Lot 1106 Dα

The present work is a perfect example of a triangular composition. Surmounted by the Virgin and Child to the center, they are flanked by Saint Catherine to the left and Saint Joseph, who is turned away and sleeping, to the right, whilst two putti hold a crown above the Madonna's head. The painter presents this compact group before a landscape with a castle upon a rugged mountain, and the background is formed by the trunk and several branches of a large spruce against the bright sky. The style of the figures and the landscape all find their parallels in the work of Lucas Cranach the Elder, to whom Max Friedländer first attributed this work, although he failed to include in his later catalogue raisonné.
An art technological investigation carried out by the Cologne Institute of Conservation Sciences (CICS) has revealed that the underdrawing, the ground and the panel all display characteristics typical of Cranach's workshop from the second decade in Wittenberg. This assumption is supported by the forms, style and composition used in the piece, which can all be found in other works from this era. Thus, as Professor Gunnar Heydenreich confirms, the piece can safely be dated to between 1514 and 1518.
The painting already belonged to the important Cologne based collector Johann Paul Weyer in the 19th century. His collection was auctioned by Heberle/Lempertz in 1862, and at the time the panel was ascribed to Lucas Cranach the Younger. In 1926 it was once again auctioned by Lempertz, this time with an expertise from Max Friedländer attributing it to Cranach the Elder.