(circa 1500 - active in Schneeberg between 1528–1561)
The Ill-matched couple,
inscribed upper left: 1528,
oil on panel, 53.3 x 37.5 cm, framed

Provenance:
sale, Weinmüller, Munich, 1925;
Private collection, New York, 1974;
Private European collection

Literature:
D. Koepplin/ T. Falk, Lukas Cranach: Gemälde, Zeichnungen, Druckgraphik; Ausstellung im Kunstmuseum Basel 15. Juni bis 8. September 1974 (Vol. 2), exhibition catalogue, Basel 1976, p. 578 mentioned under no. 476

We are grateful to Dieter Koepplin for confirming the attribution of the present painting on the basis of a photograph.

Technical analysis:
The microscopic inspection of the yellow-painted date 1528 indicates that it is coherent with the painting.

The quality of the painting is high, accurate, but with evident simplifications to obtain decorations in the clothes and in the heads and headgear, which is typical of Cranach’s method. In particular the artist of this panel shows a great ability in using wet-on-wet technique for small details, such as the eyes and jewels, as well as in larger parts, such as the clouds and the vermillion-based red of the velvet dress of the woman, that are obtained by working the paint when it was still wet.

The flat and blur effect of the flesh tones is achieved by the use of a swab and sometimes fingers were employed directly, as raking light details show.

The under drawing is significant: freehand, fluid, made with a thin brush, detailed and evident in IR images under the skin tones of the two figures. Sometimes it is a little flickering, and followed by characteristic painted small dots (no pouncing is present). It also appears under the hat and hair and the man’s fur collar.

Pigments include azurite for all the blue and grey-blue colours (sky, clouds, mountains), a copper-based green for the green areas, also mixed with lead-based yellow (like lead-tin yellow), as in the trees. A lead-tin yellow is used in the date and in the lighter yellow details, while a yellow ochre for darker yellow areas. Vermillion, also mixed with black pigment to obtain the shadows, constitutes red dress and flesh tones, together with lead white.

We are grateful to Gianluca Poldi for the technical examination of the present painting.