_with_two_of_their_sons_(SM_1398b).png&width=1200)
Torgau Altarpiece: Mary Cleophas and Alphaeus
Historical Context
The Torgau Altarpiece: Mary Cleophas and Alphaeus, painted in 1509 and held at the Städel Museum, is a wing panel from the same altarpiece as the Torgau Madonna and Child. The panel depicts the apocryphal parents of several apostles, reflecting the late medieval devotion to the Holy Kinship—the extended family of the Virgin Mary. Such elaborate genealogical representations of Christ’s earthly family were popular in German art around 1500 but fell out of favor after the Reformation questioned their scriptural basis. The Torgau Altarpiece panels in the Städel provide essential evidence of Cranach’s early development as a painter of large-scale religious commissions for the Saxon court.
Technical Analysis
Oil on canvas, the work demonstrates Lucas Cranach the Elder's sinuous contours and vivid coloring. The composition is carefully structured to balance visual elements, while the handling of light and color creates atmospheric coherence across the picture surface.
Look Closer
- ◆Notice the contemporary Saxon dress: Alphaeus is depicted as a sixteenth-century German craftsman or merchant rather than a first-century Palestinian fisherman.
- ◆Look at Mary Cleophas's elaborate headdress: Cranach gives this biblical woman the same fashionable Saxon coiffure he used for his female portrait sitters.
- ◆Observe the precise linear drawing that defines each figure: Cranach's draftsmanship in this early altarpiece panel shows the woodcut-like clarity that characterized his work throughout his career.
- ◆The Städel holds multiple Torgau panels, making it possible to compare this wing with the central Holy Kinship panel in the same collection.
