Lot and his Daughters

Circle of Lucas Cranach the Elder.

2nd half of 17th c. Oil on wood

Lucas Cranach the Elder (ca 1472–1553) is one of the greatest names in German art history. From 1504 until the end of his life, he was the court artist of Johann Friedrich I (John the Magnanimous), Elector of Saxony, and ran a big studio in Wittenberg. Taking into account the Elector’s taste in art, Cranach developed a style of his own, which was somewhat naïve, yet very decorative. The style was also retained by his son, Lucas Cranach II, who took charge of the studio in 1550. The studio functioned for about 50 years; the total production of the studio is believed to have been considerably greater than the approximately 1,000 paintings that have survived. Most of the artists who worked at the studio remained unknown, and only a few became known under their own names. One of them was Wolfgang Krödel, whose name is associated with the painting at the Kadriorg Art Museum. Stylistic comparison of the painting with other paintings known to be Krödel’s does not, however, justify this attribution. The painting was modelled after a work by Lucas Cranach the Elder; the model itself, bearing his signature in the shape of a winged dragon and the date 1529, is housed in the museum of Schloss Johannisburg, Aschaffenburg. There are several known repetitions of this composition by Cranach’s studio as well as from later periods. The handwriting of the artist who made the painting at the Kadriorg Museum differs too much from that of the Cranach studio; therefore it is more likely that the painting was made outside the studio. The only detail the painter has meticulously copied from Cranach’s composition is the group of figures in the foreground, which has then been “copy-pasted” onto a background of his own creation.