Lucas Cranach the Younger

Private Collector, Munich;
Confiscated from the above on 18, November 1938 and allocated for the Kunstmuseum  Linz (inv. 2550);
Recovered by the Monuments Men and sent to the Munich Central Collecting Point (inv. 4273), on 15 July 1945;
Transferred to Wiesbaden on 25 May 1949 and restituted to the heirs of the private collector on 2 December 1949;
Thence by descent. 

G. Haase, Die Kunstsammlung Adolf Hitler: eine Dokumentation, Berlin 2002, p. 218;
H. C. Löhr, Das Braune Haus der Kunst : Hitler und der "Sonderauftrag Linz" : Visionen, Verbrechen, Verluste, Berlin 2005, p. 130, citation no. 9.

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 picture has not been restored for many years. It is inscribed with the artist's device in the upper left. There is a cradle on the reverse. The panel is flat and the paint layer is stable. The painting is noticeably dirty. There is a horizontal original join in the panel running through the biceps of Christ and a couple of other smaller cracks entering into the cheek of the Virgin Mary on the left. Positive identification of retouches under ultraviolet light is difficult, except for retouches across the panel join. There seems to be very little damage or restoration within the figures. This includes the softer colors in Christ's beard and the red colors of Saint John's shirt. The background, may have received broader retouches, as is often the case in Old Master paintings, and there is a noticeable disturbance to the varnish between the head of Christ and the head of Saint John. It may be that this area was attended to more recently for some reason. The varnish has become milky in the background, and this certainly is a picture that can be improved. If it is cleaned, the figures should be revealed to be in very good condition. While the background may have retouches, it seems that the condition here will be very good as well.
"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."

This intense, emotional depiction of Christ as a Man of Sorrows is an exciting new addition to the oeuvre of Lucas Cranach the Younger. The design, with Christ flanked by the Virgin on one side and Saint John the Evangelist on the other, originated with Lucas Cranach the Elder and was adapted at least three times by his son. The earliest manifestation of this type is the 1524 panel in the Augustiner Museum, Freiburg im Breisgau.¹ In that work Lucas Cranach the Elder depicts a landscape with a three-quarter length seated Christ in his tomb flanked by the Virgin and Saint John with a host of cherubs in the sky. The figures are close to the pictorial plane with the tortured body of Christ clearly on display, but the landscape setting serves to soften the portrayal of Christ as Man of Sorrows. In his second interpretation of the theme, executed ten years later, Cranach the Elder removed the landscape setting, thus heightening the emotional impact of the composition. There are, however, a host of cherubs with the attributes of the cross in a frieze-like formation at the top of the painting which visually draws the eye away from the central figures. ²

Lucas Cranach the Younger's first experimentation with this composition, known through versions in the Vatican and the collection of the Historical Society in Regensburg,³ are close to his father's 1534 composition although the figures are brought even closer to the pictorial plane and the frieze of angels is reduced to a few small praying cherubs in each corner. Thus Christ's bruised and broken body becomes more of a feature standing out against the dramatic dark background. The present composition is clearly closely related to this version but it comes closest both compositionally and stylistically to a later- circa 1540 -version by Cranach the Younger in the Kunsthalle, Hamburg.⁴ At some point in its history this panel was likely cut down, and thus much of the lower register of the composition is no longer visible, but it is almost certain that as in the Hamburg version, Christ was originally seated on the just visible edge of his tomb with his hands loosely folded across his lap. Still clearly discernible, however, is his tortured expression of woe and his crucified body torn and bleeding. Mary and St. John flank Christ, with the former weeping into her robe and the latter with his hands clasped in prayer. Apart from the edge of the tomb the background is one of unrelieved darkness and the angels featured in the previous compositions have now disappeared.

We are grateful to Dr. Dieter Koepplin for endorsing the attribution to Lucas Cranach the Younger, on the basis of photographs.

1. See M.J. Friedländer and J. Rosenberg, The Paintings of Lucas Cranach, London 1978, p. 101, cat. no. 156. 
2. Ibid., pp. 112-3, no. 219. 
3. Ibid., p. 146, no. 383. 
4. Ibid., p. 146, no. 384.