As frequently painted by Lucas Cranach the Elder in diverse subject and stylistic variations repeated by his two sons and their presumed ateliers, the present Salome shows kinship with several other portraits painted in the later 1520s of analogous subjects in similar guise: cf. Max J. Friedländer & Jakob Rosenberg. The Paintings of Lucas Cranach (English revised edition of Die Gemälde von Lucas Cranach, Berlin, 1932), Ithaca, 1978, cat. Nos.166,167,168 & 170 -175 and nos. 220 & 224 as generically dated 1525-30 by Friedländer and Rosenberg.
Although created well within the Cranach studio’s formal vocabulary, two variant elements may suggest a specific Cranach studio participant: the sfumato modelling of Salome’s face; and the beheading of the Baptist in an architectural courtyard background seen through the window on her right that replaced the mountainous settings seen in most Cranach studio versions of the subject; then too, the hard flat local flesh color typical of the majority of Cranach atelier paintings is replaced here by the subtler Italianate half tone sfumato modelling typical of Lombardy (Leonardo et alia) and Venice (Bellini, Giorgione, et alia) as introduced into south Germany by Albrecht Dürer and hence accessible in Cranach’s circle including his sons Lucas the Younger and his brother Hans who actually worked in Italy before his untimely death back home in the late 1530s.
Although Hans’ Italianate paintings are not yet fully documented, this Salome was apparently already available to early albeit mediocre copyists during Lucas the Younger’s far longer lifetime. Lucas the Younger was generally considered a faithful replicator of his father’s work as in his treatment of Christ’s figure in form, finish and shading from the Cranach circle Imago Pietas in the Hamburg Kunsthalle (F & R No. 384) which shows similar elements reflective of Bellini and catalogued as “Probably by Lucas Cranach the Younger”. This provides a working nexus for more assured assignments of the many later replicas, pastiches and variants still offered under the Cranach family identification. The most recently noticed of these lesser variants include smaller reproductions of the present painting replete with the architectural setting and execution of the Baptist. These copies include as evidence of a commercially viable model:
1. An indifferent miniature on copper done in the later sixteenth century (?) shown after copper plate was first available for both original and replicative work which could usually be datable as after ca. 1560.
2. A slightly less ghastly reduced scale copy on wood or canvas (?) (pace Christie’s) offered by Christie’s online in 2024 as attributed to Lucas Cranach the Younger and estimated at $30-50,000.00
3. A further and slightly better variant version in an early frame at Windsor Castle in the King’s Bedchamber follows the same general type, pose and proportions (i.e. small hands) for Salome but with changes in costume and accoutrements; more important, this version has replaced any portion of the older Cranach landscape setting with a full architectural backdrop partially introduced in the superior painting reviewed here.
