Law and Grace

The investigations of recent years have shown that this panel, which was long considered to be an original work by Cranach, is most probably a copy, which was made according to the second Law and Grace picture from the collections of the National Gallery which is exhibited right next to it. The infrared reflectogram shows clearly that a squared grid was used for the transfer of the composition. This painting copies in detail original (inv. no O 10732), and must therefore have been painted in front of it. As opposed to the original, however, there are inscriptions on it, which are made up of notifications within the composition and of biblical verses in the text field beneath it. We must assume that the original also had a text field in the lower part, which probably fell victim to the later cutting down of the panel.