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Lot Essay
Though Cranach spent the first documented years working in Vienna between 1501 and 1504, his summons to Wittenberg in 1504 was a watershed moment in his career. Following his appointment as court painter to Frederick III, Elector of Saxony (1463-1525), by 1507 the painter had established his workshop, which rapidly grew in size and efficiency to cater to the high demand for the painter’s work. Cranach’s studio practice was carefully organised in order to produce a precise, homogenous style across its output and as such, much of its work remains increasingly difficult to separate from that of the master himself. Dating to circa 1516-20, this panel is an important and relatively early example of the Cranach workshop’s production, demonstrating the precision, detail and skill of the studio and the assistants who practised in it.
The Mystic Marriage of Saint Catherine was a widespread and popular iconography throughout Europe during the late Middle Ages. Though reference to Saint Catherine as the ‘bride of Christ’ does appear in devotional texts like the Golden Legend, the first known written account of her marriage emerged in a Latin treatise of 1337. It recounted Catherine’s education on Christianity and faith by a hermit, which eventually led to a vision of the Virgin and Child, who placed a ring on her finger, selecting her as his heavenly bride. In Northern Europe, the marriage was frequently depicted as part of a larger composition, gathering a number of other female saints around the Virgin and Child. The so-called Virgo inter Virgines type usually placed the figures in a landscape, often in an enclosed garden that served to reference the purity of the Virgin and saints - here the same effect is created with the dark curtain held by the putti. Though the iconography was popular in Germany, it is tempting to suggest that Cranach may have seen some of the prominent examples of this type of composition during his visit to the Netherlands in 1508, like the Virgin and Child with Saints by the Master of the Legend of Saint Lucy, made for the altarpiece of the rhetoricians guild of the Drie Sanctinnen (Saints Catherine, Barbara and Mary Magdalene) in Our Lady’s Cathedral in Bruges.
The Virgin martyrs in the present work, dressed in the fashionable attire of patrician women of the Wittenberg Court, were regularly depicted together and widely venerated as the Virgines Capitales, the four ‘capital Virgin’ saints. The appearance of this group stemmed from the popular cult of the Fourteen Holy Helpers, a canonical group of saints venerated for their qualities as intercessors, of whom Saints Catherine, Barbara and Margaret formed a part. With the increasing importance conferred on saints and martyrs as effective means of gaining closer access to God and for their qualities as protectors and assistants during the fourteenth century, the three saints were increasingly venerated as an additional and distinct devotional group from the Holy Helpers. The popularity of Saint Dorothy – she was the most commonly depicted saint in German devotional prints – quickly saw her addition to the assembly. The cult of the Virgines Capitales emerged in popular devotions before it became more widely accepted as part of official church liturgy and doctrine.
Cranach and his workshop produced a number of pictures of the marriage of Saint Catherine, often accompanied by other saints (usually the other Virgines Capitales) during the 1510s and early 1520s, varying the compositions and iconography. Dating to the second half of the decade between circa 1516 and 1518, the prototype from which the present workshop panel derives is now in the Szépművészeti Múzeum, Budapest (inv. no. 133), with additional versions formerly in the Landesmuseum, Gotha, and a panel which reproduced the composition without Saints Margaret or Dorothy in the Lobkowitz collection (inv. no. 11558). The present picture, attributed to the workshop of Cranach by the Cranach Digital Archive, dates to around the same period as the Budapest picture, following its composition closely, and reproducing with similar precision the delicate brushwork in the hair and the careful construction of the gold brocades.
The Mystic Marriage of Saint Catherine was a widespread and popular iconography throughout Europe during the late Middle Ages. Though reference to Saint Catherine as the ‘bride of Christ’ does appear in devotional texts like the Golden Legend, the first known written account of her marriage emerged in a Latin treatise of 1337. It recounted Catherine’s education on Christianity and faith by a hermit, which eventually led to a vision of the Virgin and Child, who placed a ring on her finger, selecting her as his heavenly bride. In Northern Europe, the marriage was frequently depicted as part of a larger composition, gathering a number of other female saints around the Virgin and Child. The so-called Virgo inter Virgines type usually placed the figures in a landscape, often in an enclosed garden that served to reference the purity of the Virgin and saints - here the same effect is created with the dark curtain held by the putti. Though the iconography was popular in Germany, it is tempting to suggest that Cranach may have seen some of the prominent examples of this type of composition during his visit to the Netherlands in 1508, like the Virgin and Child with Saints by the Master of the Legend of Saint Lucy, made for the altarpiece of the rhetoricians guild of the Drie Sanctinnen (Saints Catherine, Barbara and Mary Magdalene) in Our Lady’s Cathedral in Bruges.
The Virgin martyrs in the present work, dressed in the fashionable attire of patrician women of the Wittenberg Court, were regularly depicted together and widely venerated as the Virgines Capitales, the four ‘capital Virgin’ saints. The appearance of this group stemmed from the popular cult of the Fourteen Holy Helpers, a canonical group of saints venerated for their qualities as intercessors, of whom Saints Catherine, Barbara and Margaret formed a part. With the increasing importance conferred on saints and martyrs as effective means of gaining closer access to God and for their qualities as protectors and assistants during the fourteenth century, the three saints were increasingly venerated as an additional and distinct devotional group from the Holy Helpers. The popularity of Saint Dorothy – she was the most commonly depicted saint in German devotional prints – quickly saw her addition to the assembly. The cult of the Virgines Capitales emerged in popular devotions before it became more widely accepted as part of official church liturgy and doctrine.
Cranach and his workshop produced a number of pictures of the marriage of Saint Catherine, often accompanied by other saints (usually the other Virgines Capitales) during the 1510s and early 1520s, varying the compositions and iconography. Dating to the second half of the decade between circa 1516 and 1518, the prototype from which the present workshop panel derives is now in the Szépművészeti Múzeum, Budapest (inv. no. 133), with additional versions formerly in the Landesmuseum, Gotha, and a panel which reproduced the composition without Saints Margaret or Dorothy in the Lobkowitz collection (inv. no. 11558). The present picture, attributed to the workshop of Cranach by the Cranach Digital Archive, dates to around the same period as the Budapest picture, following its composition closely, and reproducing with similar precision the delicate brushwork in the hair and the careful construction of the gold brocades.