Maria Katharina Prestel (German, 1747-1794)
after Jacopo Vignali (Italian, 1592-1664)
The Celebration of High Mass
INV-1090
Maria Katharina Prestel (German, 1747-1794)
after Jacopo Vignali (Italian, 1592-1664)c. 1776
The Celebration of High Mass
Maria Katharina Prestel (German, 1747-1794) after Jacopo Vignali (Italian, 1592-1664) →etchingprint
Date
c. 1776
Medium
Etching and acquatint in brown and green on cream wove paper
Dimensions
Image/plate: 32.8 × 23.7 cm (12 15/16 × 9 3/8 in.); Sheet: 41.7 × 31.2 cm (16 7/16 × 12 5/16 in.)
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Location
Chicago, IL
Credit
The Wallace L. DeWolf and Joseph Brooks Fair Collections
Working with her husband, Johann Gottlieb Prestel (1739–1808), Maria Prestel created the Schmidt’sches Kabinett (Schmidt’s Art Cabinet), a compilation of prints reproducing works owned by the collector Gerhard Joachim Schmidt (1742–1801). Prestel combined etching and aquatint, replicating Jacopo Vignali’s original pen-and-wash drawings. The highlights suggest wispy rays of light, or haloes, which radiate from the monks’ tonsured heads. In the lower-left corner is an incense burner, perhaps held by a monk just out of sight, who is participating in the Mass.