Cupid complaining
to Venus
CRANACH Probably
1530s
Inscribed, top right:
dvm pver alveo
(lo) f (vratvr me)lla
cvpido/fvranti digitvm cv(spide)
f(ixit) apis/sic
etiam nobis brevis et (peri)tvra
volvptas/ qvam petimvs
tri (s)t(i) (m)ixta dolore n(o)cet.
Signed on the stone
bottom right with Cranach's device Wood,
81.3 x 54.6 cm.
No. 6344, Purchased, 1963.
*Cupid complains
to *Venus of being stung by bees
when stealing a
honeycomb. This is to be taken
as a moral commentary;
as the inscription observes:
‘life’s pleasure
is mixed with pain.’
The subject derives
(but the last two lines of the
inscription do not)
from Theocritus’ Idyll 19
(The Honeycomb Stealer).
Two Latin translations
of 1522 and 1528
by German scholars are known.
Johann Hess,a humanist,
made, in his copy of one of them,
the manuscript note
Tabella Luce, which means
Picture by Lucus,
perhaps referring to this work by Cranach.
Lucas
Cranach the Elder
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(Lucas
Cranach der Ältere, 1472 – October 16, 1553) was a German painter
and printmaker in woodcut and engraving.
He
was born at Kronach in upper Franconia, and learned the art of drawing
from his father. It has not been possible to trace his descent or the name
of his parents. His name of birth is differently known as Sünder,
Sunder or Sonder. Later he overtook the name of his place of birth. We
are not informed as to the school in which he was taught, and it is a mere
guess that he took lessons from the south German masters to whom Matthias
Grunewald owed his education. But Grunewald practised at Bamberg and Aschaffenburg,
and Bamberg is the capital of the diocese in which Cronach lies.
According
to Gunderam, the tutor of Cranach's children, Cranach signalized his talents
as a painter before the close of the 15th century. He then drew upon himself
the attention of the elector of Saxony, who attached him to his person
in 1504. The records of Wittenberg confirm Gunderam's statement to this
extent that Cranach's name appears for the first time in the public accounts
on the 24th of June 1504, when he drew 50 gulden for the salary of half
a year, as pictor ducalis.
The
only clue to Cranach's settlement previous to his Wittenberg appointment
is afforded by the knowledge that he owned a house at Gotha, and that Barbara
Brengbier, his wife, was the daughter of a burgher of that city. |
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Adam &
Eve woodcut
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