Christ on the Cross

Title

Christ on the Cross

[Christie's Online Database, http://www.christies.com/lotfinder/paintings/lucas-cranach-i-christ-on-the-cross-5701772-details.aspx?from=searchresults&intObjectID=5701772&sid=2c667680-ea34-4d68-bdf5-96e504b1186f, accessed 10 Oct 2017]

Painting on wood

Medium

Painting on wood

Faithful to the Biblical texts, the painter engulfs the figure of Christ in darkness, recalling the miraculous eclipse that took place during his martyrdom: 'And it was about the sixth hour, and there was a darkness over all the earth until the ninth hour. And the sun was darkened, and the veil of the temple was rent in the midst' (Luke 23:44-5). Cranach exploits the divine wind accompanying the eclipse to extraordinary pictorial effect by having Christ's loincloth describe a supremely elegant double arabesque. The rocky landscape beyond, still not covered with darkness, is graphically rendered with swift and virtuosic outlines.

Attribution: Lucas Cranach the Elder

Attribution

Lucas Cranach the Elder

Production date: about 1530 - 1535

Production date

about 1530 - 1535

Dimensions: Dimensions of support: 41 x 25.8 cm

Dimensions

Dimensions of support: 41 x 25.8 cm
[Christie's Online Database, http://www.christies.com/lotfinder/paintings/lucas-cranach-i-christ-on-the-cross-5701772-details.aspx?from=searchresults&intObjectID=5701772&sid=2c667680-ea34-4d68-bdf5-96e504b1186f, accessed 10 Oct 2017]

Signature / Dating: Artist's insignia at the bottom, centre: serpent with elevated wings

Signature / Dating

Artist's insignia at the bottom, centre: serpent with elevated wings
[cda 2017]

Inscriptions and Labels: Reverse of the panel: A seventeenth-century inscription, running over the entire back of the picture, indicates that it belonged …

Inscriptions and Labels

Inscriptions, Badges:

Reverse of the panel: A seventeenth-century inscription, running over the entire back of the picture, indicates that it belonged to Alamanno di Stefano, a member of the retinue of the papal nuncio Giovanni Battista Rinuccini (1592-1653) during their mission to Ireland at the time of the Confederate War of 1645-1649. A native of Florence and a man of letters, named Archbishop of Fermo in 1625, Rinuccini was sent to Ireland by Pope Innocent X. With a cargo of weapons and monetary funds, Rinuccini aimed at providing decisive support to the Irish Catholics in their fight against the Protestant English forces. He sought to make Ireland an independent Catholic kingdom, and eventually, he might even have hoped that a victory in Ireland would be the starting point for a Catholic reconquest of England itself, then in the midst of the Civil War, but he returned to Italy, defeated, in 1649.
[Christie's Online Database, http://www.christies.com/lotfinder/paintings/lucas-cranach-i-christ-on-the-cross-5701772-details.aspx?from=searchresults&intObjectID=5701772&sid=2c667680-ea34-4d68-bdf5-96e504b1186f, accessed 10 Oct 2017]

Owner: Private Collection
Repository: Private Collection

CDA ID: PRIVATE_NONE-P011
FR (1978) Nr.: FR-none
Persistent Link: https://lucascranach.org/en/PRIVATE_NONE-P011/

Provenance

Alamanno di Stefano, member of Giovanni Battista Rinuccini's retinue on his papal mission to Ireland (1645-1649)
Charles A. Loeser (1864-1928), Torri Gattaia, Florence
Sotheby's, London, 9 December 1959, lot 11 (£2,200 to P. Pearson), and by descent to the private owner
Christie's, London, Sale 1136, 2 July 2013, lot 18
[Christie's Online Database, http://www.christies.com/lotfinder/paintings/lucas-cranach-i-christ-on-the-cross-5701772-details.aspx?from=searchresults&intObjectID=5701772&sid=2c667680-ea34-4d68-bdf5-96e504b1186f, accessed 10 Oct 2017]

Christ on the Cross, about 1530 - 1535

Images

Citing from the Cranach Digital Archive

Entry with author: <author's name>, 'Christ on the Cross', <title of document, data entry or image>. [<Date of document or image>], in: Cranach Digital Archive, https://lucascranach.org/en/PRIVATE_NONE-P011/ (Accessed {{dateAccessed}})
Entry with no author: 'Christ on the Cross', <title of document, data entry or image>. [<Date of document, entry or image>], in: Cranach Digital Archive, https://lucascranach.org/en/PRIVATE_NONE-P011/ (Accessed {{dateAccessed}})

Help us to improve the Cranach Digital Archive.

Please contact us, if you have noticed a mistake.