Apollo and Diana

The wooden panel (73.3 x 51.3 x 0.7 cm) consists of three vertically aligned spruce wood planks of varying widths. The glued joins are not visibly reinforced with tow.

According to present knowledge Lucas Cranach the Elder only employed spruce wood during his stay in Vienna, about 1502/03. No case of the use of spruce has yet been recorded for the Cranach workshop in Wittenberg.

The panel exhibits a white ground application - apparently chalk based. The application of the ground does not extend to the edges of the panel at the right and the bottom. Here a sharp barb has been retained. Compared with other works from the Cranach workshop the ground is conspicuously light in colour and in addition the sharpness of the barb differs from that found on works securly attributed to the Cranach workshop.

A black underdrawing was made partially visible on the ground employing infrared reflectography. The drawing instrument could not be conclusively determined - both a brush and a pen may have been used. The linear drawing fixed the essential contours and details. There are no noticeable deviations in the painted version.

In comparison with authentic works by Lucas Cranach the Elder the lines appear rather tenuous. The poor quality of the underdrawing is particularly apparent in the area of the loin cloth.

Pigments

The present painting was examined by Heike Stege employing a stereomicroscope and SEM/EDX analysis and the following pigments and fill materials were identified: lead white, chalk, lead tin yellow, orange ochre, green earth, azurite and charcoal black. [1] Chalk, lead white, lead tin yellow, azurite and charcoal black were used for panel painting in Europe, including the Cranach workshop.

Green earth could not as yet be identified on any painting from the workshop of Lucas Cranach, nor is the pigment recorded in Cranach's surviving invoices. The use of orange ochre containing barite and a cerium compound has not been documented on a Cranach painting either.

The azurite pigment pparticles employed in the landscape background are particularly coarse. By contrast the Cranach workshop employed very finely ground azurite to execute sky and landscapes.

Flesh paint

The flesh paint was executed with an initial layer consisting of an admixture of lead white and vermilion pigments. The areas of shadow were relatively crudely modeled employing semi-transparent reddish-brown and grey glazes and the highlights were added with a lead white admixture. The x-radiograph appears very patchy. It confirms that the painting process was precisely planned and carried out with few alterations. The style and technique employed to execute the flesh paint differ considerably from works securely attributed to Lucas Cranach and his workshop. In particular the distributioin of lead white visible in the x-radiograph provides evidence of a divergent technique in the modulation.

Sky and landscape

The sky was laided in with an admixture of lead white and azurite and subsequently toned employing reddish-brown glazes. The grey underpaint that is generally found in the sky on Cranach paintings from this period was not detected on the present painting. It was not standard practise in the Cranach workshop to modulate the sky with reddish-brown glazes. The foliage in the middle-ground was laid in with reddish-brown paint. Subsequently single leaves were modelled employing dark to light green paint. This technique is also untypical of Lucas Cranach: on Cranach paintings it is more common to observe a brownish formation on the edge of leaves resulting from discoloured final glazes.

The difference in style and technique from works securely attributed to Lucas Cranach and his workshop is also apparent in the execution of the architecture in the background. The reinforced contours of the city-scape are particularly unusual for Cranach.

[1] Poll-Frommel, Stege, Untersuchungsbericht (2009), 2.

The frame exhibits a black application over a red ground and the corners are decorated with organic motifs. A rhombus pattern is incised on the flat surfaces. The frame was constructed out of old wood. Truncated woodworm channels indicate that the wood was already suffering from woodworm damage before it was used.

DESCRIPTION

Tools/Material:

- the initial design was fixed with a dry, black drawing material, stylus; and may have been subsequently reinforced with a fine-tipped brush

Type/Ductus:

- relatively detailed underdrawing with a stylus or/and a fine-tipped brush

- fine lines

Function:

- relatively binding for the final painted version; lines define the main contours and describe essential details within forms; no representation of volume with hatching-strokes

Deviations:

- minor corrections were made to forms during the painting process

INTERPRETATION

Attribution:

- not possible

Comments:

- probably a copy after UK_RCL_RCIN407294

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

The painting is relatively stable, however it is damaged and has been reworked. There are numerous small losses along the top edge and distributed over the entire surface. Examination under UV-light showed that the damage was only in part treated.

The entire surface exhibits a prominent cracquelée. It is rather suspicious that the vertical splits in the paint layers and the ground are not parallel to the grain and do not reflect the gap between the annual rings of the spruce wood planks. This observation together with the fabric imprint in the x-radiograph[1] suggest that the visible network of cracks did not occur naturally as a result of the paint layers being subjected to the expansion and shrinkage of the spruce wood support, but that it was artifically produced. It is possible that the painting was executed on a fabric support and later transferred to the wooden support.

[1] Poll-Frommel, Stege, Untersuchungsbericht (2009), 3.