Magdalene Altar: The Resurrection [central panel]

DESCRIPTION

Tools/Materials:

- fluid, black medium and brush

Type/Ductus:

- detailed and freehand underdrawing

- thin and broader lines

- occasional hatching-strokes

Function:

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

Deviations:

- minor alterations made during the painting process to clearly define form; small changes (e.g. the shrubbery behind Eve; the angel in the lower left part of the aureole)

INTERPRETATION

Attribution:

- Simon Franck/Master of the Mass of St Gregory ?

[Smith, Sandner, Heydenreich, cda 2012]

'The underdrawing of the wing panels is efficent, and much more conventional [than that of the predella] and exhibits the confident style of the Cranach workshop routine.[1] It concentrates on the contour and a rough indication of the inner forms to guide the painter […] the central panel offers a similar impression […]. Here there are only a few pentimenti; the composition, figures and anatomical details are executed with economic brushstrokes in a fluid medium.'

[1] Compare with the rich body of material in [Exhib. Cat. Eisenach 1998]

[Schawe 2007, 236, 238]

Identification of wood species: limewood (Tilia sp.)

- limewood

- consisting of twelve vertical and relatively narrow boards, all similar in width with butt joints

- 16 and 18 mm thick

- in addition the joins were reinforced with dovetail inserts at irregular intervals

- problematic areas in the wood like knots and resin pockets were removed and replaced with wooden inserts

- the panel was provisionally framed when the thin even ground was applied

- a barbe is visible on all four sides

- a glue and chalk admixture was probably employed

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

Infrared reflectograms were made in part of all the elements of the altarpiece in the Doerner Institut […]. These revealed that, excepting some minor alterations, the detailed, dynamic underdrawing, which was probably executed with a brush, corresponds with the final painted version.

No samples were taken, therefore any assessment 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, 227, 228, 229]

Conservation treatment

Support:

• a split in the centre of the panel runs from the top edge and is c. 60 cm in length

• there is a grey, lead white containing coating on the reverse of the cradle; it was probably applied when the cradle was repaired; the cross members are wedged to prevent movement

• old wood worm damage

Paint Layers:

• extensively overpainted

• in one area the overpaint proved to be an infringement on the composition as a whole: the bushes in the foreground, which emphasis the division of the scenes showing 'Christ's Descent into Purgatory' and 'The Sleeping Watchmen' were extended at some unknown date to cover the back and bottom of the naked woman (Eve ?)

• there are small discoloured retouches distributed over the entire surface in areas of paint loss, mechanical damage and abrasion caused by miss-use of solvents

• there are fills and retouches from repeated restoration campaigns in the area of the dovetail inserts and joins

Varnish:

• very yellowed

[Staudacher, Büchel 2011, 228, 229, 230]

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

• the last varnish layers 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

• the overpaint covering Eve's bottom was removed mechanically to reveal a perfectly intact original paint surface

• the split was filled on one side with a mixture of glue and wood shavings to optically close it leaving only a small step

• 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 2011, 232, 233]

• 1881/82 'gerostet' (grided) by Hauser in the workshop of the Alte Pinakothek

'This probably refers to the cradle with its attached vertical members and moveable cross-members [...] open and distorted joins were filled and retouched'

• corner additions

[Staudacher, Büchel 2007, 227, 228, 229]