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Inscription

upper right, above the Madonna's shoulder, the artist's device, a serpent with folded (?) wings

Provenance

(Probably H. Michels Gallery, Berlin, by 1929).[1] (Van Diemen & Co., New York, by November, 1929).[2] Adolph Caspar Miller, Washington, by April 1937;[3] gift 1953 to NGA.

Exhibition History

1929
Lucas Cranach (1472-1553), Van Diemen Galleries, New York, 1929.
1937
Paintings and Sculpture Owned in Washington, Phillips Memorial Gallery, Washington, no. 6.

Technical Summary

The painting is comprised of two boards with vertically oriented grain. A dendrochronological examination by Peter Klein yielded dates of 1406-1453 and 1480-1513 for the boards.[1] The panel has been thinned down to a thickness of 0.2 cm and an auxiliary support added. The support consists of a plywood composite board sandwiched between two thin sheets of wood. The panel was then cradled. Either before or after the panel was thinned, an inset of oak, 16.4 x 17 cm, was added to the top right corner, replacing the original wood and paint, which had been lost. The x-radiograph indicates extensive woodworm damage throughout the panel, and this may be related to the loss of the corner, although it is also possible that this area contained a landscape that was cut out. The x-radiograph also suggests that a knot was removed and replaced with an inset and a filler before the panel was painted, because the craquelure pattern of the paint goes over the inset and also because the worm channels continue into the inset. Examination with infrared reflectography disclosed underdrawing in what appears to be a liquid medium, which is especially visible in the knot of the Madonna's sash.

The painting is not in good condition. In order to disguise the extent of the loss in the top right corner the background has been overpainted; moreover, the original paint is badly abraded. Two splits are visible; one extends upward from the bottom edge through the glass, while the second occurred along the join line. There are numerous other losses, some of which are due to flaking, most of which have been filled and inpainted.

[1] The wood was identified as beech by Peter Klein, examination report, 5 May 1987, in NGA curatorial files, and by the National Gallery's scientific research department.

Bibliography

1932
Friedländer, Max J. and Jakob Rosenberg. Die Gemälde von Lucas Cranach. Berlin, 1932: 87, no. 314, repro. (Rev. ed. The Paintings of Lucas Cranach, Amsterdam, 1978: 147, no. 390, repro.
1965
Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 33.
1968
National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 27, repro.
1971
Calvesi, Maurizio. "Caravaggio o la ricerca della salvazione." Storia dell'arte 9/10 (1971): 98, fig. 7.
1975
European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 86, repro. 87.
1975
Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. New York, 1975: 165, no. 188, repro.
1984
Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 165, no. 182, color repro.
1985
European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 104, repro.
1988
Wheeler, Marion, ed. His Face--Images of Christ in Art: Selections from the King James Version of the Bible, New York, 1988: 126, no. 15, color repro.
1993
Hand, John Oliver, with the assistance of Sally E. Mansfield. German Paintings of the Fifteenth through Seventeenth Centuries. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, 1993: 31-34, color repro. 33.
1995
Löcher, Kurt. Review of German Paintings of the Fifteenth through Seventeenth Centuries, by John Oliver Hand with the assistance of Sally E. Mansfield. Kunstchronik 43 no. 1 (January 1995): 15.

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