Portrait of Moritz Buchner

Portrait of Moritz Buchner

Title

Portrait of Moritz Buchner

[Minneapolis Institute of Arts, revised 2012]

Painting on wood

Medium

Painting on wood

[Minneapolis Institute of Arts, revised 2012]

These companion portraits have been identified as Moritz Buchner and his wife, Anna Lindacker Buchner. As a successful merchant and city alderman, Moritz Buchner was representative of the newly affluent middle class that resulted from the growth of capitalism in 16th-century Germany. Lucas Cranach, the court artist to Frederick III

These companion portraits have been identified as Moritz Buchner and his wife, Anna Lindacker Buchner. As a successful merchant and city alderman, Moritz Buchner was representative of the newly affluent middle class that resulted from the growth of capitalism in 16th-century Germany. Lucas Cranach, the court artist to Frederick III of Saxony, was commissioned by the Buchners to paint their likenesses for posterity. Here, Cranach captures the confidence, pride, and ambition that often accompany newly acquired wealth and improved social status. Cranach's signature, a winged serpent, and the date of the painting appear on the extreme left of Moritz's portrait.

[Mia online database, accessed 28.06.2022]

Reverse of the panel:

- coats of arms of the families Buchner and Lindacker (?)

[Minneapolis Institute of Arts, revised 2012]

Attribution
Lucas Cranach the Elder
Production dates
about 1520
1518

Production dates

about 1520

[Minneapolis Institute of Arts, revised 2012]

1518

[dated] [Friedländer, Rosenberg 1979, No. 127]

Dimensions
Dimensions of support: 40.6 x 27.3 x 0.5 cm (16 x 10 3/4 x 3/16 in.)

Dimensions

  • Dimensions of support: 40.6 x 27.3 x 0.5 cm (16 x 10 3/4 x 3/16 in.)

  • [Minneapolis Institute of Arts, revised 2012]

  • Dimensions of support: 40 x 27 cm

  • [Friedländer, Rosenberg 1979, no. 127]

Signature / Dating

Artist's insignia above the sitter's proper right shoulder: winged serpent with elevated wings facing right and dated '1518'; in yellow paint

Signature / Dating

  • Artist's insignia above the sitter's proper right shoulder: winged serpent with elevated wings facing right and dated '1518'; in yellow paint

Inscriptions and Labels
  • on the ring on the index finger of the sitter's proper left hand: 'M[B]'
    [http://www.artsconnected.org/resource/1796/portrait-of-moritz-buchner (accessed 21.05.2012)]

Inscriptions and Labels

Inscriptions, Badges:

    • on the ring on the index finger of the sitter's proper left hand:
  • 'M[B]'

  • [http://www.artsconnected.org/resource/1796/portrait-of-moritz-buchner (accessed 21.05.2012)]

  • [Friedländer, Rosenberg 1979, No. 127]

Owner
Minneapolis Institute of Arts
Repository
Minneapolis Institute of Arts
Location
Minneapolis
CDA ID
US_MIA_57-11
FR (1978) Nr.
FR127
Persistent Link
https://lucascranach.org/en/US_MIA_57-11/

Provenance

  • Prince Karl Anton von Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen [d. 1885]; His son, Prince Leopold von Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen [d. 1905]. His son, Prince Wilhelm August Karl von Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen [d. 1927], Sigmaringen, Germany.[1]
  • Oscar Franklin Oppenheimer, Frankfurt-am-Main, Germany
  • Richard H. Zinser, Forest Hills, New York
  • purchased by MIA in 1957 (The William Hood Dunwoody Fund)

[1] Located at the Getty Research Institute, Volume II of "Ehemalige sammlung des fürsten von Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen" contains mounted photographs of both portraits. The royal collection of Sigmaringen was dispersed circa 1928. The works do not appear in the Hohenzollern auction of 1933.

[Minneapolis Institute of Arts, revised 2012]

Exhibitions

Frankfurt-am-Main 1928, No. 27

Literature

Reference on page Catalogue Number Figure / Plate
LaWall Lipschultz 1988 73 Fig.
AuthorSandra LaWall Lipschultz
TitleSelected Works. The Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minneapolis
Place of PublicationMinneapolis
Year of Publication1988
Friedländer, Rosenberg 1979 No. 127
AuthorMax J. Friedländer, Jakob Rosenberg
EditorG. Schwartz
TitleDie Gemälde von Lucas Cranach
Place of PublicationBasel, Boston, Stuttgart
Year of Publication1979
Cat. Minneapolis 1970 343-346 183a Fig. p. 344
EditorMinneapolis Institute of Arts
TitleCatalogue of European Paintings in The Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minneapolis
Place of PublicationMinneapolis
Year of Publication1970
The Minneapolis Institute of Arts 1970 84 No. 17 Fig.
EditorMinneapolis Institute of Arts
TitleGuide to the Galleries
Place of PublicationMinneapolis
Year of Publication1970
Cat. Minneapolis 1963 Fig.
AuthorForrest Selvig, Susan C. Jones
TitleEuropean paintings in the Minneapolis Institute of Arts
Place of PublicationMinneapolis
Year of Publication1963
Joachim 1957 43-51 illus. cover, Figs. 2, 6
AuthorH. Joachim
Title"Two Portraits by Lucas Cranach"
JournalThe Minneapolis Institute of Arts Bulletin
IssueXLVI, Autumn
Year of Publication1957
Pages43-51
Lüdecke 1953 B 123, 211 Pl. 47
AuthorHeinz Lüdecke
TitleLucas Cranach der Ältere. Der Künstler und seine Zeit
Place of PublicationBerlin
Year of Publication1953
Posse 1943 34, 57 No. 47 Pl. 47
AuthorHans Posse
TitleLucas Cranach d. Ä.
Place of PublicationVienna
IssueSecond edition
Year of Publication1943
Posse 1942 34, 57 No. 47 Pl. 47
AuthorHans Posse
TitleLucas Cranach d. Ä.
Place of PublicationVienna
Year of Publication1942
Kuhn 1933/1934
AuthorCharles L. Kuhn
TitlePaintings by L. Cranach in Minneapolis
JournalArt in America
Issue22
Year of Publication1933
Pages101-109
Friedländer, Rosenberg 1932 50 108 Pl. 108
AuthorMax J. Friedländer, Jakob Rosenberg
TitleDie Gemälde von Lucas Cranach
Place of PublicationBerlin
Year of Publication1932
Link http://digi.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/diglit/friedlaender1932
Exhib. Cat. Frankfurt 1928 A 27
EditorStädelsches Kunstinstitut
TitleSammlung Sigmaringen. Kurzes Verzeichnis der im Städelschen Kunstinstitut ausgestellten Sigmaringer Sammlungen [Frankfurt-am-Main, Städelschen Kunstinstitut]
Place of PublicationFrankfurt
Year of Publication1928
Flechsig 1900 A 103
AuthorEduard Flechsig
TitleCranachstudien
Volume1
Place of PublicationLeipzig
Year of Publication1900
Link page/n5/mode/2up

Research History / Discussion

'Of the portraits done before 1520, those of Moritz Buchner and his wife Anna, born Lindacker, now acquired by The Minneapolis Institute of Arts, have been acclaimed as particularly distinguished and well-preserved examples ever since they were introduced to a wider public in the exhibition of the Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen collection at the Frankfurt museum in 1928 [1]. After the dispersal of that collection they were acquired by Oscar F. Oppenheimer in Frankfurt and later they went to Switzerland whence they were brought to this country.Moritz Buchner was a merchant and alderman of Leipzig, member of a family which came from Eisleben (Luther's birthplace) and had gained wealth in the Thuringian mining industry [2]. A dignified and well-groomed man of the world, he gazes at the spectator with shrewd, appraising but not unkind eyes. Of the three rings on his left hand, one shows his coat of arms and the initials MB. The date 1518 and the artist's device of the winged serpent, adopted in 1508, appear on the left. In contrast to her husband, the dour-faced Anna Buchner, elaborately dressed and covered with jewelry, does not seek contact with the spectator. On the back of the man's portrait the combined arms of both families are painted.'

[1] The paintings were first mentioned in Eduard Flechig, Cranaschstudien, Leipzig 1900, p. 103 (wrong identification of the subjects). They are mentioned and reproduced in the following important monographs: Friedländer and Rosenberg, Die Gemälde von Lucas Cranach, Berlin 1932, p. 50, pl, 108-109; H. Posse, Lucas Cranach d. "A"., Vienna 1942, pl. 47-48; Lucas Cranach der Ältere: Der Küstler und seine Zeit. Veröffentlichung der Deutschen Akademie der Küste, Berlin 1953, p. 52, pl. 56-57.

[2] For this information we are indebted to the Municipal Library in Leipzig.

[http://www.artsconnected.org/resource/1796/portrait-of-moritz-buchner] (accessed 21.05.2012)

  • Portrait of Moritz Buchner, about 1520

Images

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  • reverse
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Technical studies

2012Technical examination / Scientific analysis

  • Infrared reflectography
  • irr
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Underdrawing

DESCRIPTION

Tools/Materials:

- fluid, black medium and brush; in combination with a dry drawing material, dark chalk; possible traced lines in the face?

Type/Ductus:

- freehand underdrawing (hands); the lines in the face may have been traced (not clearly visible)

- thin to slightly broader lines

Function:

- binding for the final painted version; lines delineate contours and describe essential details; no representation of volume

Deviations:

- minor alterations made during the painting process to clearly define form

INTERPRETATION

Attribution:

- Lucas Cranach the Elder?

Comments:

- the hands appear to have been drawn freehand with dark chalk and then the lines reinforced with a fluid medium

[Smith, Sandner, Heydenreich, cda 2013]

  • photographed by Minneapolis Institute of Arts

Citing from the Cranach Digital Archive

Entry with author
<author's name>, 'Portrait of Moritz Buchner', <title of document, data entry or image>. [<Date of document or image>], in: Cranach Digital Archive, https://lucascranach.org/en/US_MIA_57-11/ (Accessed {{dateAccessed}})
Entry with no author
'Portrait of Moritz Buchner', <title of document, data entry or image>. [<Date of document, entry or image>], in: Cranach Digital Archive, https://lucascranach.org/en/US_MIA_57-11/ (Accessed {{dateAccessed}})

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