Studio of
Lucas Cranach the Elder
, German, 1472-1553
Title
Christ on the CrossDate1540
MediumOil on oak panel
Dimensions
22.5 x 16.8 cm
SignedLower centre: 1540
Below lower centre: signet of serpent with folded wings, facing left to right.
Below lower centre: (mark) [...]
Credit LinePurchased, 1897
Object numberNGI.471
ProvenanceReginald Cholmondely, Condover Hall, 1876-97; his sale, Christie's, London, 6 March 1897, lot 39.Exhibition HistoryWrexham, 1876Burlington Fine Arts Club, London, 1906
Cranach-Ausstellung, Deutsches Museum, Berlin, 1937
Centenary Exhibition, National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin, October - December 1964
Label TextThe subject of this painting corresponds to a precise moment mentioned in the Gospel of Saint Luke (23: 44-46): ‘It was now about noon, and darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon, for the sun stopped shining … Christ called out with a loud voice: “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit”. When he had said this, he breathed his last.' This delicately painted panel is the work of a member of the studio of Lucas Cranach the Elder, one of the most important German Renaissance painters of the first half of the sixteenth century.