Lucas Cranach il Vecchio (KRONACH, 1472 - WEIMAR, 1553)

Circle of Lucas Cranach the Elder (KRONACH, 1472 - WEIMAR, 1553) Madonna and Child Oil on canvas, 82 x 64 cm The painting is a derivation with slight variations of the panel by Lucas Cranach Die Madonna mit dem sie umhalsenden Kinde, of the Parish Church (parish church of Innsbruck), donated by the Elector of Saxony John - George to Archduke Leopold V, dated by Friedländer and Rosenberg to after 1537. The original version of Innsbruck, so-called Mariahilfbild (Mary help picture), a very popular and often copied subject in the Alpen regions, would be one of the latest in Cranach's production and would denote at least an indirect relation with Raphaels Tempi Madonna, marking the late production of Cranach with classicism. Friedländer and Rosenberg have reviewed four other replicas of the same subject: in Basel, private collection, also on panel like the one in Innsbruck; in London, Sotheby's, 1975, attributed to the Master of the Fluffy Hair; in London, Buckingham Palace, considered a work by Lucas Cranach the Younger (1515 - 1586), in Bucharest, on panel. Our example, on canvas, differs from the original model in some differences in the face of the Virgin and in the hair, but faithfully repeats the composition. Reference bibliography Max J. Friedländer and Jacob Rosenberg, The paintings of Lucas Cranach, Tabard Press, New York, 1978, p. 148, n. 393, tav. 393.