Saint John the Baptist

Saint John the Baptist

Title

Saint John the Baptist

[Museo Poldi Pezzoli, revised 2013]

Painting on wood

Medium

Painting on wood

[Museo Poldi Pezzoli, revised 2013]

These two tiny panels form a diptych representing the Virgin and Child and Saint John the Baptist and are united by the same background landscape. The Baptist can be identified thanks to his traditional attributes - the leather tunic, the book, the lamb, the cross - and by the inscription

These two tiny panels form a diptych representing the Virgin and Child and Saint John the Baptist and are united by the same background landscape. The Baptist can be identified thanks to his traditional attributes - the leather tunic, the book, the lamb, the cross - and by the inscription 'There was a man sent from God, whose name was John', from the Gospel (John 1:6). [...]

Despite their small dimensions, the two panels are so full of details, they should be looked at through a magnifying glass. Cranach accurately describes the fur of the Baptist's tunic [...]

[http://www.museopoldipezzoli.it/en/node/945]

Attribution
Lucas Cranach the Elder

Attribution

Lucas Cranach the Elder

[Museo Poldi Pezzoli, revised 2013]
[Exhib. Cat. Hamburg 2003, No. 60]

Production dates
1550 - 1552
about 1550

Production dates

1550 - 1552

[Museo Poldi Pezzoli, revised 2013]

about 1550

[Exhib. Cat. Hamburg 2003, No. 60]

Dimensions
Dimensions of support: 18.3 x 12.6 x c. 0.5 cm

Dimensions

  • Dimensions of support: 18.3 x 12.6 x c. 0.5 cm

  • Dimensions including frame: 31.8 x 43 cm

  • [Museo Poldi Pezzoli, revised 2013]

Signature / Dating

None

Inscriptions and Labels
  • at the bottom: '[FU]IT HOMO MISSUS A DEO CUI NOMEN ERAS JOHANNES'

[http://www.museopoldipezzoli.it/en/node/945]

Inscriptions and Labels

Inscriptions, Badges:

Owner
Museo Poldi Pezzoli, Milano
Repository
Museo Poldi Pezzoli, Milano
Location
Milan
CDA ID
I_MPP_1037
FR (1978) Nr.
FR-none
Persistent Link
https://lucascranach.org/en/I_MPP_1037/

Connected Works

The Virgin and The Child with two angels
  • The Virgin and The Child with two angels, 1550 - 1552
  • I_MPP_1038
  • Painting
  • Museo Poldi Pezzoli, Milano

Provenance

1908 acquisition
[http://www.museopoldipezzoli.it/en/node/945]

It was acquired in 1908 for 1600 liras.
This small diptych, now without the original frame of which still there is the print along the edges, it was bought in 1908 for 1600 liras, on a proposal of E. Modigliani from the priest A. Cumin Turin (Archive Museo Poldi Pezzoli).
[http://www.museopoldipezzoli.it/userfiles/1037_1038.pdf] (accessed 21.05.2013)

Exhibitions

Hamburg 2003, No. 60

Literature

Reference on page Catalogue Number Figure / Plate
Waterman 2015 284, Fn. 18
AuthorJoshua P. Waterman
TitleThe Artistic Emergence of Lucas Cranach the Younger
Publicationin Elke A. Werner, Anne Eusterschulte, Gunnar Heydenreich, eds., Lucas Cranach der Jüngere und die Reformation der Bilder
Place of PublicationMunich
Year of Publication2015
Pages280-289
Show Literature
Koepplin 2006
AuthorDieter Koepplin
TitleWie erklärt sich eine von Cranach gemalte Maria-Ekklesia 'in der Sonne' aus der Situation um 1550?
Publicationin Irene Dingel, Günther Wartenberg, eds., Politik und Bekenntnis. Die Reaktionen auf das Interim von 1548
Place of PublicationLeipzig
Year of Publication2006
Pages139-176
Show Literature
Exhib. Cat. Hamburg 2003 65, 178 060 Pl. 60
EditorBucerius Kunst Forum, Werner Schade
TitleLucas Cranach. Glaube, Mythologie und Moderne [Bucerius Kunst Forum, Hamburg]
Place of PublicationOstfildern-Ruit
Year of Publication2003
Show Literature
Cat. Milan 1982 165 Nos. 220, 221
AuthorM. Natale
TitleDipinti in Museo Poldi Pezzoli
Place of PublicationMilan
Year of Publication1982
Show Literature
Russoli 1978 30
AuthorFranco Russoli
TitleIl Museo Poldi Pezzoli in Milano. Guida per il visitatore
Place of PublicationFlorence
Year of Publication1978
Show Literature
Exhib. Cat. Basel 1974/1976 510 under No. 355
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
Show Literature
Russoli 1972 256
AuthorFranco Russoli
TitlePittura e scultura
Publicationin Guido Gregorietti, ed., Il Museo Poldi Pezzoli
Place of PublicationMilan
Year of Publication1972
Pages197-288
Show Literature
Russoli 1955 141
AuthorFranco Russoli
TitleLa Pinacoteca Poldi Pezzoli
Place of PublicationMilan
Year of Publication1955
Show Literature
Russoli 1951 23
AuthorFranco Russoli
TitleIl Museo Poldi Pezzoli in Milano. Guida per il visitatore
Place of PublicationFlorence
Year of Publication1951
Show Literature
Wittgens 1937
AuthorF. Wittgens
TitleIl Museo Poldi Pezzoli a Milano
Place of PublicationMilan
Year of Publication1937
Show Literature
Morassi 1932 22
AuthorA. Morassi
TitleIl Museo Poldi-Pezzoli in Milano
Place of PublicationRome
Year of Publication1932
Show Literature
Cat. Milan 1911 165
Authorn. a.
TitleMuseo artistico Poldi Pezzoli
Place of PublicationMilan
Year of Publication1911
Show Literature
Cagnola 1910 66 No. 1
AuthorG. Cagnola
TitleUn interessante acquisto della Fondazione Artistica
JournalRassegna d'Arte
IssueX
Year of Publication1910
Pages65-66
Show Literature

Research History / Discussion

These remarkable productions, embellished with gold highlights and a refined execution technique, have escaped, for a reason that is unknown to us, the attention of scholars of the German painter. They must, however, be ascribed to his hand and dated, due to strong similarities of pictorial with the Nativity of the Gemäldegalerie in Dresden (Inv. no. 1907 A: Friedländer -Rosenberg, 1978, p. 90, n. 101), to the years between 1515 and 1520.

F. Russoli (1955, p. 141), which already suggested that chronological reference, rightly noted that in this "Subtle grace of tiny handwriting", you can still see the memory of Altdorfer. Both the iconographic point of view and the composition of the two works reveal a strong influence of North Italian painting, perceived perhaps, in this case, through Lombard models (the influence of Bergognone is particularly noticeable in the figure of St. John the Baptist).

It should however be noted that the morphology of the landscape little corresponds to the one that the painter usuallyproposed in the second decade of the sixteenth century, a background of trees of very similar to this one appears in an Adam and Eve, dated 1549, which according to ancient documents it is for Lucas Cranach the Younger.

[http://www.museopoldipezzoli.it/userfiles/1037_1038.pdf] (accessed 21.05.2013)

  • Saint John the Baptist, 1550 - 1552

Images

Compare images
  • overall

Condition Reports

Date2013

This panel has been probably cut and reduced at the top. Probably the logo-signature isn't original since it has been partly removed during the restoration of 2003 and since Cranach usually didn't sign both panels in a diptych.

Craquelure of the pictorial surface is visible on the Saint's face.

[Museo Poldi Pezzoli, revised 2013]

Conservation History

Date2003

  • cleaning of the surface, pictorial integrations and varnishing
  • conservation treatment by Carmela Comolli Chirici

Date1909

  • conservation treatment by Luigi Cavenaghi

Citing from the Cranach Digital Archive

Entry with author
<author's name>, 'Saint John the Baptist', <title of document, data entry or image>. [<Date of document or image>], in: Cranach Digital Archive, https://lucascranach.org/en/I_MPP_1037/ (Accessed {{dateAccessed}})
Entry with no author
'Saint John the Baptist', <title of document, data entry or image>. [<Date of document, entry or image>], in: Cranach Digital Archive, https://lucascranach.org/en/I_MPP_1037/ (Accessed {{dateAccessed}})

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