A Judgment of Paris by Cranach Author(s): Harry B. Wehle Reviewed work(s): Source: Metropolitan Museum Studies, Vol. 2, No. 1 (Nov.

, 1929), pp. 1-12 Published by: The Metropolitan Museum of Art Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1522753 . Accessed: 19/11/2011 12:48
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Metropolitan Museum Studies.

http://www.jstor.org

A JUDGMENT

OF PARIS
By HARRY B.

BY CRANACH

WEHLE

A paintingby LucasCranach Elder,of the the chief sensuousappealof the picturemay the of Paris,recentlyacquiredby the be said to lie in the neat, firm modelingand Judgment of affordMuseum,came from the Marc- the sinuous Metropolitan interplay linearsurprises zell de Nemes Collection'in Munich,where ed by the three slendernudes. The head of for someyearsit has been familiarto students stern-visaged beard with its luxuriant Mercury and amateurs art.It is on a wood panel40i is a tourde forceworthyof the grandold Gerof 28 inches,and exhibitsqualities characteris- man tradition. by tic of the yearsaboutmidwayin Cranach's above all the telling of tales acStory-telling, was however, fromclassical incorrect, tivity. It is not altogether mythology, the special provCranach his busyworkand to classifysuch worksas examplesof the art- inceof the mature ist's late style. His forms,which followedan shop, and the claim that he introduced such activeevolutionwhen he was a youngerman, subjectsinto Germanyis a pardonable exagto crystallize when he reached fifties, geration.They were the craze of the time, his began so that the yearsare no longerso readilydif- thesepaintedmythsof Greeceand Rome,and shownHercules ferentiatedone from another, or even the Diirerhad already Slayingthe Birdsin I500, and had engraved decades. Stymphalian The color of Cranach's style is well il- the fascinatingApollo and Diana (related late lustratedin the Metropolitan Museum'spic- somehow to works of Jacopode' Barbari), the ture. The actorsin the scene are stronglyre- and thosegloriouscopperplates, Sea-Monlieved againsta complicated screenof heavy sterand Hercules. The surviving which To this green the principalrepartiallist2of pictures green foliage. velvetof Paris' hung in the castleat Wittenbergin I507 responseis fromthe deepcrimson and cloak.The hat wornby one of the goddesses cordsmanyclassical is subjects may well inde' worksby Jacopo Barbari of the samered.Mercury's is fantastic corselet cludeunidentified for golden brown, and there is much glitter of and Mabuse, both had been in the employ of the SaxondukesbeforeCranach's steel armor, gold necklaces,and hair ornaappointments.Cupidwith ruddywings appears from ment.The list showsus that homileticvirtues a darkcloud.The fleshexhibited generously werenot thenthoughtto resideonlyin biblical so is would stories.The bedroomof Friedrichder Weise by the goddesses rosierthan Cranach have painted it before I520. contained,besides several scenes illustrating of a The landscapealso is characteristic the the journey the Argonauts, pictureof Pyof laterperiod.Thereis lessintensityin the blue ramusand Thisbe,archexamplesof amorous sky and a more silverydelicacyin the distant devotion.The room which had belongedto first landscapewith its placid lake, its romantic Duke Johann's wife, Sophiaof MecklenGothic city and castledrocks,and its lovely burg,was thicklyhung with storiedpaintings classicexamplesof modesty, hills. Aside from the charmof the landscape which presented in truelove,andfaithfulness wives. chastity, A few yearslater (I515) at the Torgaucas1 De Nemes Sale,Amsterdam, November13, 1928. 2 married Glaser,p. 98. tle, Johannder Bestandige Margareta
I

-.
1| . . .s: %

In

^k* ., - .. ,_ r
i

,.

r ?IL ?

_ih

f
N

/1 7'

f/~~~~~~~~

^7
,

I
METROPOLITAN MUSEUM STUDIES, 1929 PHOTOGRAVURE BY PHOTOGRAVURE AND' COLOR COMPANY, NEW YORK

JUDGMENT

OF PARIS, BY LUCAS CRANACH THE ELDER, ABOUT 1528 THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART

METROPOLITAN

MUSEUM

STUDIES

of Anhalt.The festalmarriage bed, made for tratingthe powerof womenovermen,suchas the occasion, elaborately was carvedandpaint- Herculesand Omphaleand the Judgmentof ed by Cranach, with the aid of ap- Paris.Also, therewere to be seen picturesof presumably

VENUS AND CUPID, PROBABLY I509

(WOODCUT).

METROPOLITAN MUSEUM

The assistants. Wit- the virtuousLucretiastabbingherself,Venus and prentices journeyman von Engen,3 instructing Triton Cupid,ApolloandMarsyas, tenbergpoet,PhilippEngelbrecht the describes bed as paintedwith scenesillus- surrounded Nereids and Naiads, and sevby eralof the laborsof Hercules. In the Metropolitan Museum's 3 Bauch, of Judgment pp. 424 ff., quotes the contemporary witAndreas Meinhard. Cranachtells the storywith the accusness, Magister Paris,

.l

I I

7?
'-' i

1%

'r

-29I/
7^t

Al I

~~~~~~~~~~~~~I
,_

I2
%1 I
, ,

-. -

Ai'/: , lt-. NlW

.s6

Ir-,15

I
r/

^**WS.tf :

.._M
l

*I:

, ;' iS08

'LC- -Sa

JUDGMENT

OF PARIS,

I508

(WOODCUT).

METROPOLITAN

MUSEUM

44

METROPOLITAN

MUSEUM

STUDIES STUDIES

of tomedcapriciousness his matureyears.The youngoaktreeunderwhichParissitshasbeen placedto the side of the pictureso as to leave the tableauuninterrupted, the thin trunk but is bentsimplyandwithoutapologyto the mid-

countrysquirewith only the feastingbirdson his hat to suggesthis identity,holdsthe golden into ball. applenow transformed a crystal Cranach clungto the version the story has of which findsParisasleepand Mercury awakening him to advise him of the ticklish office which Jovehasimposedon him. Paris'look of dazed wondermentis only partlydue to the gloriesthat he sees beforehim. In two other variations this favoritetheme Cranach(or of members his workshop)showsPariseither of fast asleep or half-awakenedwith Mercury Altdorfer his in shakinghim by the shoulder.4 woodcutof 1511showsParisin full armorand on prostrate the ground,while Cupid'sexplosion from a cataclysmic cloud testifiesto the momentousness the occasion. of Ovid in his Epistle of Paris describesthe scene:
Here soft-reclined, I view th' adjacent plain, Troy's glitt'ring turrets, and the heaving main. When o'er the bending grass, the Queen of Love, Heav'n's awful Empress, and stern Pallas move. Aghast I look'd, erect my bristling hair, 'Till Jove's wing'd messenger forbad my fear. "Hail, beauty's Critic! heal our feuds, (he crys) "Give to the fairest of the three the prize." Which office lest I shou'd decline, he show'd Jove's mandate, and resum'd th' aerial road. My fears depart, new courage I resume, And view with steady eyes the heavenly bloom.5

In the figuresof the three goddessesCranach'swaywardness humoras a story-telland er revealthemselves Threeyoung delightfully. German ladies, scarcelymore than girls, as their slim bodiesindicate,stand idly nonchaVENUS AND CUPID, I509 lant, posturingas gracefullyas models in a LENINGRAD, HERMITAGE fashionshow. The gold chainsadorningtheir hat dle of the picturein orderthat the silhouette necks,the wide fashionable which one of of its leafy top may add interestto the sky. them wears, and the veil drapedacrossher the Paris, royalshepherd of MountIda,has boy become a mature German knight, elegant, 4 Ameseder illustrates the version in the Copenhagen Museum, dated 1527 and closely related to the Metromodish,and fully accoutred, holdinghis war- politan Museum example, and also the crowded pichand as casuallyas ture at Gratz. hammerin his gauntleted becomean elderly 5 Lines 57-58,65-74. a swagger-stick. Mercury,

A JUDGMENT

OF PARIS BY CRANACH

to body are nicely calculated heightenthe pi- thusiasmfor Luther must have entailed,we nakedness the figureswhich the ut- need not wonderthat his mind soughtrelaxaof quant ter proprietyof the men's attire has already tion in the creationof sportivepaintingspeocalledattention Familiar to. attributes lackare ing and there is little clue to the identityof the goddesses. one evidentlyexplaining The to Paristhe advantages her bribeoverthoseof of the othersmay well be the intellectual Minerva. But Juno,too, could argueupon occasion. As to the tall youngwomanwearinga hat,she is probably Venus, for the adornments testify to her consciousness physicalcharms.Furof thermoreher finger points gracefullyto her infant son, who furtherestablishes dangerous the relationship aiminghis arrowdirectly at by her breast. A little nonsensenow and then, according to the old saying,is relished the wisestmen. by No one seeing Cranach's at self-portrait the age of seventy-seven the Uffizi) could fail (in to recognizehis wisdomand his fundamental seriousness. impression deepened the The is by of the solemn Allegoryof the Redempsight tion (in Weimar)which showsCranach, now still older,standingat the foot of the bleeding Crossbetween his old friend MartinLuther and Johnthe Baptist. As artistto the ducalcourtof Saxony,Cranach was responsible officialportraits, for for panel pictures, prints,and wall paintings,for the decoration the roomsin the castlesof of Torgau, Weimar, and Lochau, for coats of arms,banners,and costumeson festive occasions, and for the paintingof fences,houses, and sleighs.6Furthermore advicewas exhis pectedin all undertakings having to do with castle architecture, and he was occasionally sent on diplomatic When we add to journeys. EVE, 15I8-1520 all this his privatelife as fatherof a family, PICTURE GALLERY BRUNSWICK, headof a workshop, ownerof a book-shop and an apothecary of shop,and burgomaster Wit- pled with gentle,winsomehumanand animal several not to mentionthe creatures. the qualityof his popularappeal In tenberg(for years), seriousthoughtswhich his friendship en- he maybe thoughtof as the forerunner such and of belovedGermanpaintersas Ludwig Richter, 6 Bruck,p. CarlSpitzweg,and Moritzvon Schwind. I78.

NOIJLDSI-IOD

H3SIIH

NOA

.JLIaHO

NO'HV

'cNIVW-HJL,-NO-JL'OJINVIJI

8Z5I

'SIIVd

Jo

ILNaiDanfl

I
L

H!

v-$
Ir *

'

*
"

I-

1.

..

IIh

:f4 Ft",. '

I
i

SILVER AGE, 1527-I530.

CASSEL,

PICTURE

GALLERY

METROPOLITAN

MUSEUM

STUDIES

But if his picturescontainnaive actorsand it costumes, should whimsicallyanachronistic not thereforebe assumed,as it often is, that Cranachwas a naive old fellow. Indeed,his would seemto be gentle,indulgentburlesques

treatment the goddesses' of forms,which here as thoseof solid,mature,and dignified appear women.In swinginglaterto the graciletypes Cranach to reverts, perhaps unconsciously, the formsandfacesof suchGothic sweet,youthful

VENUS,

I532.

FRANKFORT,

STADEL INSTITUTE

aimed at and decidedlysoquite consciously In naivetedoesnot phisticated. normalpersons increasewith age, yet it is Cranach'slater workswhichappear someto havethisqualito His woodcutversionof the Judgmentof ty.7 Paris,dated as early as 1508, though already somewhat playful, shows decidedly serious
7 An interesting study of Cranach's probable style prior to I504 is published by Dr. Benesch. (See list of publications at end of this article.)

artists as Master E. S. and the Master of the Housebook. A comparativestudy of his female forms can throw considerablelight upon the evolution of Cranach's style and even upon the dating of his works. Parallel with his increasing inner need for gaiety goes a constantly greater fondness for girlish figures characterized by slenderness and length of limb. In the woodcut Judgment of Paris of 1508 the sober influence

A JUDGMENT

OF PARIS BY CRANACH

of Diirer's engraving of the Four Naked the Metropolitan Museum's version hereunder Women is clearly seen. The bodies are heavy, discussion. The latterpicturebearson a rock clumsy, and long-waisted. A year later in his near its base the familiarCranachsignature, two versions of Venus, the woodcut8 and the the crownedand winged serpent, damaged in the change is already manifest. Still condition but identifiable.No date appears, painting,

"
-

~ ~ ~ ~iiJ~~~~~Ii ~
-

JJ

?b~

LUCRETIA,

I533.

BERLIN,

KAISER FRIEDRICH

MUSEUM

later, the charming and modest Eve of the Brunswick gallery and the provocative little Venus at Frankfort carry the slenderizing process much farther.The Judgment of Paris in the Kunsthalle at Karlsruhe, dated 1530, seems already a little further developed than

but the year 1528 would be about correct, for that is the year of the closely related Judgment of Paris in the Baron Robert von Hirsch Collection, Frankfort-on-the-Main. If we were then to reduce to a mathematical statementour observationson the development of Cranach's nude forms (not without some 8 The date, I506, which Lippmann (p. io) accepted uneasiness lest we be thought pedantic or inwas laterrejectedas spuriousby Flechsig (p. 294), by Dodgson (vol. II, p. 296), and by Friedlander(Der decorous), a chronological table might be preHolzschnitt, p. I5). pared covering the most important of Cra-

IO

METROPOLITAN

MUSEUM

STUDIES

nach'spictures nude women- suchas lend of The table gives themselvesto measurement. the proportionate lengthof the lowerlimbsto the totaldistance fromheel to chin,as follows:

been when Lucaswas still in his thirtiesand forties,very few paintingsafterthat date can be fromhis own hand.Thereis plentyof evidenceof a good-sized which might workshop 52:1oo I508. Judgment of Paris (Engraving) have producedthe rest. Notices are frequent Venus and Cupid (Engraving) 55:I00 I509. Venus and Cupid (Leningrad) with 55.3:100 I509. enoughof Cranach's takingten Gesellen Eve (Brunswick Gallery) 57:100 him to Torgauor elevenKnechte someoth1518-20. to 1528. Judgment of Paris er place for the executionof an altarpiece or 58.I:Io0 (R. von Hirsch coll.) someotherlargedecorative The 60:ioo project. names 1527-30. The Silver Age (Cassel) Venus (Frankfort, Stadel Inst.) of someof theseassistants preserved the are in 58.4:I00 1532. 60:ioo Death of Lucretia (Berlin) 1533. records.But especially therewas the master's i537(?). Venus and Cupid (Honey-Thief) eldestson Hans,the dateof whosebirthis un65:o00 (Berlin, no. 1190) known. To him Flechsiggives practically all of The CasselSilverAge is undated,but similar Cranach paintings respectable qualityfrom versions of the subject date from 1527 to I530. 1522 to I537. In the latter year Hans died and worksare attributed The late Venusand Cupid (Honey-Thief) is a good many subsequent an interesting shopin by Flechsigto the father.But,for thosefifteen productof the Cranach with the authorare which the mannerisms carriedextremely yearsat least,Hansis credited far. The form of the signature dates it I537 or ship of many atypicalworksissuingfromthe in after. shopandall suchtypical paintings thelighter vein as thosewhichwe havebeendiscussing. The entirematterof the Cranach workshop, share Subsequentcriticismhas emphaticallyreof the question the immediate involving the mastermay have had in its productions, jected Flechsig'stheories,arguingthat Hans to has been much debated.Is the Metropolitan couldnot havepaintedthe worksattributed of Museum'sJudgmentof Paris by Lucas Cra- him andthathis fathercould.Several Lucas to his enorhis son Hans,or by someun- Cranach's nachhimself,by testify contemporaries in the mous activity.In I508he was publiclypraised identified employed journeyman-painter It establishment? is a questionwhich is apt to for "never beingidle- not so muchas a single morerapidly thanany to occurimmediately the studentversedin the hour"andfor"working An literature. attemptto otherpainter." Cranach contentious Forty-two yearslater,when he was getting on towardeighty, his son-in-law supplythe answerindicatesa briefreviewof marveledat the old man'sconstantbusyness, the Hans Cranach controversy. In his impressive Cranachstudien, published "evenwriting out all his bills with his own makes the first seri- hand."Finally,the epitaphon his gravestone in I90oo Eduard Flechsig ous attemptto sort out all known Cranach praiseshim as "den schnellstenMaler."He it those paintedby Lucas couldeasilyhavepaintedpictures, is argued, paintings,separating fromthoseby his sons Hans and Lu- besidesattendingto his publicdutiesand dihimself of and cas,Junior, thosewhich shouldsimplybe rectingthe activities his studioand his private undertakings. Workunderthe headingsCranach classified the conor Schoolof Cranach. Conversely,the case for Hans Cranach's Briefly, shop, from tentionwasmadethat,sinceCranach production earlybe- primesharein the workshop a situa- 1522until his deathis much weakened the of multifarious came a man by activity, his tion which wouldhaveprecluded painting existenceof a single work, a Herculesand This painting,which is signedH. C. much,and sincethe styleand qualityof Cra- Omphale.

nach pictures after 1522 are not what theyhad

A JUDGMENT

OF PARIS

BY CRANACH

II

with the usual serpent and the date 1537, betrays defects in the drawing of heads and hands which are not found in the better products of the shop. In 1537 Hans was probably only twenty-five years old at the utmost-a dozen years younger than Flechsig's estimate.9 He was unmarried and about to set off to Italy on

it is by the ever-humanheart, to resist the idea that an admired or beloved person might be guilty of a thought or a painting not quite to

his first Studienreise from which he never returned. He was the eldest of Lucas' five children. The second child (Lucas the Younger)
was born in I515 and the fifth in
1520.

In I535

when they were both at work in the castle at Torgau, Hans was getting the same wages as his twenty-year-oldbrother.10His immaturity is further indicated by the reference to him in a letter of condolence from Martin Luther to the elder Cranach. As Luther saw him, Hans had been a pious and obedient son who had been "sent"to Italy by his parent and had died there in the flower of his youth. Assuming its date to be 1528, the Metropolitan Museum's Judgment of Paris must have been painted when Hans was about sixteen yearsold, which makes it unlikely that he was its author. The entire case of Hans versus Lucas has been summed up, in these few non-committal words, by Friedlander:1'"The line which separates the father'spersonality from the son's is not visible in their works." But if Hans Cranach can no longer be thought of as the author of the finer pictures issuing from the workshop during the fifteen
years, 1522-1537, to whom should these works

be attributed? The natural and simple answer would be to Lucas Cranach himself, and this answer would seem to be borne out by the gradual evolution of his forms and the spirit of his work to which attention has already been called, and also by what we know of his ceaselessactivity. It is natural to the human mind, governed as
9 Flechsig thought Hans was born in I500. 10 See H. Michaelson's monograph, pp. I-21, for a well-marshaled argument on this subject. 11 Thieme-Becker, "Lucas Cranach der altere."

VENUS AND CUPID BERLIN,

(HONEY-THIEF), KAISER FRIEDRICH

1537 OR AFTER MUSEUMN

its taste. And, since there are many persons who do not care for an art which is merry and indulgently ironical, we can well understand that such persons might resent the idea of a

12

METROPOLITAN

MUSEUM

STUDIES

serious reverent and comparatively youngCranach growing up to be an almost frivolous Cranach. similarreasonsof For middle-aged taste comparatively seriousloversof art few for havemuchliking or respect typicalFrench of century, thoughrecpictures the eighteenth of the excellence theirworkmanship. ognizing HermannVoss12seems to recognizethe inrationwardspringsof muchof the pro-Hans of alizationwhen he writes,"Thecatastrophe thisdevelopment the growthof the work[i.e., has been greatlyexaggerated some by shop] of excellence who ignorethe peculiar persons the laterCranach while glorifyingthe earlier manner." in an unseemly be But shall we ourselves chargedwith rationalizingif we fail to recognizeand confess the negativequalityof much of the evidence sharein in here presented favorof Cranach's of as the existence theselaterworks?So long and our the workshopremainsindisputable of knowledgeof the individualcapacities its remainsa blankwe cannotwith cermembers taintysay of any specificlate work that it is a with Whatwe mayconclude genuineCranach. is sufficientreasonableness that the Cranach workshopwas completelydominatedby its Its master'spersonality. output was his creaof the embodiment his ideasandattitudes tion, and throughthe mediumof his peculiar logi-

of cally developingrepertory forms.If under demandof a greatpopularity, the clamorous failedof beingalways the finestworkmanship there were also the very rewarding achieved, will Theseeachbeholder insist high moments. to recognize himself. for uponbeingpermitted In dealingwith the laterproductions desigis Friedlander content nated as by Cranach, list"3of with simply giving a chronological without "somegoodsignedanddatedworks," His courdogmatizingas to theirauthorship. teouslysuppliedopinion of the Metropolitan Museum's Judgmentof Parisas a "Cranach, as genuineand fine,"shouldnot be construed deciof a surrender this delicatelysuspended sion. The term "genuineCranach" may be takenin this caseto mean any one of several workmanthings.But,in view of the beautiful earlypaintby shipexhibited LucasCranach's would it not under the circumstances ings, to seemreasonable concludethat the bestlate are by him? And if we agree paintingsalso in with Friedlander, recognizingfine quality in the Judgmentof Parishere underdiscusseemto be the part sion,wouldit not therefore of commonsenseto label it as by LucasCranach the Elder,utterlyomittingthe cautious questionmark?
12

13Thieme-Becker. "LucasCranachder altere."

USED

Page 107.

REFERENCES

Max J. Der Holzschnitt,Handbicher der Ameseder,Rudolf. "Ein ParisurteilLukas Cranachs Friedlander, Museen zu Berlin. Berlin and Leipzig, Staatlichen des iltern in der Landesgaleriezu Graz." Repertorium fur Kunstwissenschaft, I9IO, vol. XXXIII,
1921.

pp. 65-84. fur Bauch,G. "ZurCranachforschung." Repertorium

Kunstwissenschaft, 1894, vol. XVII, pp. 424 if.

"LucasCranachder altere."Thieme-Becker, AllgemeinesLexikonder BildendenKiinstler,1913, vol. VIII, pp. 55-58.

Tafelmalerei." Glaser, Curt. Lukas Cranach. Leipzig, 1921. Benesch,Otto. "Zuralt6sterreichischen der kunsthistorischenSammlungen in Lippmann, F. Lucas Cranach. Berlin, 1895. Jahrbuch der Michaelson, Hedwig. Lukas Cranach iltere. LeipWien, 1928, N. F., vol. II, pp. 77-101. F6rdererder zig, 1902. Bruck, Robert.Friedrichder Weise als Nemes,Marczellde, Collection.Ventepublique.FredKunst. Strassburg, 1903. erick Muller & Cie. Amsterdam, 1928. of Dodgson,Campbell.Catalogue Germanand FlemLondon, I759. ish Woodcutsin the BritishMuseum,vol. II. Lon- Ovid. Epistles,translated S. Barrett. by
don, I911.

Schuchardt, Christian. Lucas Cranach des ldtern, Le-

vol. I. Leipzig, Flechsig, Eduard. Cranachstudien,

1900.

ben und Werke,vols.I and II. Leipzig, i851. Voss, Hermann.Der Ursprungdes Donaustiles. Leipzig, I907.