(circa 1500 – active in Schneeberg 1528–1561)
Adam and Eve,
signed with a monogram and dated on the tree trunk: 1550 / W K,
oil on panel, 87.1 x 67.8 cm, framed

Provenance:
Private collection, Hannover, Germany;
sale, Christie’s, London, 7 July 1972, lot 31 (as Lucas Cranach the Younger);
where acquired by the family of the present owner

Literature:
Cranach Digital Archive <https://lucascranach.org/de/PRIVATE_NONE-P311/>. On the basis of scientific research attributed to Wolfgang Krodel in 2019;
M. Hofbauer, Corpus Cranach: Lucas Cranach I und Lucas Cranach II Verzeichnis der Gemälde unter Berücksichtigung von Werkstattumfeld und Epigonen, Heidelberg: arthistoricum.net 2022, p. 15, no. CC-BAT-010-059, illustrated  

We are grateful to Gunnar Heydenreich for his assistance in cataloguing the present lot. Technical analyses of this work have been conducted by Heydenreich, copies of which are available.

He compares the handling of the present picture with another work by Wolfgang KrodeI, The Ill-Matched Couple which was sold at Dorotheum, Vienna, 24 April 2009, lot 463.

The present picture is an outstanding example of the mature oeuvre of Wolfgang Krodel the Elder, one of the best pupils of Lucas Cranach the Elder who trained alongside his contemporary Lucas Cranach the Younger. The current panel is a testament to the innovation of Krodel, moving away from Cranach prototypes (the Cranach workshop executed over 50 versions of the subject) to create an original composition that is a striking example of Saxon Mannerism. An earlier Krodel treatment of Adam and Eve, monogrammed and dated 1543, was sold at Dorotheum, Vienna, 24 April 2007, lot 463. The present work dates from 1550 and is monogrammed and dated on the tree trunk, although the ‘W K’ is covered by some later overpaint and is only visible with infrared reflectography.

Krodel left the Cranach workshop centred on the Saxon court at Wittenberg and set up his own studio as an independent master in the Saxon town of Schneeberg in the early 1540s. Lying in the Ore mountains, the town’s burghers were wealthy enough thanks to their surrounding silver and tin mines to keep Krodel’s workshop busy, and indeed they were also sufficiently sophisticated to appreciate Krodel’s refinements of Cranachian models. In the present panel, this can be seen with subtlety in Eve’s figure on one foot, with her buttocks compressed against the tree trunk and her body turned contrapposto, encircled by Adam’s caressing arm: all these elements bear witness to Krodel’s compositional ingenuity. Ruth Slenczka of the Pommersches Landesmuseum in Greifswald remarks: ‘Adam and Eve are standing together so closely, intimately touching each other. It becomes immediately recognisable that sexuality is presented here as part of human nature in the interpretation of the biblical scene and is not condemned one-dimensionally as morally reprehensible.’ The sense of blissful, sensual serenity is enhanced by the gentle gradation of light in the background, although Krodel is careful to also highlight the scaly flesh of the serpent snaking around the trunk – foretelling the fall from grace which is soon to occur.

Wolfgang Krodel painted other biblical subjects, marked typically by his sensual handling of female forms. Two other noteworthy examples are Lot and his Daughters and David and Bathsheba both of which are conserved in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna. His son Mathias was also an accomplished artist working in an erudite, Saxon mannerist style, and took over Wolfgang’s Schneeberg workshop at the time of his death in 1561.

Technical Analysis by Gianluca Poldi:

IR reflectography shows a quite detailed outline underdrawing under the figures, made with a thin brush and black ink, describing the main features of their anatomy and the hair. No changes were found, but a few small corrections in respect to this drawing, that is very similar to Lucas Cranach’s working method.

Non-invasive analyses was carried out on the pigments. Detected is the use of azurite in the sky, verdigris in the vegetation, lead-tin yellow in the fruits, lead white, ochre/earths and vermillion.