Important Old Master Paintings and European Works of Art Including Property of the Albright-Knox Art Gallery

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Lot 219
  • 219

Manner of Lucas Cranach the Younger

Estimate
3,000 - 5,000 USD
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Description

  • Lucas Cranach the Younger
  • Portrait of Martin Luther

  • inscribed center right with the artist's device of a winged serpent and inscribed in Latin: CERNIS VT INVICTO DEDERAT NATVRA LVTHERO/FLAMMANTES OCVLOS ORAQ[VE] PLENA DEO/MAIVS ERAT LVMEN, QVO CHRISTI MVNERA VILLE/ET QVAE SINT FEDEI IVSTIFICANTIS OPES./QVEM MARTINE SONAS ET VOCE ET PECTORE CHR[IS]T[V]M/HVNC MEA VOX ETIAM VITA FEDESQ[VE] SONET.

  • oil on panel

Provenance

Arthur B. Michael;
By whom bequeathed to the Albright Art Gallery in 1942, inv. no.1942.16.634.

Catalogue Note

The prototype for this depiction of Martin Luther, holding the open Bible, was created by Lucas Cranach the Younger.  An autograph version was in the Heinz Kisters collection, Kreuzlingen (see D. Koepplin, T. Falk, Lukas Cranach, 1976, Vol.2, p. 719, cat. 648, reproduced plate 354).  That portrait has a pendant depicting Philipp Melanchthon, the other key leader of the German Reformation.