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Friday, October 15, 2010

Question from Melissa - Catherine of Aragon and the painting The Wedding of Cana

I stumbled across a painting of The Wedding of Cana by Flemish artist David Gerard and was struck by the resemblance of the bride in the painting to Catherine of Aragon, Henry VIII's first consort. The painting can be seen here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:The_marriage_at_cana1_wga.jpg
I know other artists painted Catherine as the Madonna so it seems possible Gerard stuck her in this painting, and he is a contemporary of hers so the time periods would match up, but I can't find any additional information. Does anyone know if this is indeed a representation of Catherine of Aragon?

1 comment:

  1. I know he inserted a self portrait of himself in a painting depicting the Virgin among angels, and KOA'S mother Isabella also makes a cameo in one of his paintings, so it seems the kind of thing he would do. I'll have a look around and see if I can find any additional info. on the painting! I agree, it certainly looks like KOA. It's a striking resembelance to KOA in the Magdalene and Madonna portraits, which were executed around the same time as this painting.

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