.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
The various versions of the subject differ from each other principally in the angle of Christ's head and the position of his hands (excluding the subsidiary angels or figures in some versions). The present design, in which Christ holds one hand against his breast, appears to be unique, although a version with the same pose but by Cranach the Younger was sold at Sotheby's, 9 December 2009, lot 20 (£120,000).
While the inspiration for this composition may derive from a Dürer etching of 1515, on stylistic grounds this painting does not fit either with a group of panels that are datable to circa 1515, such as Christ as the Man of Sorrows (Dresden, Gemäldegalerie), or with a later group, circa 1537, which Rosenberg and Friedländer consider could be by Lucas Cranach the Younger (see Rosenberg and Friedländer, The Paintings of Lucas Cranach, London, 1978, p. 146, under no 381). On this basis Dr. Werner Schade, to whom we are grateful for confirming the attribution, proposes a tentative date of 1530.
While the inspiration for this composition may derive from a Dürer etching of 1515, on stylistic grounds this painting does not fit either with a group of panels that are datable to circa 1515, such as Christ as the Man of Sorrows (Dresden, Gemäldegalerie), or with a later group, circa 1537, which Rosenberg and Friedländer consider could be by Lucas Cranach the Younger (see Rosenberg and Friedländer, The Paintings of Lucas Cranach, London, 1978, p. 146, under no 381). On this basis Dr. Werner Schade, to whom we are grateful for confirming the attribution, proposes a tentative date of 1530.