LUCAS CRANACH THE ELDER
ca. 1472 Kronach – Weimar 1553
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Reitender Prinz vor der Veste Coburg – Saxon Prince on Horseback with Coburg Castle in the background 1506
woodcut; 181 x 125 mm (7 116 x 4 ⅞ inches)
Bartsch 116; Dodgson, vol. 2, p. 284, no. 9; Geisberg 627 (Geisberg/Strauss, p. 594); Hollstein 110 second state (of two); cat. Basel, vol. 1, p. 68, no. 20
An outstandingly beautiful impression in excellent condition with margins all round.
This is one of Cranach’s most charming woodcuts. It shows a young prince riding on a small horse or pony. He is traditionally identified as John Frederick, the son of John the Constant, brother and co-regent of Elector Frederick III. John Frederick, who later also became elector, was born in 1503 and would have been only three years old when Cranach designed this woodcut. It is, therefore, worth considering an often overlooked alternative identification for the rider; he might instead be Prince Johann, the son of Duke George the Bearded who belonged to the Albertine branch of the house of Saxony. Born in 1498 John would have been eight years old in 1506, a far more believable age for the depicted youth.
The landscape setting is one of the few instances in which Cranach represents a recognizable site rather than some generic scenery in a print. For, as Charles Talbot observes, “the walled castle has the essential features of the Veste Coburg, viewed from the north” (cat. Detroit, p. 220, no. 119). From 1499, the Veste Coburg was the residence of John the Constant and his family, a fact that would support the idea that John’s son John Frederick is shown here. Further, Cranach had been in the employ of the Ernestine court of Frederick III since 1504. However, since no explanatory text survives for this print it might never be possible to definitively identify the rider. For speculating on the basis of the date of the print in relation to the birthdates of the various Saxon princes, however tempting, runs the risk that we will too easily equate a stately representation (which this image, dignified by a pair of electoral coats of arms, clearly is) with a realistically accurate depiction from life in a way that may well contradict the original intentions of the artist and his patron.
The print is very rare. The first state, in which the light and dark fields (silver and sable) in the left (electoral) shield are reversed, is unique (Szépmüvészeti Múzeum, Budapest). During 1507 a heraldic change occurred and the sable was placed above the silver; most of Cranach’s earlier woodcuts were altered accordingly after this date. The impression offered here belongs to the first reissue of the block after the change; we have only been able to trace six other impressions of comparable quality in public collections (most of them, however, in inferior condition: Bamberg, Berlin, Coburg, London, Minneapolis, and Washington).
Der heilige Hieronymus büßend in der Landschaft – The Penance of St. Jerome in the Wilderness 1509
woodcut; 331 x 225 mm (13 116 x 8 ⅞ inches)
Bartsch 63; Dodgson, vol. 2, p. 295, no. 60; Geisberg 600 (Geisberg/Strauss, p. 567); Hollstein 84; cat. Basel, vol. 2, p. 547, no. 405
An early and sharp but somewhat lightly printed impression; in good condition with narrow margins all round; the gaps in the borderline at upper left and below filled in with pen and ink.
“In this woodcut Saint Jerome’s wilderness is an idyllic German image of nature both mysterious and generous, like the Christianity to which the saint devoted his life” (Charles Talbot in cat. Detroit, p. 224, no. 121). The lion, the saint’s faithful companion, is set prominently in the foreground and betrays the artist’s awareness of Dürer’s engraving of 1498 (Bartsch 61), yet Cranach’s landscape differs notably in several respects. The rocky and barren landscape behind Dürer’s Jerome has been replaced here by a fertile, somewhat lush and loosely wooded scenery with a spring splashing into a pool. The composition is punctuated by trees whose branches appear to extend beyond the picture frame and expands brightly into the far distance where the view of a town can just be made out. Cranach conceived the space within this wide landscape in a far more logical manner than he had done in some of his earlier works—most likely, as Guido Messling suggested, reflecting the artistic impact of his trip to the Netherlands the year before (cat. Brussels, pp. 135f., no. 54). Thus the saint is now no longer positioned before the landscape but embedded within it. “Cranach took measures to draw the beholder into the landscape, not only by the compelling vista that angles from the near left to the mountainous horizon, but also by the foreshortening of tree branches, suggesting that a canopy of foliage extends overhead toward the viewer. Just how mindful the artist was of such two-way visual movement can be seen in the lower left corner, where the lion confronts the beholder face-to-face and the tablet with the signature and date has been turned around as if for reading from within the picture” (Talbot, ibid.).
Despite the gaps in the borderline, this impression belongs to the gaps in the borderline, this impression belongs to the first printing. It was only reissued once more and not before the 1620s when the block was already in the possession of the Augsburg art dealer and publisher Johann Klocker. As in the case of all prints by Cranach, early impressions like this one, contemporary to the creation of the blocks, are very rare.
Die Versuchung des heiligen Antonius – The Temptation of St. Anthony 1506 woodcut; 406 x 271 mm (15 15/16 x 10 5/8 inches)
Bartsch 56; Geisberg 593; Hollstein 76 second (final) state; cat. Basel, p. 542, no. 398