Cupid as Honey Thief [fragment]

Cupid as Honey Thief [fragment]

Title

Cupid as Honey Thief [fragment]

[http://onlinekatalog.staatsgalerie.de/detail.jsp?id=624D66444019F423DA8F11A233296684&img=1; 22-07-2015]

Painting on beech wood

Medium

Painting on beech wood

[http://onlinekatalog.staatsgalerie.de/detail.jsp?id=624D66444019F423DA8F11A233296684&img=1; 22-07-2015]

This fragment once belonged to a painting showing Venus and Cupid as Honey Thief. The composition is based on an idyll by the Greek poet Theocritus whose moralizing content rang a chord with Cranach's contemporaries. Cupid, looking for honey, is stung by bees. When he complains to his mother Venus,

This fragment once belonged to a painting showing Venus and Cupid as Honey Thief. The composition is based on an idyll by the Greek poet Theocritus whose moralizing content rang a chord with Cranach's contemporaries. Cupid, looking for honey, is stung by bees. When he complains to his mother Venus, she admonishes him that the sting of his arrows was far more painful than that of the bees.

With startled bees buzzing around his head, the winged god of love stands on a grass-covered forest floor next to a hollow tree trunk with a beehive inside it. His right hand still lingering in the gap from which he has taken his spoils, Cupid holds the stolen honeycomb in his left. He gazes anxiously up at his mother Venus, who is to be imagined as a nude standing at his side - as we know from intact versions of the scene.

[Elsbeth Wiemann, http://onlinekatalog.staatsgalerie.de/detail.jsp?id=624D66444019F423DA8F11A233296684&img=1; 22-07-2015]

Attribution
Lucas Cranach the Elder

Attribution

Lucas Cranach the Elder

[http://onlinekatalog.staatsgalerie.de/detail.jsp?id=624D66444019F423DA8F11A233296684&img=1; 22-07-2015]

Production date
1532

Production date

1532

[dated]

Dimensions
Dimensions of support: 18.7 x 12.8 cm (fragment)

Dimensions

  • Dimensions of support: 18.7 x 12.8 cm (fragment)

  • [http://onlinekatalog.staatsgalerie.de/detail.jsp?id=624D66444019F423DA8F11A233296684&img=1; 22-07-2015]

Signature / Dating

Artist's insignia at the centre left: serpent with elevated wings, facing right, and dated '1532', in black paint

Signature / Dating

  • Artist's insignia at the centre left: serpent with elevated wings, facing right, and dated '1532', in black paint

  • [Elsbeth Wiemann, Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, revised 2015]

Inscriptions and Labels

Reverse of the panel: Coat of arms, divided into three parts, with a tree, a half eagle and three …

Inscriptions and Labels

Stamps, Seals, Labels:

  • Reverse of the panel: Coat of arms, divided into three parts, with a tree, a half eagle and three stars; crest; motto: 'Mit Gott fest und treu'; inventory label of the Weber collection 'L. Cranach I No. 408'; attached catalogue excerpt (?); Staatsgalerie Stuttgart inventory label

  • [Elsbeth Wiemann, Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, revised 2015]

Owner
Land Baden-Württemberg
Repository
Staatsgalerie Stuttgart
Location
Stuttgart
CDA ID
DE_SGS_3307
FR (1978) Nr.
FR246R
Persistent Link
https://lucascranach.org/en/DE_SGS_3307/

Provenance

  • Before 1878 Collection of C. D. Wolff, Berlin
  • Collection of Consul Eduard F. von Weber, Hamburg
  • 20 February 1912, Berlin, auction of the Weber collection at Lepke, No. 40
  • Collection of Councillor of commerce Franz Brandt, Berlin
  • 1978 acquired from his estate with Lotto funds
    [Cat. Stuttgart 1992, 98]
    [http://onlinekatalog.staatsgalerie.de/detail.jsp?id=624D66444019F423DA8F11A233296684&img=1; 22-07-2015]

Exhibitions

Stuttgart 2006, 233

Literature

Reference on page Catalogue Number Figure / Plate
Exhib. Cat. Stuttgart 2006 233
EditorTilman Osterwold
TitleKunst lebt! Die Welt mit anderen Augen sehen, Große Landesausstellung Baden-Württemberg, Kunstgebäude Stuttgart, 25. Mai - 24. September 2006
Place of PublicationStuttgart
Year of Publication2006
Show Literature
Hinz 1994 B 174 Fig. A116
AuthorBerthold Hinz
TitleSinnwidrig zusammengestellte Fabrikate? Zur Varianten-Praxis der Cranach-Werkstatt
Publicationin Claus Grimm, Johannes Erichsen, Evamaria Brockhoff, eds., Lucas Cranach. Ein Maler-Unternehmer aus Franken, Exhib. Cat. Kronach 1994
SeriesVeröffentlichungen zur bayerischen Geschichte und Kultur
Volume26
Place of PublicationAugsburg, Regensburg
Year of Publication1994
Pages174-179
Show Literature
Cat. Stuttgart 1992 98-99 p. 99
AuthorEdeltraut Rettich, Rüdiger Klapproth, Gerhard Ewald
TitleAlte Meister. Staatsgalerie Stuttgart
Place of PublicationStuttgart
Year of Publication1992
Show Literature
Friedländer, Rosenberg 1979 120 246R
AuthorMax J. Friedländer, Jakob Rosenberg
EditorG. Schwartz
TitleDie Gemälde von Lucas Cranach
Place of PublicationBasel, Boston, Stuttgart
Year of Publication1979
Show Literature
Rettich 1979 227-229
AuthorEdeltraut Rettich
TitleLucas Cranach der Ältere (1472-1553). Amor als Honigdieb (Fragment), 1532
JournalJahrbuch der Staatlichen Kunstsammlungen in Baden-Württemberg
Issue16 (1979)
Year of Publication1979
Pages227-229
Show Literature
Apollo 1975 42 [advertisment with Fig.]
Authorn. a.
JournalApollo
Issue42 (Jan. 1975)
Year of Publication1975
Show Literature
Weltkunst 1972 1702 [advertisment with Fig.]
Authorn. a.
Titlen. t.
JournalWeltkunst: Zeitschrift für Kunst und Antiquitäten
Issue42 (Nov. 1972)
Year of Publication1972
Show Literature
Friedländer, Rosenberg 1932 68 204p
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
Show Literature
Auct. Cat. Berlin 1912
Authorn. a.
TitleVersteigerung der Sammlung Weber, Berlin (Rudolph Lepke), 20.-22. Februar 1912, Katalog-Nr. 1634
Place of PublicationBerlin
Year of Publication1912
Show Literature
Woermann 1907 40 40
AuthorKarl Woermann
TitleWissenschaftliches Verzeichnis der älteren Gemälde der Galerie Weber in Hamburg
Place of PublicationDresden
Issue2., stark vermehrte und verbesserte Ausgabe
Year of Publication1907
Show Literature
Woermann 1892 33-34 36 (Inv. No. 408)
AuthorKarl Woermann
TitleWissenschaftliches Verzeichnis der älteren Gemälde der Galerie Weber in Hamburg
Place of PublicationDresden
Year of Publication1892
Show Literature
  • Cupid as Honey Thief [fragment], 1532

Images

Compare images
  • overall
  • irr

Technical studies

06. 2015Technical examination / Scientific analysis

  • Infrared reflectography
  • irr

Underdrawing

DESCRIPTION

An underdrawing executed with a brush is only readily visible in a few places; e. g. the arms, the neck and in the left hand; at the top right corner elements from the original compostion are visible

[Sandner, Smith-Contini, Heydenreich, cda 2016]

  • photographed by Ingo Sandner
  • photographed by Gunnar Heydenreich

Citing from the Cranach Digital Archive

Entry with author
<author's name>, 'Cupid as Honey Thief [fragment]', <title of document, data entry or image>. [<Date of document or image>], in: Cranach Digital Archive, https://lucascranach.org/en/DE_SGS_3307/ (Accessed {{dateAccessed}})
Entry with no author
'Cupid as Honey Thief [fragment]', <title of document, data entry or image>. [<Date of document, entry or image>], in: Cranach Digital Archive, https://lucascranach.org/en/DE_SGS_3307/ (Accessed {{dateAccessed}})

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