St. Christopher and the Christ Child

The painting was sold to Mrs. Cummer by Paul Wengraf in 1956.

Wengraf provided Mrs. Cummer with a note by Prof. Friedländer addressed to the previous owner of the painting thanking him for providing him with a photo of the Christophorus panel and stating how he "was sorry not to have known this excellent and well-preserved picture earlier, in order to reproduce it in my book on Cranach…". I assume Friedländer is referring here to the first edition of his Cranach catalogue published in 1932. The note by Friedländer is dated 26 January 1934. This is the b/w photograph from the Friedländer Archive. When Mrs. Cummer bought the painting in 1956, the Christ showed one finger [as seen in the b/w photograph]

When the Cummer painting was restored in 1960, the conservator observed how the painting had been previously cleaned and restored. The conservator believed that the original painting by Cranach showed Christ pointing two fingers. This hypothesis can be supported by the fact that the version which went for sale at Lempertz in 1973 does indeed show 2 fingers. The conservator therefore reverted the "one finger Child" to an original "two figure Child". He also mentioned that other areas had been retouched, for example, the staff.

Conclusion: Friedländer 111 is indeed the Cummer Museum painting, only reproduced in a different conservation state. The dimensions are the same. The photograph in Friedländer's 1978 book, and the one reproduced from the Friedländer Archive, simply shows how the painting looked in the 1930's.

[Nelda Damiano, Cummer Museum, e-mail correspondance 2017]