Collection Online as of April 2, 2023

Triptych with The Lamentation of Christ (center), St. Barbara (left wing), St. Catherine of Alexandria (right wing), The Annunciation (reverse wings)

c. 1500

Master of the Krainburg Altar

(Austrian, active c. 1485–1510)

Austria

Center: oil on poplar; Wings: oil and gold leaf on poplar panel

Center: 45.7 x 33 cm (18 x 13 in.); Wings: 51 x 15.9 cm (20 1/16 x 6 1/4 in.)

John L. Severance Fund 2022.86

Location

111 German and Austrian Gothic

Fun Fact

The Master of Krainburg was active in the area of today's Slovenia and should therefore be called the Master of Kranj in Slovenian.

Description

The triptych shows an exact representation of Jerusalem. The model is a woodcut by Erhard Reuwich for the publication Pilgrimage to the Holy Land, by Bernhard von Breydenbach, published in Mainz in 1486. This book became a bestseller, reprinted thirteen times over the next three decades. The painter who was active in today’s Slovenia around 1500 adapted this for his depiction of the Lamentation of Christ.

Master of the Krainburg Altar

Austrian painter, active ca. 1490-1520

Provenance

Richard von Kaufmann, Berlin, Germany

1917

(Sale: Cassirer and Helbing, Berlin, 1917, II, lot 122)

Alfred Bum Collection, Brno, Czechoslovakia, by descent to his son, Martin Bum

Martin Bum (changed to Boome), New York, NY

5 November 1942

(Sale: Parke-Bernet Galleries, New York, 5 November 1942, lot 46)

Mr. and Mrs. Clarence Y. Palitz, New York, NY

Thence By Decent

Richard L. Feigen & Co.

c. 2009-2022

Private Collection, USA, sold through Ben Elwes Fine Art, to the Cleveland Museum of Art

2022-

The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH

Citations

Exposition des Primitifs Français, and HENRI FRANCOIS XAVIER MARIE BOUCHOT. EXPOSITION DES PRIMITIFS FRANCAIS. 1904. no. 96

Paul Cassirer und Hugo Helbing (Firm). Die Sammlung Richard von Kaufmann, Berlin; II. Band. 1917. lot 122

Sotheby Parke Bernet Inc. Paintings by Old Masters. 1942. lot 46

Ring, G. "An Austrian Triptych" The Art Bulletin, XXVI (March, 1944). pp. 51-52, figs. 1-2

John Herron Art Institute. Holbein and His Contemporaries, A Loan Exhibition of Painting in France, The Netherlands, Germany and England, October 22-December 24, 1950. 1950. no. 53

Panofsky, Erwin. Early Netherlandish Painting; Its Origins and Character. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1966. I, p. 462, no. 4

Vignjević, Tomislav. Der Altar von Krainburg (Kranj) un die Fresken in St. Primus oberhalb Kamnik: zür künstlerischen identität eines spätgotischen Malers. Wien: Anton Schroll & Co, 1992. S. 106-115

Vignjevic, Tomislav. Der Meister des Krainburger Altars. Ljubljana: Narodna Galerija, 1996. pp. 70-73

Borchert, Till, and Julien Chapuis. Van Eyck to Dürer: The Influence of Early Netherlandish Painting on European Art, 1430-1530. London: Thames & Hudson, 2011. no. 258, pp. 462-463

Exhibition history

Exposition des Primatifs Français, Louvre, Paris, France (1904).

Holbein and his Contemporaries, The John Herron Art Museum, Indianapolis, ID (22 October-24 December 1950).

Van Eyck to Durer: Early Netherlandish Painting and Central Europe, 1430-1530 Groeninge Museum, Bruges, Belgium (29 October 2010-30 January 2011).