Courtship / The Offer of Love

Courtship / The Offer of Love

Title

Courtship / The Offer of Love

[Sotheby's online catalogue, accessed 13.09.2019]

Painting on oak

Medium

Painting on oak

[Sotheby's online catalogue, accessed 13.09.2019]

The panel shows an elegantly dressed young gentleman sitting with a lady beside a spring within a wooded valley beneath a castle set upon a rocky crag. In his hand he offers her a gold and ruby ring, either as a love token or as an offer of marriage. In

The panel shows an elegantly dressed young gentleman sitting with a lady beside a spring within a wooded valley beneath a castle set upon a rocky crag. In his hand he offers her a gold and ruby ring, either as a love token or as an offer of marriage. In her hand she holds a posy of red carnations, traditional symbols of both love and affection, entwined with daisies, tokens both of love and fertility, and also of innocence and sincerity. At their feet a wine cooler sits in the spring, while a silver gilt goblet is perched upon a rock beside them. The two lovers remain unknown, and it is most unlikely that this panel was originally painted as a formal betrothal portrait. Behind them, the gentleman’s horse is tethered to a tree, and his knowing look at the spectator, coupled with the unambiguous symbolism of the tree branch, offers a humorous erotic undertone, although given that daisies were also symbolic of innocence, perhaps a moral warning of virtue in danger as well.

[Sotheby's online catalogue, accessed 13.09.2019]

Attributions
Hans Kemmer
Master of the Lockinge Courtship Panel

Attributions

Hans Kemmer

[Exhib. Cat. Lübeck 2021, no. 33] [Heydenreich 2021 A, 50, 51] [Emmendörfer, oral communication, 2018]
(?) [Koepplin, Sotheby's online catalogue, accessed 13.09.2019]

Master of the Lockinge Courtship Panel

[Sotheby's online catalogue, accessed 13.09.2019]

Lucas Cranach the Elder and workshop

attribution while on loan in Oxford, Ashmolean Museum

Production dates
about 1529
about 1525 - 1530

Production dates

about 1529

[Exhib. Cat. Lübeck 2021, no. 33]

about 1500 - 1550

'first half of the 16th century' [Sotheby's online catalogue, accessed 13.09.2019]

about 1525 - 1530

[Grossmann, Sotheby's online catalogue, accessed 13.09.2019]

Dimensions
Dimensions of support: 59.4 x 39 cm.; 23 3/8 x 15 3/8 in.

Dimensions

Signature / Dating

None

Owner
Kulturstiftung Hansestadt Lübeck, die Lübecker Museen
Repository
St. Annen-Museum, Lübeck
Location
Lübeck
CDA ID
DE_SAML_NONE-SAML002
FR (1978) Nr.
FR-none
Persistent Link
https://lucascranach.org/en/DE_SAML_NONE-SAML002/

Provenance

  • Baron Karl Ferdinand Friedrich von Nagler (1770–1846), Berlin
  • his posthumous sale, Berlin, Müller, 18 October 1847 and following days, lot 108 (as Gerhard van Leyden)
  • Samuel Jones Loyd, later 1st Baron Overstone (1796–1883) by 1867
  • thence by inheritance to his son-in-law Brigadier-General Robert Loyd-Lindsay, 1st Baron Wantage, VC, KCB, VD (1832–1901), Lockinge, Oxfordshire
  • thence by descent, the Lloyd collection
  • sold at Sotheby's, London, 04.07.2018, lot 12
    [Sotheby's online catalogue, accessed 13.09.2019]
  • acquired by the St Annen-Museum, Kulturstiftung Hansestadt Lübeck, die Lübecker Museen

Exhibitions

Birmingham 1951–52
Oxford, Ashmolean Museum, on loan (as Lucas Cranach the Elder and studio)
Lübeck 2021, no. 33

Literature

Reference on page Catalogue Number Figure / Plate
Emmendörffer 2021 125, 132
AuthorChristoph Emmendörffer
TitleHans Kemmer. Lübecks Maler in der Reformation.
Publicationin Dagmar Täube, ed., Lucas Cranach der Ältere und Hans Kemmer. Meistermaler zwischen Renaissance und Reformation [Lübeck, St. Annen-Museum]
Place of PublicationMunich
Year of Publication2021
Pages125-133
Show Literature
Exhib. Cat. Lübeck 2021 222 033 Fig. p. 222
EditorDagmar Täube
TitleLucas Cranach der Ältere und Hans Kemmer. Meistermaler zwischen Renaissance und Reformation [Lübeck, St. Annen-Museum]
Place of PublicationMunich
Year of Publication2021
Show Literature
Heydenreich 2021 A 50, 51
AuthorGunnar Heydenreich
TitleHans Kemmer: Spuren künstlerischer Gestaltungsprozesse. Teil I: Lübeck
Publicationin Dagmar Täube, ed., Lucas Cranach der Ältere und Hans Kemmer. Meistermaler zwischen Renaissance und Reformation [Lübeck, St. Annen-Museum]
Place of PublicationMunich
Year of Publication2021
Pages49-57
Show Literature
Heydenreich 2021 B 63, 66 Fig. 18
AuthorGunnar Heydenreich
TitleHans Kemmer: Spuren künstlerischer Gestaltungsprozesse. Teil II: Wittenberg
Publicationin Dagmar Täube, ed., Lucas Cranach der Ältere und Hans Kemmer. Meistermaler zwischen Renaissance und Reformation [Lübeck, St. Annen-Museum]
Place of PublicationMunich
Year of Publication2021
Pages59-69
Show Literature
Sandner 2021 80, 81 Fig. 11
AuthorIngo Sandner
TitleDie Werkstattpraxis Lucas Cranach des Älteren
Publicationin Dagmar Täube, ed., Lucas Cranach der Ältere und Hans Kemmer. Meistermaler zwischen Renaissance und Reformation [Lübeck, St. Annen-Museum]
Place of PublicationMunich
Year of Publication2021
Pages71-81
Show Literature
Perena 2018 72, 76
AuthorHelena Perena
TitleVon der Einöde ins Paradies: Die Wüste als Wald bei Cranach
PublicationIn: Cranach Natürlich. Hieronymus in der Wildnis [Exhib. Cat. Innsbruck 2018]
Place of PublicationInnsbruck
Year of Publication2018
Pages71-86
Show Literature
Russell 1991 6 18
AuthorF. Russell
TitleThe Loyd Collection of Paintings, Drawings and Sculptures
Place of PublicationLondon
Year of Publication1991
Show Literature
Parris 1967 14 18
AuthorLeslie Parris
TitleThe Loyd Collection of Paintings and Drawings
Place of PublicationLondon
Year of Publication1967
Show Literature
Temple 1902 88 133
AuthorA. G. Temple
TitleCatalogue of the Pictures forming the Collection of Lord and Lady Wantage at 2 Carlton Gardens, London, Lockinge House, Berks, and Overstone Park and Ardington House
Place of PublicationLondon
Year of Publication1902
Link https://archive.org/details/catalogueofpictu00unse_8
Show Literature
Redford 1875 22-23 25
AuthorG. Redford
TitleCatalogue of the Pictures forming the Collection of Lord and Lady Wantage at 2 Carlton Gardens, London, Lockinge House, Berks, and Overstone Park and Ardington House
Place of PublicationLondon
Year of Publication1875
Show Literature
  • Courtship / The Offer of Love, about 1529

Images

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Condition Reports

Date2018

The following condition report is provided by Sarah Walden who is an external specialist and not an employee of Sotheby's: This painting is on a single, fine, panel, which has remained flat without any sign of past movement. There is an even, minute craquelure throughout. Much beautiful detail remains perfectly intact, both in the landscape and in the figures themselves, particularly in the very fine portraits, while there are a few little minor retouchings in the red drapery of the lady and in the man's deep red cloak. The fine detail of the landscape is well preserved almost throughout. The upper sky has been quite widely strengthened in the past largely covering the tiny craquelure, while just a few more recent tiny retouches can be seen under ultra violet in the well preserved lower sky. This report was not done under laboratory conditions.

[Sotheby's online database: https://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2018/old-masters-evening-l18033/lot.12.html] (accessed 13.09.2019]

Citing from the Cranach Digital Archive

Entry with author
<author's name>, 'Courtship / The Offer of Love', <title of document, data entry or image>. [<Date of document or image>], in: Cranach Digital Archive, https://lucascranach.org/en/DE_SAML_NONE-SAML002/ (Accessed {{dateAccessed}})
Entry with no author
'Courtship / The Offer of Love', <title of document, data entry or image>. [<Date of document, entry or image>], in: Cranach Digital Archive, https://lucascranach.org/en/DE_SAML_NONE-SAML002/ (Accessed {{dateAccessed}})

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