Magdalene Altar: Jonah and the Whale [predella]

Identification of wood species: limewood (Tilia sp.)

- limewood

- consists of three horizontally aligned boards, glued

- the panel was in a provisional frame when the thin and uniform ground was applied

- a mixture of glue and chalk was probably employed

- the pigmented or white imprimatura often found on paintings by Cranach and his pupils was not identified here

- the infrared reflectogram revealed sketchy notes, which are not related to the depicted story of Jonah

No samples were taken, therefore any accessment of the binding medium and the pigments employed remains speculative. It is probably a mixed-media containing both tempera and oil. The regular and very fine craquelé and the fact that the paint layers exhibit no alterations suggests, that the painting was executed with a high degree of skilled craftsmanship.

[Staudacher, Büchel 2007, 228-229]

DESCRIPTION

Tools/Materials:

- fluid, black medium and brush

Type/Ductus:

- detailed and freehand underdrawing

- thin to broader lines

- hatching-strokes

Function:

- relatively binding for the subject of the final painted version; lines delineate contours and describe the essential details and the facial features; representation of volume (hatching-strokes)

Deviations:

- minor alterations made during the painting process to clearly define form; numerous changes, change of subject

INTERPRETATION

Attribution:

- member of Lucas Cranach the Elder’s workshop

Comments:

- the archer on the left and the female figure bathing on the right may belong to another iconographic programme, which was not carried out

[Smith, Sandner, Heydenreich, cda 2013]

'All the paintings examined revealed a more or less detailed underdrawing, executed for the greater part with a brush. The most spectacular discovery was made on the Predella of the Magdalene Altarpiece, which also differs stylistically in the painted version from the other panels belonging to this altarpiece. On the left edge of the panel a grotesque caricature can be discerned, further right in the area of the group of three trees is an archer. He aims into the image with his taught bow, behind him is a second figure wearing a helmet. There is a third figure near the bushes with the visor of his helmet. He moves to the right; and if he does as it appears really carry a lance on his shoulder it is decided too long. The foot visible beneath the bushes might belong to this figure. To the right of the bushes a further soldier in armor bends over and his face is strangely foreshortened. The draftsman has practiced drawing the mouth of a fish at the bottom edge of the painting. On the far right a nude female figure (in a boat ?) is visible with all sorts of sea creatures. She turns to the right (towards the archer ?). The figure of Jonah was also changed several times: like in the painted version Jonah is depicted wearing a short robe, but in the drawing a belt or sash is visible, which hangs down. In the drawing his left foot was still within the mouth of the whale.

The underdrawing suggests that the Jonah panel was either originally conceived for another subject or that it was used in the workshop for sketches, some humorous, which were never intended to be carried out. The observation that the composition is open and incomplete suggests the latter. The single motifs of soldiers, archers, water and the woman – the latter with parodistic elements, there all alone and naked in the boat – could be motifs taken from the depiction of the martyrdom of St Ursula and the 11000 virgins. The saint is one of the patrons of the collegial church (Stiftskirche) in Halle and it is therefore possible that a panel depicting this legend was in the church as either a predella or an independent painting. These annotations would accordingly be the last witness to a loss painting. [1]

[1] One possibility is the predella of the Barbara altarpiece, which was also dedicated to this saint as well as the 11000 virgins; see [Steinmann 1968, 75, 77-80, 87]'

[Schawe 2007 B, 236, 240]

Support:

• very warped

Paint Layers:

• overpaint

Varnish:

• very yellowed

[Staudacher, Büchel 2007, 228, 229, 230]

• consolidation of the paint layers along the edge of the panel; surface cleaning

• the last varnish layer was removed employing solvents; remains of older coatings were swelled with a solvent gel and removed

• old retouches, which contributed to a patchy appearance were removed mechanically

• old fills were retained where possible, where necessary they were refilled and the surface was restructured; new fills were only required along the edge and around the wooden inserts

• after completion of this treatment a thin isolating varnish was applied

• retouching

• application of a final varnish

[Staudacher, Büchel 2007, 232, 233]