Stigmatization of St Francis

Identification of wood species: limewood (Tilia sp.)

DESCRIPTION

Tools/Materials:

- fluid black pigmented medium, various sized brushes

Type/Ductus:

- detailed and freehand underdrawing

- broad, sketchy lines are combined with thinner more precise lines

Function:

- binding for the final painted version; broader lines define form, delineate contours, and indicate folds in the drapery; thinner lines describe the details; little or no representation of volume

Deviations:

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

INTERPRETATION

Attribution:

Lucas Cranach the Elder and workshop?

[Smith, Sandner, Heydenreich, cda 2012]

- 7 planks

- widths from the left, top: 12.0, 31.0, 18.5, 14.4, 10.0, 15.0, 25.6 cm, bottom: 16.9, 27.2, 20.0, 16.5, 10.9, 14.5, 22.3 cm

- extensive application of tow over the knots

- the ground was presumably smoothed with a serrated blade with teeth of varying widths

- executed with a brush

- the contours and main lines within the forms were indicated employing a liqiud medium

- in the underdrawing the church has a chapel with a cross at the apex

[Bartl, Cat. Nuremberg 1997, 162]

Support:

• small rectangular wooden insert between the donor and St Francis

• the right hand side is badly damaged from the front: above the head of the sleeping monk a c. 25.5 x 14.5 cm piece was sawn out of the painting and 'repaired'

• conservation treatment carried out on the joins and numerous splits

• extensive old wood worm damage

• the panel has been trimmed slightly on all four sides

• the width of the panel has been extended with pine wood battens measuring 0.8 cm

Reverse:

• the open wood worm channels were filled generously with a light coloured fill material and then painted yellow

• cradled

Painted surface:

• the signature 'AD' is old as the craquellée is identical to that of the underlying paint layers

• the paint layers have been extensively damaged by a violent act

• there is paint loss in the paint layers covering the application of tow

• the brown glazes are abraded in the flesh paint (with the exception of the Seraphim), the monk's habit and the landscape

• the paint has been removed to the ground on the collar of the donor's coat. Remains of brown, earth green and black paint suggest that it was originally intended to be fur

• scratches

• the fills have been reworked and a transition to the batton additions was created

• the face of the sleeping monk and the forest on the mountain has been reconstructed

[Bartl, Cat. Nuremberg 1997, 162]

• overpaint removed

• joins and splits filled

[Bartl, Cat. Nuremberg 1997, 162]

as yet no information

[Bartl, Cat. Nuremberg 1997, 162]

Restoration:

Cat. GNM 1936 'Oxidised. Damaged and partially repaired'

[Bartl, Cat. Nuremberg 1997, 162]