubt that Vermeyen was inspired by paintings like The Nativity by Aertgen van Leyden (SK-A-3903, fig. b). The mention of a candle-lit portrait by Vermeyen in the inventory of Margaret of Austria shows that he was already producing nocturnes by the second half of the 1520s. Another work that is as surprising and original as the present picture is the nocturnal Holy Family by a Fire in Vienna (fig. a), which is generally dated 1532-33, before Vermeyen’s departure for Spain and Tunis.13 Opinions differ about the date of the Rijksmuseum painting. Steinbart and Horn place it after Vermeyen’s return from Spain in 1540/41,14 while Bruyn and Kloek date it before his travels. In particular, the close stylistic and formal similarities to the artist’s etching, Mulay Hasan and his Retinue at a Repast (fig. b), which although not etched until c. 1545 was based on a drawing made in Tunis in 1534/35, are an argument for an early date of around 1530-32, as is the correspondence in technique with the Portrait of Erard de la Marck (see SK-A-4069) and The Holy Family by a Fire in Vienna (fig. a).15 The Rijksmuseum painting has a very sketch-like underdrawing, part of which was applied in a dry medium on the white ground and then reinforced with the brush. The bodies and faces were drawn with energetic contours and a sparing use of broad hatching (fig. c, fig. d). The underdrawing displays even greater freedom than those made by Jan van Scorel after his return from Italy, and its main purpose seems to have been to define the broad outlines of the scene. In contrast to the diptych with the Portrait of Erard de la Marck and The Holy Family (SK-A-4069 and SK-C-1701), the underdrawing, over which there is no priming, was followed in the paint layer, which was generally applied in a single layer, with various shades of brown and lighter tints of white, yellow, bright red etc. in a thin and flowing manner. Highlights were then placed on top. The paint was handled with the same feathery brushstrokes as the diptych.16 Gold leaf was used for the flames of the two candles.17 Vermeyen also used gold leaf in other paintings, for the carnation in The Holy Family (SK-C-1701), for instance. In 1931, Steinbart was the first to publish the painting in detail as a work by Jan Vermeyen. He did not know where it was at the time, but said that it had been on the Berlin art market in 1914 and had been offered to the Kaiser-Friedrich-Museum.18 The first photographs of the painting must have been made at that time, after which it disappeared into an English private collection. The Rijksmuseum bought it when it surfaced in an English auction in 1981. It was then restored../..