Jump to content

User:DJAISSA/sandbox/Saint Maurice (Lucas Cranach the Elder and Workshop)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Saint Maurice
ArtistLucas Cranach the Elder and Workshop
Yearca. 1520-1525
MediumOil on linden
LocationMetropolitan Museum of Art, New York City

Saint Maurice is a painting attributed to Lucas Cranach the Elder and his workshop depicting Saint Maurice, an early Christian martyr from North Africa.[1][2] Placed within a church in Halle (Saale), specifically Neues Stift, as the interior left wing of a larger panel[3]. Saint Maurice was the patron saint of Neus Stift church and stands out as such.[3]

The piece itself depicts Saint Maurice in a full set of highly adorned Plate armour, while wielding a golden sword, dagger and banner by his side. He wears a red ostrich feather frilled cap atop his head as well as a pendant upon his chest. The banner has an eagle upon it but is otherwise covered similarly in gold. His armor has jewels embroidered into it and gold enlaced into the metal of the armor. Specifically on the breastplate and pauldrons were a gilt badges, signifying the Golden Fleece, Charles V's insignia.[3] Behind him is a forested area, castle and sky.

Historical Context

[edit]

Saint Maurice was originally commissioned by Albert of Brandenburg as part of sixteen fifteen other alter pieces for a church of his. [3] It is unknown if the art piece itself was completed by the time of the church's dedication in 1523, but the piece is confirmed to be finished and catalogued as installed in the church by October 1525 via records of the church's inventory.[3]

Prior to the time period of this painting, St. Maurice hadn't been commonly depicted with dark skin. This tradition to represent him as such started in the thirteenth century and Cranach perpetuated this style of depiction by continuing to do so. [1]

Restoration

[edit]

It was donated to and restored within the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2005. On a first glance, it was difficult to tell what repairs were needed other than the linden panel, due to the amount of grime and discolored varnish.[3]

During the process of being inspected for authenticity, infrared reflectography was used to determine what parts of the painting may have been completed by Cranach alone or with help from his workshop.[1]

This process of investigation into the painting revealed fine details about the process of painting Saint Maurice, making the techniques used identifiable.[3] The ostrich feathers were free drawn, specifically in a brush and liquid medium.[3] The face and necklace were drawn with traceable detail. Several details on the armor were not planned via the underlayers but were added on within the process, which is unusual and uncommon in paintings around this time.[3]

After identifying the brushstrokes and the various layers of painting and skill via this method, it is to be believed and determined that Cranach worked upon the underlayers and design of the piece but left the rest of the details to his workshop. [3] The main source for this argument being that in a similar painting by Cranach the Elder, Judith with the Head of Holoferne, the necklace depicted upon Saint Maurice shows less light refractive properties than Judith's.[3] The decline in detail supposedly showing on top of the rest of evidence that the assistants primarily painted this. [3]

Notes

[edit]
  1. ^ a b c "Lucas Cranach the Elder and Workshop | Saint Maurice". The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Retrieved 2024-09-03.
  2. ^ "Smarthistory – Lucas Cranach the Elder and workshop, Saint Maurice". smarthistory.org. Retrieved 2024-09-03.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Ainsworth, Maryan; Hindriks, Sandra; Terjanian, Pierre (2015). "Lucas Cranach's "Saint Maurice"". The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin. 72 (4): 1–46. ISSN 0026-1521.

References

[edit]
  • Paul H. D. Kaplan. "Redeploying a Saint: The Black Maurice and the Shifting Iconography of Blackness in Post-Reformation Germany and the Baltics." Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte vol. 86, no. 3 (2023), p. 363 n. 29, p. 366 n. 62.
  • Maryan Ainsworth, Sandra Hindriks, and Pierre Terjanian. "Lucas Cranach's 'Saint Maurice'." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 72 (Spring 2015), pp. 1–46.
  • T. F. Earle and K. J. P. Lowe, eds., Black Africans in Renaissance Europe, Cambridge, 2005
  • Erin Kathleen Rowe, Black Saints in Early Modern Global Catholicism (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019)
[edit]
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=User:DJAISSA/sandbox/Saint_Maurice_(Lucas_Cranach_the_Elder_and_Workshop)&oldid=1250239558"