Lot 9
  • 9

MANNER OF LUCAS CRANACH THE ELDER | Portraits of Martin Luther (1483–1546) and his wife, Katharina von Bora (1499–1552)

Estimate
2,000 - 3,000 GBP
bidding is closed

Description

  • Lucas Cranach the Younger
  • Portraits of Martin Luther (1483–1546) and his wife, Katharina von Bora (1499–1552)
  • Each unframed: 35.8 x 24.6 cm.; 14 1/8  x 9 5/8  in. Each framed: 47.2 x 35.7 cm.; 18 5/8  x 14 1/8  in.
both bearing the artist's device of a winged serpent, upper left and upper right, respectively a pair, both oil on panel In 1525 Martin Luther, an Augustinian monk, married Katharina von Bora, a former nun. Katharina von Bora had spent her life in cloisters since the age of five, but in her early twenties she became interested in the growing reform movement and applied directly to Luther. On 4 April 1523 Luther dispatched Leonhard Köppe, who regularly delivered herring to Katharina's monastery in Nimbschen, and she and several other nuns fled in secrecy to Wittenberg, hiding among the fish barrels in Köppe's wagon. Luther arranged homes, marriages and employment for the former nuns. Katharina spent time living with Lucas Cranach the Elder and his wife Barbara, and had many suitors, but she appears always to have intended to marry Luther himself. The marriage itself was witnessed by a small number of close friends – including Cranach and Barbara – but shortly afterwards a prolific pictorial propaganda campaign was set in motion, declaring the couple's union and by extension Luther's argument against clerical celibacy. Cranach was the principal portraitist of the couple and produced a number of pendants of the pair throughout their lives. His earliest likenesses, produced from 1525 – such as those in the Nationalmuseum, Stockholm – show a bare-headed, youthful Luther.1 The present copies repeat the second type of portraits, which Cranach first produced in 1528. In these, although Katharina remains unchanged, Luther seems to have put on weight and is depicted wearing the black robe and beret of the Protestant clergy. Several autograph versions of this second type exist, such as those in the Hessisches Landesmuseum, Darmstadt,2 in the Uffizi, Florence,3 and in the Stiftung Schloss Friedenstein, Gotha.4 1 http://lucascranach.org/SE_NMS_50162 http://lucascranach.org/DE_HLMD_GK73a and http://lucascranach.org/DE_HLMD_GK73b3 http://lucascranach.org/IT_GdU_1160 and http://lucascranach.org/IT_GdU_11394 http://lucascranach.org/DE_SMG_SG18 and http://lucascranach.org/DE_SMG_SG17

Condition

All paintings available to view at the Sotheby’s Greenford Park warehouse, 5 - 7 and 10 – 13 September (10 - 4pm), by appointment. The panels are both uncradled, flat and stable. The paint surfaces are dirty and the varnishes are discoloured. Portrait of Luther: There is an old, repaired, vertical damage to the panel running from the centre of the upper margin to his left eyebrow, with associated retouching. There are several pin prick losses and some pronounced vertical craquelure in his face. Inspection under ultraviolet light confirms the aforementioned restoration and pin prick retouchings in the background and his face. Portrait of his wife: There are pin prick losses and some slight tenting along the vertical grain of the panel, particularly in the lower right corner, and in the background on the right. There are scattered pin prick retouchings through the background and in her face, where the craquelure is also pronounced. Inspection under ultraviolet light confirms these.
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