Mary Cleophas and Alphaeus (with the features of Frederick the Wise) with two of their sons, 1509

About the Acquisition

Among the earliest major commissions which Lucas Cranach the Elder carried out in 1509 as court painter to the Electorate of Saxony was the so-called Torgau Altar. The altar was acquired with the help of several sponsors in 1906 at the auction of the Molinier Collection in Paris. The money required to secure this magnificent work for Frankfurt was provided jointly by the City of Frankfurt, private art lovers, the Städelscher Museums-Verein and the recently founded Carl Schaub'sche Stiftung. For Cranach researchers, its arrival at the museum was a small sensation: although the altar clearly bore the signature of the master himself, the work was previously unknown in the relevant literature on the artist.