Portrait of Philipp Melanchthon

- wooden panel, which appears to consist of three vertically aligned planks

- pale ground

- possibly remnants of a barbe under the overpaint

- dark pigmented, fluid medium

- sketchy description of the contours and essential details

- oil-based medium, brush application in two or three layers, although the paint layers appear more opaque than other paintings by cranach and his workshop in the museum

- initial flat, thin application ofreddish pink dead colouring for the flesh paint, then modulated with lighter and darker impasto admixtures, the brush strokes are clearly visible

- new 20th century frame, narrow wooden members, stained brown and waxed

[Kurpfälzisches Museum Heidelberg, revised 2020]

• stable, albeit in rather bad condition

Support:

• the support was at some stage thinned to a thickness of c. 0.1–0.2 cm, laminated to a blockboard, which exhibits a c. 2 cm bevelled edge; the original support exhibits fine splits running parallel to the grain, particularly in the upper half

Ground/Paint layers:

• good cohesion between the layers; numerous in part larger areas of flaking affecting both paint and ground layers caused by water damage

• the paint layers have been flattened, prominent drying cracks/alligator cracking in the thicker paint layers, possibly caused by the expansion and shrinkage of the paint layers when the panel was laminated; numerous large retouches

Coating:

very thick application, containing wax, cloudy and dull surface; to the right of the figure running from the top to the bottom of the panel there is a whitish stain from a water drip, the entire surface is covered with droplet-shaped splashes

[Kurpfälzisches Museum Heidelberg, revised 2020]