LUCAS CRANACH THE ELDER. His studio. Mose and the cloud pillar, oil on cradled panel, 22 x 46 cm.

LUCAS CRANACH THE ELDER
Kronach, the Diocesan Principality, Bamberg 1472-1553 Weimar, studio of
Mose and the cloud pillar
Oil on cradled panel, 22 x 46 cm
Made circa 1525-1530

Stockholms Auktionsverk would like to express our sincere gratitude to Dr Dieter Koepplin for his valuable contribution to the cataloguing.

In a letter dated December 2nd, 2021, Dr. Koepplin writes to Mr. Stéphane Pinta the following: "I consider this painting with Moses and the Cloud Column to be a very lively, high-quality work from the workshop of Lucas Cranach the Elder, created around 1525-1530. The state of preservation is excellent."

EXPERTISE Cabinet Turquin, Stéphane Pinta, Paris

Paris CDA Cranach Digital Archive - P368

PROVENANCE
Count Hessenstein (according to the inscription on the back of an older photograph, which is now in the photo archive bequeathed by the German art historian Max J. Friedländer (1867-1958) in 1958 to RKD (Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie in The Hague).
H. Bukowskis Konsthandel, Stockholm, Sweden, auction 7-8 May 1941, catalog no. 87 (with the title: "Moses and the children of Israel").
Swedish private collection

Lucas Cranach the Elder was one of the most important and influential artists in 16th-century German art. In addition to court portraits and genre pictures, he made several altarpieces and paintings for Lutheran churches. His work was sought after by both Protestant and Roman Catholic patrons, and hundreds of photographs of museums and private collections bear witness to his exceptional productivity. During Cranach's time, the world changed rapidly - and he wanted his art to accelerate this process. Therefore, he built a large, prosperous studio in Wittenberg where he worked with his sons and many assistants in order to spread the ideas of the Reformation. The influence is clearly exemplified in several works that allude to the education of modern free men who had liberated themselves from medieval chains. In this current painting, we see a biblical form of liberation.

The Bible, Exodus, tells how Moses led the Hebrew people out of Egypt where they were being held captive. Moses appears here according to traditional iconography: old, with a stick, rays of light on his head, which came to be interpreted as "horns" in the translation of the Bible. The pillar of the cloud is traditionally associated with the presence of God. In the book of Exodus, it serves to guide the Israelites to safety. In this small rectangular panel, Moses is placed in the middle of the composition, about to cross the bridge leading to the other side, the image of the exit from exile. He points a stick at the pillar of cloud rising from the sea to the left. The pillar seems to support a representation of God's head. The Israelites occupy the right side of the composition and enter behind a rock. Soldiers lead the group that follows Moses.

Bible Quote: Exodus 13: 17-22: When Pharaoh had let go the people, God did not lead them the way to the land of the Philistines, though it be the most immediate. God thought they could repent and return to Egypt if they noticed that they would be in battle. Instead, he let them take a detour through the desert to the Red Sea. The Israelites were organized as a war army when they withdrew from Egypt. And they journeyed from Sukkot, and pitched in Etham, which is in the edge of the wilderness. During the day the Lord went before them in a pillar of cloud to show them the way, and at night he walked in a pillar of fire to illuminate them. So they could walk both day and night. The pillar of cloud went before them by day and the pillar of fire by night.

For further information and condition report, please contact: ulrica.tillander@auktionsverket.se.