Signed with the artist’s serpent top left
Provenance:
Christie's, London, 14th April 1888, lot 9, as 'Lucas Cranach';
F.G. Jackel collection;
Private collection.
The Christ Child and...
read moreSigned with the artist’s serpent top left
Provenance:
Christie's, London, 14th April 1888, lot 9, as 'Lucas Cranach';
F.G. Jackel collection;
Private collection.
The Christ Child and Saint John the Baptist – a subject almost unknown in the work of Lucas Cranach – is a theme derived from the Italian holy families in the lap of the Virgin that Leonardo da Vinci and Raphael so liked to paint. However, in this case, Cranach places one of the most popular subjects of the High Renaissance in a very particular setting.
Our painting of The Christ Child and Saint John the Baptist has a unique place in the artist’s body of work. While it is true we often find Saint John the Baptist accompanying Christ in the arms of his mother, it is rarer to see the two young boys portrayed together. The first version of this theme dates from 1534 (Albert Keller collection, New York); another one exists in Hanover. There is also a third one – the most relevant to ours – which belongs to the Wallraf-Richartz Museum in Cologne, which is equally dated 1534. In this work, Cranach adopts the famous black background seen in our version, which made his paintings of Venus and Lucretia so successful.
In our astonishing painting, Christ carries a dried wooden cross, the symbol of his childhood and his sacrifice, while the young John the Baptist is already wearing the animal hide which alludes to his retreat into the desert. Next to him, a lamb naturally refers to Christ, the "lamb of God". Instead of the background landscapes often used in his work, Cranach prefers to slip a mass of symbolic attributes of Christian mysticism beneath the feet of his protagonists. The painter thus makes a reference to “Christ treading on beasts”, the conqueror of death and vice. This is why we find a multitude of fearsome motifs under their feet, such as a lion’s head, serpents and skulls. This iconography appeared at the end of late antiquity, and developed during the mediaeval era. Its presence reveals the painter’s excellent knowledge and interest in Germanic and Carolingian mediaeval iconography: the serpent is a reminder of Adam and Eve in paradise, while the lion licking its lips and looking at Christ echoes Dürer’s various chimerical representations. The serpent and the skull painted at the foot of the cross probably refer to the tree of life; a cross which was made from the wood of trees originating from the tree of life according to the Golden Legend. And going one step further, the tree of life was supposedly planted in Adam’s mouth.
This complex iconography unequivocally makes this painting an important testimony to the politico-religious context of the time. Often used to symbolise the triumph of the Church over heresy, this theme refers to the questionings of the humanists whom Cranach frequented. As the friend of Martin Luther, he could indeed have executed this painting during his stay in Augsburg between 1550 and 1551 at the end of his career, while on his way to join John Frederick I, prisoner of this town. The great quality of certain details, such as the finesse of the bodies’ contours and the refined rendering of the hair on the faces, make this a choice piece of work in Cranach’s corpus. The painter illustrates the ideas of his time with skill but also grace and delicacy. He also knows how to take into consideration the age of his characters to portray an image of tender complicity between the two young boys, whose fate is in fact only indicated by attributes. In numerous paintings of Charity, Cranach also enjoys depicting children as chubby and joyful. Here, through fine-tuned symbolism and an exceptional rendering of the body, he synthesises a career of artistic research at the service of the great thinkers of the Reformation.
Kronach 1472 – Weimar 1553
Lucas Cranach was one of the pillars of artistic creation in the north-east of Germany during the first half of the 16th century. With Hans Holbein the Younger and...
read moreKronach 1472 – Weimar 1553
Lucas Cranach was one of the pillars of artistic creation in the north-east of Germany during the first half of the 16th century. With Hans Holbein the Younger and Albrecht Dürer, he is considered to be one of the main representatives of the German Renaissance.
Both a painter and engraver, and a friend of Martin Luther and numerous humanists, he successfully painted religious and mythological scenes, portraits and female nudes which he often identified with Lucretia or Venus. Until 1498, he studied with his father, Hans, who influenced the beginning of his career. He then travelled to Vienna, where it seems he settled in 1500.
The first known works of the artist date from this period; they are religious scenes whose vivid and expressive colours show proof of his creative power. In 1505, he became court painter for the Electors of Saxony. He decorated their castles, painted their portraits and those of their wives, executed altarpieces and also painted profane subjects. In 1508, Elector Frederick of Saxony granted Cranach his coat of arms with a winged serpent, which became the artist’s signature. His sons, Hans and Lucas the Younger, were among his assistants. Loyally imitating his style, they played a major role in the works produced by his studio.
Apart from a visit to the Netherlands in 1508, the master resided almost uninterruptedly in Wittenberg. As an important citizen, he sat on the town’s assembly in 1519 and acted as burgomaster in 1537 and 1540. Despite the numerous influences that marked his era, his work remained faithful to the gothic traditions.
