Venus with Cupid stealing honey

There are numerous discrepancies in the literature regarding the size and provenance of this painting, however the depiction of Venus and Cupid, no. 247 in Friedländer, Rosenberg 1979, is without question the painting, measuring 50 x 34 cm on the website [lootedart poland; accessed 21.02.2024]. A tiny deviation in the inscription, which begins with 'TVVUM' in the illustration on the lootedart website and with 'DVM' in Friedländer, Rosenberg, suggests it was altered at some stage.

D. Koepplin wrote to the National Museum in Warsaw on the 13.07.2002, explaining that the ‘Branicki Venus’, 37.5 x 23.5 cm, was not listed in Friedländer, Rosenberg 1932/79, but had been shown at the Basel Cranach exhibition (no. 571] in 1974. At that time it belonged to Georg Schäfer, Schweinfurt. In March 1986 he sold the painting at Neumeister's auction house, Munich (auction 232, lot 852). Although the painting is not reproduced in the Basel catalogue, reference is made to an illustration in [Mikhalkova 1972]. The same illustration can be found in Friedländer,Rosenberg 1979, in the Neumeister auction catalogue and on the lootedart website. In fact, the painting is not listed in Friedländer, Rosenberg 1932 and D. Koepplin was perhaps not aware that it had since been added to the 1979 edition.

[cda 2024]