Triptych with Christ among the Doctors [central panel]

[...] Erichsen was the first to propose that it might be an early work by Cranach the Elder's brother, Matthes Cranach, painted in Kronach, Upper Franconia, where Matthes returned after his studies in Wittenberg. [...] If not Matthes, Erichsen argues that the triptych must be by another pupil or workshop collaborator of Cranch the Elder's, painted to a specific commission. [...] Mr. Ludwig Meyer and Dr. Werner Schade independently suggest an attribution to the Workshop of Lucas Cranach the Elder and a date circa 1515-20. Dr. Schade notes that the picture displays very accomplished handling, and may well be the work of a pupil in Cranach's studio who might later have become a master in his own right and subsequently changed his style.

[Christie's Online database;https://www.christies.com/lotfinder/paintings/workshop-of-lucas-cranach-i-a-triptych-5277768-details.aspx; accessed 20.05.2019]

In his note to the travelling exhibition of Dr. Rau's collection, Frédéric Elsig refers to the unusual iconography of the altarpiece, which, by juxtaposing The Miraculous Multiplication of the Loaves and Fishes, The Marriage at Cana and Christ Among the Doctors, draws a parallel between bread, wine and The Word. Elsig notes that such a pictorial programme is likely to have been suggested by a humanist, which supports the Scheurl hypothesis. The charming symbolic alignment suggests that The Word, and the words that compose and express it, possess the same nourishing and inspirational qualities as food and wine, while at the same time the equation of the Eucharist with the Scripture speaks to a latent Lutheran philosophy. The unexpected and highly unusual juxtaposition of The Nativity with the alms-giving Saint Elizabeth of Thuringia adds to these sentiments an idea of The Nativity as an act of Divine Mercy, as indeed are Christ's miracles on the open wings - a mercy which brings nourishment, inspiration and salvation. Such a complex, nuanced and meaningful programme could well have been the invention of Scheurl himself, the devout man-of-letters and ally to Luther.[Christie's Online database; https://www.christies.com/lotfinder/paintings/workshop-of-lucas-cranach-i-a-triptych-5277768-details.aspx; accessed 20.05.2019]