Lucas Cranach the Younger

Kenneth Fitzgerald, 12th Baron Kinnaird (1880–1972), Rossie Priory, Perth;
Anonymous sale ('The Property of a Gentleman'), London, Sotheby's, 30 November 1966, lot 83, to Seymour R. Thaler, for £1,600 (as Lucas Cranach the Elder);
Seymour R. Thaler, New York;
Thence by family descent;
Anonymous sale ('Property of a Private Collector'), New York, Sotheby's, 28 January 2010, lot 252 (as Lucas Cranach the Younger).

M. J. Friedländer and J. Rosenberg, The Paintings of Lucas Cranach, London 1978, p. 126, no. 286 (as Lucas Cranach the Elder).

The following condition report is provided by Alex France who is an external specialist and not an employee of Sotheby's: Structural Condition The artist's panel which has been cradled on the reverse is providing a stable structural support. There is a very tiny indentation to the panel within the background above the female figure's head. Paint Surface The paint surface has a relatively even but cloudy varnish layer. There is an overall pattern of very fine craquelure which appears entirely stable. There are two small accretions within the lower part of the female figure's dress towards the lower right corner. Inspection under ultra-violet light shows large retouchings within the lower left and lower right corners and along the lower edge, a few retouchings within the female figure's forehead which are clearly visible in natural light and further small retouchings within the figures' flesh tones and clothing. Summary The painting would therefore appear to be in reasonably good and stable condition having undergone fairly extensive restoration in the lower part of the composition.
"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."

First published as a work by Lucas Cranach the Elder by Max J. Friedländer and Jakob Rosenberg in 1978, this small and refined panel represents the ‘ill-matched couple’, a highly popular theme in the sixteenth century and among one of the most popular subject in Cranach’s œuvre. Here the fur-clad and evidently wealthy elderly man, with dewy-eyed gratitude, is seen placing a valuable ring on the finger of a younger woman, who invitingly stretches her arm around his neck in return. The overt symbolism of the finger and the ring would not have been lost on the contemporary viewer. In its design the present picture is closely related to a painting of the same subject by Cranach the Elder today in the collection of the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna.¹ The two paintings are on panels of very similar size, and differ only in small details, notably in the omission of the woman’s right hand and the thumb of the man’s left hand in the present work. Neither of the two panels is signed. The Vienna panel is generally dated to the 1530s and it is likely that the present work is of similar date or a little later.

In their catalogue, Friedländer and Rosenberg supported an attribution to Lucas Cranach the Elder, and suggested a possible dating to the 1530s. In 2004, however, Dr. Dieter Koepplin (private communication), while implying the primacy of the Vienna panel, noted that Lucas Cranach the Elder is not thought to have painted autograph replicas of his designs – these being normally assigned to the workshop – and thus questioned his authorship of the present work. At the time of the New York sale in 2010 Doctor Werner Schade (private communication) endorsed this view, but suggested that the fine execution of the panel indicates that Lucas Cranach the Younger or even his elder brother Hans Cranach, who died in 1537, may have been its author. Certainly, the undoubtedly high quality of certain passages in this work, for example in the face of the woman, which Schade felt had been ‘newly individualised’ would seem to raise it well above the level of a studio production.

The theme of the ill-matched couple has fascinated artists and their public since antiquity, but seems to have reached its peak of popularity in Northern Europe in the Late Middle Ages. It frequently appears in drawings, prints, paintings and literature of the late 15^th and early 16^th centuries, especially in Germany, where the subjects were called ‘Buhlschaften’ or ‘Adulterous scenes’. One of the earliest visual representations of the theme was the pair of drypoint engravings by the Housebook Master dating to the 1480s.² These prints depict pairs of half-length figures, heads close together, sideways glances, figures entwined, often with a bag of coins, the cause of the unlikely coupling, displayed in the foreground. Lucas Cranach the Elder and his studio adopted this prototype with enthusiasm producing no less than 40 versions on the theme, with many variations of embrace and pose for the two figures. After the death of his brother Hans, Lucas Cranach the Younger took over the running of the Cranach workshop.

 

1. Kunsthistorisches Museum inv. no. GG_895. M.J. Friedländer and J. Rosenberg, The Paintings of Lucas Cranach, London 1978, p. 125, cat. no. 285D (under variants of the panel in the Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Nuremberg).

2. See the print in the British Museum, inv. no. E,1.133.