man of sorrows

The Man of Sorrows of 1497 at an unlocated collection represents Cranach's earliest documented work — made when he was around 27 years old, before his Wittenberg appointment, during his itinerant early career that included time in Vienna and various German cities. The subject — Christ shown half-length as the suffering redeemer, wounds visible, the instruments of the Passion sometimes present — was a foundational devotional image type that Cranach would have produced from the beginning of his professional activity. A 1497 date places this in the period before he had developed his distinctive mature style, when he was still forming his approach through the Danube School tradition and the influence of Michael Wolgemut's Nuremberg workshop and other regional masters. The very early works are few in number and often difficult to attribute with certainty — this 1497 work predates most of the documented corpus — making it historically significant as evidence of his pre-Wittenberg career regardless of its modest subject.

Oil on panel demonstrating the techniques characteristic of High Renaissance painting. The work shows competent handling of its subject matter within established artistic conventions.