The Crucifixion

The Crucifixion

Title

The Crucifixion

[http://www.artic.edu/aic/collections/artwork/59856?search_no=10&index=3] (accessed 24.09.2012)

Painting on limewood

Medium

Painting on limewood

[Cat. Chicago 2008, 353]

In formal terms, the Art Institute's Crucifixion refers back to the type of crowded Calvary scene including a wealth of figures from different levels of society that was current in Germany in the late fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.[1] Cranach placed Christ and the two thieves against a stormy sky that

In formal terms, the Art Institute's Crucifixion refers back to the type of crowded Calvary scene including a wealth of figures from different levels of society that was current in Germany in the late fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.[1] Cranach placed Christ and the two thieves against a stormy sky that corresponds to the unnatural darkness described in the Gospel accounts of Christ's last hours. Raised high above the throng of soldiers and gesticulating onlookers, Christ is here the living savior rather than the more conventional figure of death with bowed head, closed eyes, and pierced side.[2] The good thief, crucified at Jesus's right hand, gazes up at him with acceptance, while the bad thief, who mocked Christ (Luke 23:39-43), looks away, his less worthy character signalled by his awkward body type. Continuing this conventional division of positive and negative on either side of the cross, the mourning friends of Christ occupy the lower left corner of the composition. The swooning Virgin is supported by Saint John the Evangelist and by a woman whose relatively rich dress suggests that she represents Mary Magdalene. Opposite these holy figures are the soldiers who cast dice to determine who will take possession of Christ's clothing (Matthew 27:35; Mark 15:24; Luke 23:34; and John 20:23-24). Their expressive, gnarled features contrast with the smooth, pale faces surrounding the Virgin. In a pivotal position between these two groups, a father points the cross out to a small boy. The child's acid yellow tabard and his silhouetted profile give this motif some prominence in the welter of figures.

[1][Roth 1967]

[2]Hausherr 1971]

[Cat. Chicago 2008, 355]

Attribution
Lucas Cranach the Elder

Attribution

Lucas Cranach the Elder

[http://www.artic.edu/aic/collections/artwork/59856?search_no=10&index=3] (accessed 24.09.2012)

Production date
153[8]

Production date

153[8]

[dated]

Dimensions
Dimensions of support: 121.1 x 82.5 cm (47 3/4 x 32 1/2 in.)

Dimensions

  • Dimensions of support: 121.1 x 82.5 cm (47 3/4 x 32 1/2 in.)

  • Dimensions of the painted surface: 119.4 x 82.5 cm (47 x 32 1/2 in.)

  • [http://www.artic.edu/aic/collections/artwork/59856?search_no=10&index=3] (accessed 24.09.2012)

Signature / Dating

Artist's insignia on the cross: winged serpent with dropped wings and dated '153[8]' [http://www.artic.edu/aic/collections/artwork/59856?search_no=10&index=3] (accessed 24.09.2012)

Signature / Dating

  • Artist's insignia on the cross: winged serpent with dropped wings and dated '153[8]' [http://www.artic.edu/aic/collections/artwork/59856?search_no=10&index=3] (accessed 24.09.2012)

Owner
The Art Institute of Chicago
Repository
The Art Institute of Chicago
Location
Chicago
CDA ID
US_artic_1947-62
FR (1978) Nr.
FR377
Persistent Link
https://lucascranach.org/en/US_artic_1947-62/

Provenance

  • Sir Fairfax Cartright (d. 1928), Aynho Park, Banbury [according to letter from Robert Langton Douglas to Charles Worcester, Nov. 25, 1928, in curatorial file]
  • Julius Böhler, Munich, 1928 [according to receipt and other records in the registrar's office]
  • sold to Charles H. Worcester, Chicago, Sept. 1928
  • on loan to the AIC from 1928
  • given to the AIC, 1947
    [http://www.artic.edu/aic/collections/artwork/59856?search_no=10&index=3] (accessed 24.09.2012)

Exhibitions

New York 1928, No. 28.
Chicago 1928/1929 (no catalogue)
New York 1929, No. 12.
Chicago 1930, No. 34.
Chicago 1933, No. 13.
Chicago 1934, No. 11.
Chicago 1954, pp. 22-23.

Research History / Discussion

Although the Art Institute's Crucifixion was first published as bearing the date 1533, Max Friedländer and Jakob Rosenberg (1932) correctly noted that it was signed with the form of Cranach's winged serpent device used in 1535/37 and later. They proposed that the date should more properly be read as 1538, a deduction that is confirmed by microscopic examination (see Technical Note).[1] The picture thus belongs to the period when Lucas Cranach the Younger became his father's dominant assistant, after the death of his older brother Hans late in 1537. Friedländer and Rosenberg implied that the Art Institute's Crucifixion was the prime version among a number of other treatments of the subject from the late 1530s. It should be noted, however, that Cranach's workshop tended to produce variations of a theme rather than repetitions of a prototype, and it remains difficult to separate the contributions of Lucas the Elder, Lucas the Younger, and other workshop hands at this time.

[1] [Rich 1929] [Exhib. Cat. 1928][Exhib. Cat. 1929] [Giesecke 1955, 181-192] [Schade 1974, 79]

[Cat. Chicago 2008, 355]

  • The Crucifixion, 153[8]

Images

Compare images
  • overall
  • overall
  • overall

Technical studies

2008Technical examination / Scientific analysis

Support

- limewood panel composed of six planks with vertical grain joined at 10.5 cm, 25 cm, 38 cm, 51.5 cm, and 65 cm from the left at the top edge

- traces of a rebate on the reverse with a width of approximately 1.5 cm at the top and bottom but very narrow on the right; no channel is presently visible at the left

Ground and Imprimatura

- original paint extends to the edges at the sides, but there is a barbe at the top and bottom edges; what were originally unpainted margins approximately 0.9 cm wide are now covered with repaint

- the panel is prepared with a chalk ground and a thin lead white priming layer

Underdrawing

- no underdrawing was made visible with infrared reflectography. Fluid greyish black lines used to reinforce the contours of the figures are evident in several areas

Paint Layers and Gilding

- the grey lines are frequently covered by thin translucent washes of light-coloured paint used to lay in the figure; in some places contours are reinforced with a darker fluid line of brownish black paint over the flesh

- although the inscribed date appears to read 1533, microscopic examination reveals faint remnants of original paint that complete the lower curve of the last digit to form an 8

[Cat. Chicago 2008, 353- 358]

  • examined by The Art Institute of Chicago

Condition Reports

Date2008

  • there is extensive, filled beetle damage at the bottom and in the upper right corner; exposed tunnelling at the sides suggests that they have been trimmed; this is confirmed by traces of a rebate on the reverse

  • the top and bottom edges are now covered with repaint

  • the paint surface is generally well preserved

  • fills and restorations are present along the entire height of the join between the second and third planks from the left, which passes through the left end of the crossbeam; they are also present, to a lesser extent, along the join between the third and fourth planks, just to the left of Christ's body

  • a crack curving into the abdomen of the thief at the upper right has also been restored

  • there are a number of repaired losses across the bottom of the painting

  • damages and restorations are found in the legs of the holy figures at lower left, in the head of Saint John, and in the thief at upper right

  • there is abrasion in the sky, in Christ's head and fingers, and in the lower portions of the painting

[Cat. Chicago 2008, 353-358]

  • examined by The Art Institute of Chicago

Conservation History

Date1938

  • in February 1938 Leo Marzolo repaired four small loses in the lower section of the painting

[Cat. Chicago 2008, 353-358]

  • conservation treatment by Leo Marzolo

Date1925

  • cleaned, cradled [and presumably thinned], and restored in 1925 by B. V. Bommel in Amsterdam [1]

[1] According to a handwritten inscription on the cradle, this was undertaken to secure the panel against further weakness from worm damage.

[Cat. Chicago 2008, 353-358]

  • conservation treatment by B von Bommel

Citing from the Cranach Digital Archive

Entry with author
<author's name>, 'The Crucifixion', <title of document, data entry or image>. [<Date of document or image>], in: Cranach Digital Archive, https://lucascranach.org/en/US_artic_1947-62/ (Accessed {{dateAccessed}})
Entry with no author
'The Crucifixion', <title of document, data entry or image>. [<Date of document, entry or image>], in: Cranach Digital Archive, https://lucascranach.org/en/US_artic_1947-62/ (Accessed {{dateAccessed}})

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