- 32
Lucas Cranach the Elder Kronach 1472-1553 Weimar
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Description
- Lucas, the elder Cranach
- Portrait of a young woman, three-quarter length, as a Court Beauty, wearing a red cap and a green dress trimmed with gold, her décolletage bedecked with gold chains
- signed with the artist's device, wings raised, lower left
- oil on limewood panel
Provenance
James Whatman, (Whatman papermakers), Maidstone, Kent, presumably by the late 18th Century;
Thence by descent to the present day.
Catalogue Note
Lucas Cranach the Elder painted a large number of portraits of young women in lavish costume, which may perhaps have been portrayals of court beauties, embodiments of female charm and allure, rather than specific likenesses, although there is no documentary evidence for this. The same types occur in his depictions of Judith, Lucretia, and other classical heroines. Such pictures were a staple of the workshop of Lucas Cranach the Elder and his sons over several decades, but on grounds of style this previously unrecorded picture probably dates from circa 1525-35.