Birth of the Virgin

Birth of the Virgin

Title

Birth of the Virgin

[Friedländer, Rosenberg 1932, 48]

Painting on spruce wood

Medium

Painting on spruce wood

[Cat. Stuttgart 1957, 70]

Like numerous other episodes from the childhood of the Virgin Mary, her birth is not mentioned in the Bible. Apocryphal texts therefore served as the source for the depiction of this event, even if they report on it only summarily, without further motivic embellishment.

In keeping with the pictorial tradition for

Like numerous other episodes from the childhood of the Virgin Mary, her birth is not mentioned in the Bible. Apocryphal texts therefore served as the source for the depiction of this event, even if they report on it only summarily, without further motivic embellishment.

In keeping with the pictorial tradition for this theme, the event takes place in an interior. A red curtain has been gathered up to reveal a maternity room with middle-class furnishings. Propped up against her pillows and nestled under a green velvet cover, St Anne sits in a baldachin bed placed parallel to the picture plane and spreading across its entire breadth. With outstretched arms she receives her swaddled child from the midwife. The latter's rolled-up sleeves as well as the wooden bathtub and the covered jug - likewise made of wood - in the foreground indicate that she has just prepared the new-born child her first bath. A group of four women visitors - wearing white head coverings like that of St Anne - crowd together on the far side of the bed and solemnly watch the proceedings.

[Elsbeth Wiemann, Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, revised 2015]

Attributions
Workshop Lucas Cranach the Elder
Lucas Cranach the Elder

Attributions

Workshop Lucas Cranach the Elder

[Friedländer, Rosenberg 1932, 48]

Lucas Cranach the Elder

[Friedländer according to a handwritten note dated 15 July 1929]

Production date
about 1518

Production date

about 1518

[Cat. Stuttgart 1957, 70]

Dimensions
Dimensions of support: 58.7 x 32.4/32.1 (top/bottom) x 0.7 cm

Dimensions

  • Dimensions of support: 58.7 x 32.4/32.1 (top/bottom) x 0.7 cm

  • [cda 2015]

Inscriptions and Labels

Reverse of the panel: Inscribed '394#' on the lower frame element; on the left-hand frame element and on the …

Inscriptions and Labels

Stamps, Seals, Labels:

  • Reverse of the panel: Inscribed '394#' on the lower frame element; on the left-hand frame element and on the cradling, one label each with the number '154' (inventory number of the Scheufelen collection); Staatsgalerie Stuttgart inventory label

  • [Elsbeth Wiemann, Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, revised 2015]

Owner
Land Baden-Württemberg
Repository
Staatsgalerie Stuttgart
Location
Stuttgart
CDA ID
DE_SGS_2234
FR (1978) Nr.
FR106D
Persistent Link
https://lucascranach.org/en/DE_SGS_2234/

Provenance

  • 29 October 1929, auction at Lepke, Berlin, No. 214
  • Collection of Eugen Abresch, Neustadt an der Weinstrasse
  • 1932 acquired by Dr. h. c. Heinrich Scheufelen, Oberlenningen near Stuttgart
  • 1948 bequeathed by the above to the Staatsgalerie Stuttgart
    [Cat. Stuttgart 1957. 70]

Exhibitions

Kassel 1935, 11
Stuttgart 1948, 15

Literature

Reference on page Catalogue Number Figure / Plate
Friedländer, Rosenberg 1979 106D
AuthorMax J. Friedländer, Jakob Rosenberg
EditorG. Schwartz
TitleDie Gemälde von Lucas Cranach
Place of PublicationBasel, Boston, Stuttgart
Year of Publication1979
Exhib. Cat. Basel 1974/1976 484 under No. 333
AuthorDieter Koepplin, Tilman Falk
TitleLukas Cranach. Gemälde, Zeichnungen und Druckgraphik
Volume1, 2
Place of PublicationBasel, Stuttgart
Year of Publication1974
Link http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bsz:16-diglit-104522
Cat. Stuttgart 1962 58-59
EditorStuttgarter Galerieverein
TitleKatalog der Staatsgalerie Stuttgart. Alte Meister
Place of PublicationStuttgart
Year of Publication1962
Cat. Stuttgart 1957 70-71
EditorStuttgarter Galerieverein
TitleKatalog der Staatsgalerie Stuttgart
Place of PublicationStuttgart
Year of Publication1957
Exhib. Cat. Stuttgart 1948 15
EditorWürttembergische Staatsgalerie
TitleSammlung Dr. Ing. e. h. Heinrich Scheufelen Stuttgart, Württembergische Staatsgalerie
Place of PublicationStuttgart
Year of Publication1948
Exhib. Cat. Kassel 1935 11
EditorStaatliche Gemäldegalerie zu Kassel
TitleGemälde alter Meister aus Privatbesitz. Sammlung Dr.-Ing. E. H. Heinrich Scheufelen, Oberlenningen (Württ.), Kassel, Staatliche Gemälde-Galerie, Sommer 1935
Place of PublicationKassel
Year of Publication1935
Friedländer, Rosenberg 1932 48 93c
AuthorMax J. Friedländer, Jakob Rosenberg
TitleDie Gemälde von Lucas Cranach
Place of PublicationBerlin
Year of Publication1932
Link http://digi.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/diglit/friedlaender1932
Auct. Cat. Berlin 1929 A 214
Authorn. a.
TitleVersteigerung Gemälde Alter Meister aus Privatbesitz, Berlin (Rudolph Lepke), 29. Oktober 1929, Katalog-Nr. 2017
Place of PublicationBerlin
Year of Publication1929
  • Birth of the Virgin, about 1518

Images

Compare images
  • overall
  • overall
  • reverse
  • irr

Technical studies

06. 2015Technical Examination

Support

- the dimensions of the panel on the left and right are original, it may have been trimmed slightly at the top and the bottom

  • examined by Gunnar Heydenreich

06. 2015Technical examination / Scientific analysis

  • Infrared reflectography
  • irr

Underdrawing

DESCRIPTION

Tools/Material:

- fluid dark medium, brush

Type/Ductus:

- relatively economic and freehand underdrawing; frequently barely distinguishable from the painted version

- thin to broader lines

Function:

- relatively binding for the final painted version; the lines delineate the main contours, define forms therein and describe facial features; no representation of volume with hatching strokes

Deviations:

- minor corrections were made to forms during the painting process

INTERPRETATION

Attribution:

- workshop of Lucas Cranach the Elder (?)

[Sandner, Smith-Contini, Heydenreich, cda 2017]

  • photographed by Gunnar Heydenreich
  • photographed by Ingo Sandner

Condition Reports

Date06. 2015

  • the panel was thinned to the present thickness of c. 0.7 cm and cradled
  • untersucht von Gunnar Heydenreich

Citing from the Cranach Digital Archive

Entry with author
<author's name>, 'Birth of the Virgin', <title of document, data entry or image>. [<Date of document or image>], in: Cranach Digital Archive, https://lucascranach.org/en/DE_SGS_2234/ (Accessed {{dateAccessed}})
Entry with no author
'Birth of the Virgin', <title of document, data entry or image>. [<Date of document, entry or image>], in: Cranach Digital Archive, https://lucascranach.org/en/DE_SGS_2234/ (Accessed {{dateAccessed}})

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