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John Baptist Jackson

Marriage at Cana

Maker

John Baptist Jackson (British, 1701-ca. 1780), designer
Paolo Veronese (Italian, 1528-1588), painter

Title

Marriage at Cana
Titiani Vecelii, Paul Caliarii, Jacobi Robusti et Jacobi de Ponte; Opera Selection a Joanne Baptista Jackson, Angelo, Ligano Coelata et Coloribus Adumbrata

Year

1740

Medium

  • Chiaroscuro woodcut on two sheets from five blocks in light tan,
  • dark tan,
  • light brown,
  • brown,
  • and dark brown

Materials/Techniques

Techniques

  • Chiaroscuro woodcut on two sheets from five blocks in light tan,
  • dark tan,
  • light brown,
  • brown,
  • and dark brown

Materials

chiaroscuro woodcut

Supports

  • Medium weight cream laid paper

Dimensions

Plate: 57.6 x 42.1 cm (22 11/16 x 16 9/16 inches)

Signature / Inscription / Marks

Original--Recto:numbered in pencil in center of right margin: 5In Plate--Inscribed, in LL:Paulo Cagliari/Veron:Pinxit.

Marks: Stamped in brown ink on verso:R.I.S.D./MUSEUM/OF ART surrounded by PROVIDENCE/RHODE ISLAND

Credit / Object Number

Credit

Museum Collection

Object Number

47.396.6

Type

  • Prints

Exhibition History

A Matter of Tone
Chiaroscuro Woodblock Prints, 1520-1800
Jul 16, 2004 – Oct 31, 2004

Label copy

After experimenting with chiaroscuro prints in Paris, Jackson developed his methods further in Venice, where in 1735 he designed a cylinder press capable of printing larger sheets under greater pressure. Jackson was introduced to Zanetti, whose prints he later dismissed as “a trifling Performance” (see Jacob Kainen, John Baptist Jackson: 18th-Century Master of the Color Woodcut, no. 222, United States National Museum Bulletin, Smithsonian Institution [1962], p. 25). He was critical particularly of their having been hand-printed, rather than done on a press. Jackson turned to the challenge of reproducing oil paintings to capitalize on the market for images of paintings seen by British and other travelers on the Grand Tour. The ambitious “Venetian Set” reproduces 17 different paintings, often printed on two or more sheets. Commissioned by British consul and renowned collector Joseph Smith, the series sold by subscription and took four and half years to complete. Despite artistic success, it was a commercial failure. Jackson returned to England and started a chiaroscuro wallpaper business in 1752, which also failed.

The pressure of the cylinder press allowed Jackson to emboss the paper deeply with each block, as can be seen in the texture of the sky and columns of Marriage at Cana. As a result, the sheets could not be completely flattened without damaging the embossing, and the buckling of these impressions is typical of the series. The differences in the tones of the inks in the two sheets are due to the difficulties of matching exact shades before the invention of commercial standardized inks.

Related Objects

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John Baptist Jackson

Titiani Vecelii Paul Caliarii, Jacobi Robusti et Jacobi de Ponte; Opera Selection a Joanne Baptista Jackson, Angelo, Ligano Coelata et Coloribus Adumbrata

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Public Domain This object is in the Public Domain and available under a CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication

Tombstone

John Baptist Jackson (British, 1701-ca. 1780), designer
Paolo Veronese (Italian, 1528-1588), painter
Marriage at Cana; Titiani Vecelii, Paul Caliarii, Jacobi Robusti et Jacobi de Ponte; Opera Selection a Joanne Baptista Jackson, Angelo, Ligano Coelata et Coloribus Adumbrata, 1740
Chiaroscuro woodcut on two sheets from five blocks in light tan, dark tan, light brown, brown, and dark brown
Plate: 57.6 x 42.1 cm (22 11/16 x 16 9/16 inches)
Museum Collection 47.396.6

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