Christ on the Cross: Moses and the Brazen Serpent

Master with the Monogram LC

Summary

A reproduction produced by the Vasari Society of a drawing by the Master with the Monogram LC. It is a complicated composition with one scene - shaped like an archway - set over another scene. The first of these is a Crucifixion scene, with Christ on the Cross to the right. At the foot of the cross is a crowd of men, many of whom are wearing soldiers uniform, with two on horseback. To the right is a crowd of women. In the right background is a hill with trees, and in the centre is a church. In the lower right corner of the composition are a skull and a bone. The second scene is a barren landscape with the figure of Moses standing at the left edge with his arm around a 'T' shaped structure with a snake wrapped around the top. This references the story of the Brazen Serpent in the Old Testament. On the ground in the foreground are four figures, lying down and reaching out towards Moses, and in the centre, just blow the other image, is a crowd of people. To the right are two tree stumps, and in the left background is a group of tents. Text from the accompanying booklet produced by the Vasari Society: "No. 30 MASTER WITH THE MONOGRAM CL [the 'CL' stands for a symbol, these letters are the closest to what it looks like] (about 1530) CHRIST ON THE CROSS; MOSES AND THE BRAZEN SERPENT Exhibited by Messrs. Obach & Co., 1908. Pen and ink. 21 x 16 cm. (8 1/4 x 6 5/16 in.). The drawing is undoubtedly by the same hand as a large and elaborate composition of Calvary at Windsor, photographed by Messrs. Braun, Clément et Cie (No. 79,088) under the name of Cranach, which has in the lower corner on the right the above monogram and the date 153- (the last figure cut off). The Windsor drawing has been attributed by W. Schmidt (Kunstchronik, 1890, N. F.., i. 322) to Georg Lemberger, but this attribution must be rejected on stylistic grounds, while the monogram itself is to be read as 'C. L.', not 'G. L.' It bears a close resemblance to the monogram used by Cranach from 1504 to 1506 only. The draughtsman clearly belongs to the South German school, and shows affinities with the 'Donaustil', but it is not easy to localize him more precisely, and I have not met with other drawings by the same hand. The shading of a face (soldier kneeling to left of the cross) with fine parallel lines, and the want of continuity between nose, mouth and chin (profile of the soldier near the feet of Christ) are seen by comparison with the Windsor drawing to be characteristic tricks of the artist. The architecture and outline of the mountains resemble those in the Windsor drawing, but are simpler. The most striking resemblance occurs, however, in the group of the holy women and St. John on the right, with the compact crowd of heads nearly on a level; the whole group has been transferred with only slight modifications from one drawing to the other. The cherubs in the sky and introduction of the brazen serpent as a type of the crucified Saviour are peculiar to the smaller version. C. D."