VANNI, Giovanni Battista
(1599-1660):

The Wedding Feast at Cana,
after Paolo Veronese

Etching, 1637. Bartsch XX, 70, 17. The print was designed in two plates, divided neatly by the balustrade, this being the lower half. This impression was clearly never separated from a second sheet, but with most of the figures occupying this part of the composition, it becomes a stand-alone image.

A very good impression with small margins all round. A flattened centre crease where a guard has been removed, several small repaired nicks at the edges, otherwise in very good condition. 307 x 695mm
$3,200

 

 

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Veronese’s celebrated painting hung for two centuries in the Refectory of the Monastery of San Giorgio Maggiore, Venice, but after being plundered by Napoleon’s revolutionary army in 1797, it eventually found its way into the collection of the Louvre. The groupings of musicians, wine-bearers, and guests create a lively frieze with the figure of Christ at the centre. The wine vessel on the left is empty, while wine transformed from water pours out on the right.