Plate 34 Cana, General View - After David Roberts

'Roberts left Nazareth on the morning of the 21st April, and reached Cana in Galilee around midday, after a pleasant canter that lasted a little longer than an hour'. (1) The town of Cana consisted of around fifty little houses with some in ruinous states. Cana was a famous biblical name as it was where Jesus performed his first miracle at a wedding feast. Here he turned water into wine and then later on his return from Judea he also healed the son of the wealthiest man in the town. Roberts visited a Greek Orthodox Church that stood at the foot of the hill which was believed to have been built over the remains of the house used for the wedding feast that Christ was at. The priest at the church showed the artist a relic of 'one of the jars' used for the transformation of water in to wine. The lithograph itself shows the early morning sun rising over the valley with the town of Cana visible in the distance.
 
The drawings and watercolours from this tour by David Roberts of the Holy Land and Egypt were collated together into folios and released over a seven year period by the publisher F.G. Moon from 20 Threadneedle Street London. This lithograph is an original First Edition version (1842-1849).
 
Medium: Original First Edition Lithograph, with hand-colouring on thick woven paper.
 
Full Plate 34.
 
Inscribed l.l. 'Site of Cana of Galilee, april 21st 1839'  and l.r. 'D. Roberts R.A.', 31.5 x 48.2 cm, framed.
 
References:
 
(1) Fabio Bourbon (ed). Yesterday and Today: The Holy Land. Swan Hill Press: London, 1997, p.223. Translated by Antony Shugaar.