Lucas Cranach the Elder

Bodenburg Collection, Halle;
Prof. Dr. W. Freiherr von Bissing, Munich, by 1910;
Munich art market;
Von Schönaich-Carolath, Germany;
Anonymous sale, London, Sotheby's, April 9, 1986, lot 69, reproduced;
With Heim Gallery, London;
From whom purchased by the present owner.

H. Nasse, "Gemälde aus der Sammlung des Univ. Professors Dr. Freih. W. von Bissing zu München," in Münchner Jahrbuch der bildenden Kunst, vol. 5, 1910, p. 101, reproduced p. 100, plate IV;
S. Reinach,  Répertoire des peintures du Moyen Age et de la Renaissance, Paris 1922, vol. IV, p. 674;
M.J. Friedländer and J. Rosenberg, Die Gemälde von Lucas Cranach, Berlin 1932, no. 322, reproduced;¹
M.J. Friedländer and J. Rosenberg, The Paintings of Lucas Cranach, London 1978, p. 149-50, cat. no. 401, reproduced, fig. 401.  

The following condition report has been provided by Simon Parkes of Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc. 502 East 74th St. New York, NY 212-734-3920, simonparkes@msn.com , an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. This painting has been recently restored and could be hung as is. The large panel has been cradled on the reverse and appears to be stable at present, although numerous horizontal cracks have developed in the past, one running through the uppermost heads in the upper right and left, another running across the forehead of the old man, another across the middle and two or three others in the lower half of the picture. All of these breaks are slightly visible but seem to be joined and well restored. In the lower center there is what appears to be an inserted section of wood in a diagonally applied rectangle. Perhaps a knot in the wood became a problem; however the section of wood is stable but quite visible. The condition of the paint layer throughout the figures in the paler colors and the bulk of the clothing of the figures seem to be very good. The ultraviolet light does not reveal any more than some recent restoration along one of the uppermost breaks running through the forehead of the old man and extending all the way to the left edge. Another restoration is visible under ultraviolet light in a crack in the panel running through the waist of the woman in orange in the lower right. The diagonal rectangular insertion in the lower center has also received some restoration. Beneath another varnish, there are other restorations which are not easily detectable under ultraviolet light, but they seem to be situated in the neck and chest of the central female figure counting the money, perhaps also in the neck of the woman in orange and addressing another crack in the panel running through the heads of the figures in the upper right. This break in the panel extends through the head of figure in the upper left where restorations have also been applied. Currently the picture is clean, the panel is stable and the restoration, for the most part, is very competent. There are restorations which are not immediately apparent under ultraviolet light or to the naked eye and there may be what appear to be slightly broader applications of a dark glaze, perhaps in the lower portion of the picture. However, for a picture of this period, the figures are all in robust condition and the restoration is very competent.
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

The Old Man Beguiled by Courtesans is datable to 1537 or shortly after, on the basis of the composition and the signature.  It is signed in the upper right with the device of a serpent with folded wings, a revision of Cranach's early mark, which depicted a serpent with the spread wings of a bat.  While the new device appears on a few earlier pictures,² it is first in common usage in 1537, the year that Cranach's elder son Hans died and Lucas Cranach the Younger became the co-director and manager of his father's workshop.  The device was not a signature as such, but a mark of quality, and was used as such by both Cranach and his son.  This sharing of the serpent mark plus the extremely high quality of the younger Cranach's works at this period have made it very difficult for scholars to come to a clear consensus in distinguishing between the oeuvres of father and son.  Friedländer and Rosenberg published the painting as by Cranach the Elder,³ but more recently Koepplin tentatively suggested it might be a collaboration between father and son.⁴   Ludwig Meyer, on the basis of a photograph, believes the painting to be solely the work of Cranach the Elder.⁵

The painting shows an old man with a long grey beard, seated at a card table surrounded by attractive young women, three of whom can be identified as courtesans by their elaborate clothing and coiffures. The old man is wearing luxurious velvet robes and a double strand of gold chain around his neck and clearly has the means to pay for his entertainment.  Behind him stands a laughing young woman who covers his eyes with her hands, and he is so charmed by her attentions that he is unaware that she and her companions are robbing him.  One woman, immediately to the right, scoops up the man's gold coins - his stake for the card game - helped by her maid who has transferred the coins to her apron.  In the right rear is a well-dressed couple, the young man whispering in the ear of his companion and pointing to the victim of the courtesans' deception.   

The subject can be associated with two groups of paintings within Cranach's oeuvre:  the Power of Woman or Weibermacht and the theme of the Ill-Matched Pair.  The first inludes such subjects as Aristotle and Phyllis, David and Bathsheba, Samson and Delilah, and Hercules and Omphale, in which women excercise domination over men and humiliate them.  Such subjects were represented either as independent images or together in sculptural groups, stained glass and other decorative arts from the middle ages onwards and were adapted by printmakers in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.  Cranach himself was very taken with this theme and painted a variety of compositions, including a painting of  Aristotle and Phyllis, dated 1530 which was sold in these rooms on January 24, 2008, lot 78.  The closest in its horizontal format and crowding together of four young women around the man may be Hercules and Omphale in Braunschweig (F.-R. 274),⁶ dated 1537.  However, this comparable work and the other above mentioned subjects are all either Biblical or classical themes, while The Old Man Beguiled by Courtesans is a purely contemporary scene with moralizing overtones.  As such it should be considered in the context of a group of paintings of Ill-Matched Pairs, such as theYoung Girl and Old Man in the Museum Kunstpalast, Düsseldorf (F.-R. 287), with its emphasis on inappropriate sexual relations and deception.  The explicit depiction of courtesans is a rare subject and only one other painting attributed to Cranach is recorded, Old Man with Young Courtesans (F.-R 291), formerly in the collection of Sir Arthur de Cros.  

Cranach's interest in these purely genre subjects may derive from his knowledge of early northern printmaking.  Ill-Matched Pairs can be found in the prints of the fifteenth century Master of the Housebook and in various examples by his followers.  However, more expansive scenes comparable to The Old Man Beguiled by Courtesans are quite rare.  One of the few examples is Lucas van Leyden's large woodcut A Tavern Scene of 1520, which treats the subject of carnal love and deception, though without the additional element of the unequal lovers.  It is Cranach's genius, however, that enabled him to translate this subject into a fully developed painting - a refined panel, suitable for the tastes of the court at Wittenberg.

We are very grateful to Dr. Dieter Koepplin for his assistance in cataloguing this lot.

1.  Friedländer and Rosenberg in this and the later, English edition, erroneously give the dimensions of the picture as circa 95 by 140 cm. 
2.  See C. Talbot, "Cranach," in The Dictionary of Art, London 1996, vol. 8, p. 112.
3.  Although first published by Nasse as the work of Cranach and studio, Friedländer and Rosenberg included Old Man Beguiled by Courtesans in both editions of their catalogue raisonné, see Literature above, Nasse, Ibid., M.J. Friedländer and J. Rosenberg, 1932, no. 322, and 1978, no. 401. 
4.  D. Koepplin confirmed the attribution to Cranach the Elder from a photograph but brought up the possibility of Cranach the Younger having contributed to the work in an annotation:   "and the Younger?", undated written communication of October 2008.
5.  L. Meyer, undated written communication, November 2008.
6.  M.J. Friedländer and J. Rosenberg 1978.