Christ as the Man of Sorrows together with the Virgin and Saint John

Christ as the Man of Sorrows together with the Virgin and Saint John

Title

Christ as the Man of Sorrows together with the Virgin and Saint John

[Sotheby's online database; http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2016/master-paintings-sculpture-day-sale-n09461/lot.425.html?locale=en; accessed 18-03-2019]

Painting on wood

Medium

Painting on wood

[Sotheby's online database: http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2016/master-paintings-sculpture-day-sale-n09461/lot.425.html?locale=en; accessed 18.03.2019]

The design [of this painting], with Christ flanked by the Virgin on one side and Saint John the Evangelist on the other, originated with Lucas Cranach the Elder and was adapted at least three times by his son. The earliest manifestation of this type is the 1524 panel in the

The design [of this painting], with Christ flanked by the Virgin on one side and Saint John the Evangelist on the other, originated with Lucas Cranach the Elder and was adapted at least three times by his son. The earliest manifestation of this type is the 1524 panel in the Augustiner Museum, Freiburg im Breisgau [DE_AMF-MFFF_M3-M], depicting a landscape with a three-quarter length seated Christ in his tomb flanked by the Virgin and Saint John with a host of cherubs in the sky. In his second interpretation of the theme, executed ten years later, he removed the landscape setting, thus heightening the emotional impact of the composition [DE_DM_NONE-02].

Lucas Cranach the Younger's first experimentation with this composition, like [DE_HMR_KN1992-8] are close to his father's 1534 composition although the figures are brought even closer to the pictorial plane and the frieze of angels is reduced to a few small praying cherubs in each corner. The present composition is clearly closely related to this version but it comes closest both compositionally and stylistically to a later- circa 1540 -version by Cranach the Younger in the Kunsthalle, Hamburg [DE_HKH_HK-708]. At some point in its history this panel was likely cut down, and thus much of the lower register of the composition is no longer visible, but it is almost certain that as in the Hamburg version, Christ was originally seated on the just visible edge of his tomb with his hands loosely folded across his lap. Still clearly discernible, however, is his tortured expression and his bleeding body. Mary and St. John flank Christ, with the former weeping into her robe and the latter with his hands clasped in prayer. Apart from the edge of the tomb the background is one of unrelieved darkness without the angels featured in the previous compositions.

[Sotheby's online database: http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2016/master-paintings-sculpture-day-sale-n09461/lot.425.html?locale=en; accessed 18.03.2019]

Attribution
Lucas Cranach the Younger

Attribution

Lucas Cranach the Younger

[Sotheby's online database: http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2016/master-paintings-sculpture-day-sale-n09461/lot.425.html?locale=en; accessed 18.03.2019]

Production date
about 1540

Production date

about 1540

[Sotheby's online database: http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2016/master-paintings-sculpture-day-sale-n09461/lot.425.html?locale=en; accessed 18.03.2019]

Dimensions
Dimensions of support: 31.5 x 73 cm

Dimensions

  • Dimensions of support: 31.5 x 73 cm

  • [Sotheby's online database: http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2016/master-paintings-sculpture-day-sale-n09461/lot.425.html?locale=en; accessed 18.03.2019]

Signature / Dating

Artist's insignia at the upper left: serpent with dropped wings, facing left; in yellow paint

Signature / Dating

  • Artist's insignia at the upper left: serpent with dropped wings, facing left; in yellow paint

  • [cda 2019]

Owner
Private Collection
Repository
Private Collection
CDA ID
PRIVATE_NONE-P248
FR (1978) Nr.
FR-none
Persistent Link
https://lucascranach.org/en/PRIVATE_NONE-P248/

Provenance

  • private Collector, Munich
  • confiscated from the above on 18, November 1938 and allocated for the Kunstmuseum Linz (inv. 2550)
  • recovered by the Monuments Men and sent to the Munich Central Collecting Point (inv. 4273), on 15 July 1945;
  • transferred to Wiesbaden on 25 May 1949 and restituted to the heirs of the private collector on 2 December 1949
  • thence by descent
  • 29.01.2019 sold at Sotheby's, New York
    [Sotheby's online database: http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2016/master-paintings-sculpture-day-sale-n09461/lot.425.html?locale=en; accessed 18.03.2019]

Literature

Reference on page Catalogue Number Figure / Plate
Löhr 2005 130, Fn. 9
AuthorH. C. Löhr
TitleDas Braune Haus der Kunst : Hitler und der "Sonderauftrag Linz" : Visionen, Verbrechen, Verluste
Place of PublicationBerlin
Year of Publication2005
Haase 2002 218
AuthorG. Haase
TitleDie Kunstsammlung Adolf Hitler: eine Dokumentation
Place of PublicationBerlin
Year of Publication2002
  • Christ as the Man of Sorrows together with the Virgin and Saint John, about 1540

Images

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Citing from the Cranach Digital Archive

Entry with author
<author's name>, 'Christ as the Man of Sorrows together with the Virgin and Saint John', <title of document, data entry or image>. [<Date of document or image>], in: Cranach Digital Archive, https://lucascranach.org/en/PRIVATE_NONE-P248/ (Accessed {{dateAccessed}})
Entry with no author
'Christ as the Man of Sorrows together with the Virgin and Saint John', <title of document, data entry or image>. [<Date of document, entry or image>], in: Cranach Digital Archive, https://lucascranach.org/en/PRIVATE_NONE-P248/ (Accessed {{dateAccessed}})

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