Christ and the Woman Taken in Adultery (Cranach)

Series of paintings by Lucas Cranach the Elder and his studio

Christ and the Woman Taken in Adultery is a series of around thirty paintings by Lucas Cranach the Elder and his studio, in which his son Lucas Cranach the Younger was prominent. It shows the eponymous scene from the Gospel of John (8:1–11) in the New Testament. The earliest surviving versions were painted in the 1520s by Cranach himself, with the later ones attributed to his studio.

## List

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Image | Attribution | Date | Support | Dimensions (cm) | Collection

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| Elder | c. 1520 | limewood | 80,5 x 108,2 | Fränkische Galerie, Kronach[1]
| Elder | 1532 | limewood | 82,5 × 121 | Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest[2]
| Elder | 1533 | beechwood | 84 x 118 | National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa[3]
| Younger | after 1532 | Copper, transferred
from panel | 84 x 123 | Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg[4]
| Elder and studio | after 1537 | panel | 77 x 124 | Nationalmuseum, Stockholm[5][a]
| Elder and studio | after 1537 | limewood | 76 x 121 | Nationalmuseum, Stockholm[6][b]
| Younger | after 1537 | panel | 74,3 x 121,9 | Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Virginia[7][8]
| Elder and studio | c. 1535–1540 | limewood | 81,7 x 147,2 | Klassik Stiftung Weimar[9][10]
| Younger | 1545 | limewood | 72,8 x 120 | Staatsgalerie Aschaffenburg, Schloss Johannisburg[11]
| Younger and studio | 1549 | canvas, transferred
from panel | 114 x 176 | Bonnefantenmuseum, Maastricht[12][13]
| Younger | c. 1545–1550 | beechwood | 15,9 x 21,6 | Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York[14]
| Unknown (copy) | 1700-present | panel | 92,5 x 121,5 | National Museum, Oslo[15]

## Notes

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1. ^ Includes the inscription "WER VUNTER EUCH ON SVNDE IST DER WERFFE DEN ERSTEN STEIN AVFF SIE: IOHAN: AMVIII CAP" ("Let he who is without sin cast the first stone: John Chapter 8") but no signature. It probably came to Sweden in 1648 in connection with Pragrovet during the Thirty Years' War.
2. ^ Includes the inscription "WER VUNTER EUCH ON SVNDE IST DER WERFFE DEN ERSTEN STEIN AVFF SIE: IOHAN: AMVIII CAP" ("Let he who is without sin cast the first stone: John Chapter 8"). Bears Cranach's signature, a winged dragon, below the inscription. Based on the shape of the dragon's wings, it can be determined that it was executed after 1537. The painting was owned by Gustav Vasa at Gripsholm Castle in the middle of the 16th century.

## References

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1. ^ sammlung.pinakothek.de
2. ^ Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest
3. ^ National Gallery of Canada
4. ^ Hermitage
5. ^ Nationalmuseum
6. ^ Nationalmuseum
7. ^ Chrysler Museum of Art
8. ^ Gogle Arts & Culture
9. ^ lucascranach.org
10. ^ Klassik Stiftung Weimar
11. ^ sammlung.pinakothek.de
12. ^ rkd.nl
13. ^ Google Arts & Culture
14. ^ Metropolitan Museum of Art
15. ^ National Museum