Workshop of Lucas Cranach the Elder

Ernst Magnus (1871–1942), Hannover, by 1932;

By whom consigned to Galerie Fischer, Lucerne, November 1940;

From whom acquired by Walter Andreas Hofer for Hermann Göring (as part of an exchange for confiscated paintings from the ERR), December 1941;

Seized by the American Allies at the Munich Central Collecting Point (no. 5980), 29 July 1945 - 29 April 1949;

Transferred to the Directorate of the Bavarian State Painting Collections, Schloss Johannisburg, Aschaffenburg, 1961 (inv. no. 13260);

Restituted to the heir of Ernst Magnus, 2025.

M.J. Friedländer and J. Rosenberg, Die Gemälde von Lucas Cranach, Berlin 1932, p. 65, cat. no. 189 l;

Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen, Galerie Aschaffenburg, Munich 1964, p. 53 (as Anonymous School of Lucas Cranach the Elder);

M.J. Friedländer and J. Rosenberg, The Paintings of Lucas Cranach, London 1978, p. 115, cat. no. 228J;

I. von zur Mühlen, Die Kunstsammlung Hermann Görings, Ein Provenienzbericht der Bayerischen Staatsgemäldesammlungen, Munich 2004, pp. 117-188, cat. no. 22, reproduced (as Anonymous Master from the School of Lucas Cranach the Elder);

M. Schawe, in Cranach im Exil, Aschaffenburg um 1540, exhibition catalogue, Regensburg 2007, G. Ermischer and A. Tacke (eds.), p. 316, cat. no. 62, reproduced (as Anonymous pupil of Lucas Cranach the Elder, second quarter of the 16th century);

M. Schawe, Cranach in Bayern, exhibition catalogue, Munich 2011, p. 144, cat. no. 13260, reproduced (as Anonymous pupil of Lucas Cranach the Elder, second quarter of the 16th century);

"The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne," Cranach Digital Archive, https://lucascranach.org/en/DE_BStGS_13260/ (as Workshop of Lucas Cranach the Elder).

This intimate and finely executed panel depicts Saint Anne at left tenderly supporting the Christ Child as he reaches toward the Virgin, offering her an apple. The gesture carries rich theological meaning: the apple, traditionally associated with original sin, here becomes a symbol of redemption through Christ, while the grouping of Anne, Mary, and the Christ Child underscores the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception, according to which the Virgin was conceived free from sin. Popular throughout northern Europe in the late-fifteenth and early-sixteenth centuries, representations of Saint Anne with the Virgin and Child—often called the "Holy Kinship"—emphasized Christ’s maternal lineage and were often used to family piety just prior to the theological shifts of the Protestant Reformation.

Rendered against a stark black ground, the figures possess the graceful linearity, delicate facial types, and luminous color characteristic of Lucas Cranach the Elder and his circle. Marked with the famous winged serpent device above the Virgin's shoulder at left, the present painting was produced in Cranach's workshop circa 1522-1525. This chronology is supported by both stylistic analysis and scientific evidence: dendrochronological testing revealed that the beechwood support comes from the same tree as the two panels used for the celebrated Madonna of the Grapes in the Alte Pinakothek, Munich (inv. no. 1023), a fully-autograph work generally dated circa 1525.¹

On display at the Staatsgalerie Aschaffenburg since 1961 until recently restituted by the Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen, this painting once belonged to Ernst Magnus (1871–1942), a prominent Jewish banker based in Hannover. Advised by an assistant of the eminent art historian Wilhelm von Bode, Magnus and his wife Ida assembled an impressive art collection. As persecution under the Nazi regime intensified, the Magnus family was forced to emigrate from Germany to Lausanne, Switzerland in 1935, taking a selection of artworks and furnishings with them. Eventually, as Swiss asylum regulations tightened, they were forced to liquidate portions of their collection to finance the family's escape and fund their visa application for Cuba. The present painting was among the works consigned for sale to Galerie Fischer in 1941. While en route to the United States, Ernst Magnus ultimately reached Havana, where he died in 1942 shortly after his arrival, while his wife and daughter later succeeded in reaching America safely.

We are grateful to Dr. Gunnar Heydenreich, with whom we shared IRR imaging of the present work, for endorsing the attribution to Cranach the Elder's workshop.

¹ According to a dendrochronology report by Peter Klein, dated 24 January 2018 (available upon request). The report establishes that the youngest ring dates from 1520; assuming a minimum storage period of two years for the wood, the painting could therefore have been created from 1522 onwards.