The Marriage at Cana (from scrapbook)

John Singer Sargent|Jacopo Tintoretto (Jacopo Robusti)

ca. 1872–74 · Graphite and watercolor on off-white wove paper · The American Wing

In 1874, the teenage Sargent wrote to a cousin, "I have learned in Venice to admire Tintoretto immensely and to consider him perhaps second only to Michael Angelo and Titian, whose beauties it was his aim to unite." Sargent probably saw Tintoretto’s much-lauded masterpiece The Marriage at Cana (1561) in situ in the church of Santa Maria della Salute during a visit to Venice in 1870 or 1873. Given the popularity of the picture, however, he may well have made his careful copy after a reproduction. Sargent cherished his copy, preserving it in this scrapbook, opposite a photograph of a drawing by Michelangelo (Young Man in Bust Length in Exotic Costume).

Artist

John Singer Sargent|Jacopo Tintoretto (Jacopo Robusti)

Date

ca. 1872–74

Medium

Graphite and watercolor on off-white wove paper

Culture

American

Department

The American Wing

Credit line

Gift of Mrs. Francis Ormond, 1950