The calling of St John during the marriage at Cana

The support consists of two horizontally grained oak planks (33 and 33.5 cm). The panel was planed down to a thickness of 0.2-0.3 cm for the addition of a cradle, which was removed in 1982. X-rays show three butt-joints between both planks. The reverse of the panel is now covered with two layers of linen coated in wax. Dendrochronology has shown that the youngest heartwood ring was formed in 1501. The panel could have been ready for use by 1512, but a date in or after 1526 is more likely. The white ground, which is visible along the edges, extends to the top and bottom edge. On the left and right there are unpainted edges approx. 1.2 cm wide and the remains of a barbe, indicating that the panel must have been in a temporary working frame when the ground and paint were applied (painted surface: 66.5 x 82.5 cm). Infrared reflectography shows that the sketchy underdrawing consists of broad lines for the figures (and some hatching) in a dry medium, with some lines in a wet medium done with the brush (fig. c), (fig. d). There are many slight deviations from the underdrawing in the delineation of the reserves. The paint layer was applied rather thinly and broadly, with characteristic details like the feathery brushstrokes defining the contours. Black paint was used for the shadows, notably in the red draperies. Mordant gilding was used for the flames of both candles.

Kloek in Amsterdam 1986, pp. 201-02; Wallert et al. 2009

Fair. The panel is rather fragile due to the removal of the cradle. It is slightly abraded, and there are paint losses along the join and in the background.

…; ? inventory of paintings, Diego Duarte, Amsterdam, 12 July 1682 (‘Een groot stuck van de maeltijt van den vader des huysgesins uit het Evangelio van Joannue Magus, discipel van Raphel Urbin en schilder van Carolus V, fl. 200’;¹¹Transcribed in Muller 1870, p. 398, no. 40 …; the dealer, Annesley Gore, London, on behalf of an English nobleman, 1914;²²Note Friedländer on photo, RKD, no. 28155: ‘Gore 1914/Gehört engl. Aristokraten’. Steinbart 1931, pp. 104-05, relates that the painting was offered to the Kaiser-Friedrich-Museum, Berlin shortly before World War I. ...; collection Mrs Hope-Webb (?-1952);³³According to the catalogue for the sale, London (Sotheby’s), 9 December 1981 her nephew, Nigal Logan, Chipping Campden, Cotswolds, until 1969;⁴⁴According to the catalogue for the sale, London (Sotheby’s), 9 December 1981 his sister, Lady St Vincent, Avranche Manor, Jersey;⁵⁵Note RMA. her sale, London (Sotheby’s), 9 December 1981, no. 103, £ 22,000, to the dealer Julius Weitzner Gallery, London;⁶⁶Note RMA. from whom, £ 25,000 (fl. 118,000) to the museum, 1982;⁷⁷Provenance reconstructed in Horn 1989, I, p. 88, note 298.

ObjectNumber: SK-A-4820

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).⁹⁹Steinbart 1931, pp. 104-06. According to the visual tradition of the latter theme (see Cornelis Engelbrechtsz, SK-A-2232), that group was never shown at table, but with Mary sitting at Christ’s feet while Martha busily prepares the meal. 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.¹⁰¹⁰Bruyn 1984, esp. pp. 10-11, note 20, referring to Kirchbaum II, 1970, cols. 303-04, was the first to propose this interpretation, which was further developed by Kloek in Amsterdam 1978, pp. 201-02, no. 76. This was adopted by Horn 1989, I, esp. p. 32. Kloek 2003 raises the possibility that the roast fowl that John is pointing at is an allusion to the medieval custom of the bridegroom making a gift of a piece of poultry to his bride, which is consumed during the wedding feast. 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.¹¹¹¹See Sterling 1970 and Kloek in Amsterdam 1978, p. 202. See Ishikawa 2004, pp. 90-97, for the version by Juan de Flandes in the retable of Isabella the Catholic with scenes from the life of the Virgin, which later belonged to Margaret of Austria and must have been known to Jan Vermeyen.

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’.¹²¹²Bruyn 1984, p. 6. 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.¹³¹³See Horn 1989 I, pp. 11-12, figs. A 21-30, for possible models. Opinions differ about the date of the Rijksmuseum painting. Steinbart and Horn place it after Vermeyen’s return from Spain in 1540/41,¹⁴¹⁴See Horn 1989, I, pp. 32-33. 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).¹⁵¹⁵Bruyn 1984, pp. 7-9, points to the similarities to the composition of the etching, and the affinity with the Portrait of Don Filipe de Guevera of 1531 in Williamstown (illustrated in Horn 1989, II, pl. A 32), and believes that the costume of the lute player, which may well be a portrait, is in keeping with this, which has been confirmed by Marieke de Winkel.

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.¹⁶¹⁶See Bagley-Young 2008, p. 80, figs. 10-11. Gold leaf was used for the flames of the two candles.¹⁷¹⁷This was a method described in Van Mander 1604, fol. 32v, in his didactic poem; see Miedema 1973, I, pp. 196-97, II, p. 526. 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.¹⁸¹⁸Steinbart 1931, pp. 104-06, 108. 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, and it turned out that a plank had later been added to the top, raising the height of the scene by 9 cm (fig. e). The removal of that plank in 1982 greatly enhanced the intensity of the scene. This was one of the most important purchases of an early Netherlandish painting in recent decades.¹⁹¹⁹Kloek 1989b.

(J.P. Filedt Kok)

Benesch 1929, p. 205 (as ‘Christ in the house of Lazarus’); Steinbart 1931, pp. 104-06, 108 (as ‘Christ visiting Mary and Martha’); Friedländer XII, 1935, p. 164 (as ‘Christ visiting Mary and Martha’); ENP XII, 1975, p. 88 (as ‘Christ visiting Mary and Martha’); Bruyn 1984, pp. 5-8; Kloek 1984, esp. p. 88 (as ‘Christ visiting Mary and Martha’); Kloek in Amsterdam 1986a, pp. 201-02, no. 76; Horn 1989, I, pp. 11, 23-24, 33, 36, 88; Kloek in Van Os ‘et al.’ 2000, pp. 149-50, no. 55; Kloek 2003

1992, p. 89, no. A 4820

J.P. Filedt Kok, 2010, 'Jan Cornelisz. Vermeyen, The calling of St John during the marriage at Cana, Mechelen, c. 1530 - c. 1532', in J.P. Filedt Kok (ed.), Early Netherlandish Paintings, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.6422