A painting of Christ belonging to the Church of St. Savior in the picturesque Bavarian town of Bettbrunn (pop. 261) may be the work of German Renaissance artist Lucas Cranach the Younger.
The attribution is simple: in the upper part of the table and just below the year 1570, written in Roman numerals, are the letters “CL”. This marking, first noted by art historian Friedrich Fuchs in 2002, made the painting a city secret, covered in local newspapers and available to anyone who knew how to ask the chaplain to see it.
Despite sporadic visits by art experts to Saint-Sauveur over the past two decades, the provenance of the painting has never been determined. That may be about to change with conservators from the Bavarian State Department of Monuments and Sites (BLFD) beginning to investigate its authenticity.
Researchers use infrared to view preliminary drawings. Photo: courtesy Blfd.
The development has arrived with Bettbrunn’s new parish chaplain, Peter Stier, who hopes to make the painting more accessible to the public by placing it in the small chapel of St. Savior. Before doing so, Stier contacted BLFD to make sure the new environment wouldn’t damage the 16th-century painting that depicts Jesus as Salvator Mundithe savior of the world, symbolized by the orb he holds in his left hand.
“This could be a largely unknown work by Lucas Cranach the Younger and we have agreed to extensive scientific research before deciding on further conservation treatment,” Julia Brandt, conservator in the BLFD Paintings Department, told Artnet. News.
Bettbrunn may be a small town in the Bavarian countryside, but it has been an important pilgrimage church for hundreds of years, raising the possibility that it was donated by someone both pious and well-to-do , of which Brandt says there is evidence.
Painting under UV light. Image: courtesy Blfd.
Cranach the Younger, born in 1515 in Wittenberg, where he lived and worked most of his life, and studied painting with his father before taking over the family studio from 1550. He was known for his religious scenes, as well as his portraits of German nobles and Protestant reformers, including Martin Luther.
The Bavarian team will use technologies such as UV, X-ray and infrared examinations to study aspects of the painting at St Salvator such as underdrawings, pigments and the wood used. Fortunately, a large-scale project that data collected out of 600 paintings by Cranach the Elder, his sons and his workshop has just been completed. This means that there is a vast repository of attributed paintings to compare Bettbrunn’s work to.
Cranach’s signature was a snake with bat wings, which was bestowed on Cranach the Elder by Elector Frederick the Wise in 1508. Photo: David Ebener/picture alliance via Getty Images.
A safe gift that Brandt hopes to find? The winged serpent, the coat of arms granted to Cranach the Elder in 1508, and signed on the paintings as a certificate of authenticity by the family.
“The paint has a lot of retouching and repainting,” Brandt said. “If we’re really lucky, we’ll find the snake.”
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