Las tres Gracias

Cranach painted these three nudes on a small beech panel in 1531, in Germany at the height of the Reformation, working for the Protestant court of Saxony while turning out mythological nudes like this for private collectors. The three graces of classical myth stand almost bare, one wearing only a broad red hat and a fine necklace, their bodies pale and elongated against a plain dark ground. The most interesting chapter of this particular panel is recent. It stayed in private hands for centuries, and by 2010 it was about to leave France for good. The Louvre declared it a national treasure to block the export, then still had to find four million euros to buy it, one million of which it did not have. So the museum did something unusual for France and asked the public. In about a month around 7,000 people chipped in the missing million, and at the end of 2010 the painting was bought. It is small enough that you have to step close to read the detail in the necklaces and the sheer veil.