May 02, 2017 - Sale 2445

Sale 2445 - Lot 52

Unsold
Estimate: $ 20,000 - $ 30,000
LUCAS CRANACH
The Temptation of St. Anthony.

Woodcut, 1506. 401x277 mm; 15 7/8x11 inches, narrow to thread margins. Second state (of 2). Small bunch of grapes watermark with a vertical rectangle counter mark. A superb, well-inked, and early impression of this extremely scarce woodcut, before the wide gaps to the edges of the mountains to the right of the church in the background and before the widening of the vertical rectangle at the left edge of the black upper portion of the shield upper right, with the customary soft horizontal drying fold and with the relief from the woodblock still distinct on the verso. Bartsch 56.