Lucas Cranach

(also Lucas Cranach the Elder). Born 1472 in Kronach, Upper Franconia; died Oct. 16, 1553, in Weimar. German painter and graphic artist.

Cranach probably trained under his father. From around 1500 to 1504 he worked in Austria. From 1505 to 1550 he was the court painter of Frederick the Wise, the elector of Saxony, and of Frederick's successors in Wittenberg. He worked in Augsburg from 1550 to 1552 and in Weimar from 1552 to 1553. He visited the Netherlands in 1509.

Cranach's early works are particularly striking for their conceptual innovations. In Crucifixion (1503, Alte Pinakothek, Munich) the bold truthfulness of the images, the sharp asymmetry of composition, and the agitated colors of the landscape seem to portend social upheaval. In contrast, the painting Rest on the Flight Into Egypt (1504, Picture Gallery, Berlin-Dahlem) reveals an idyllic mood; the keenness and freshness of its apprehension of nature opened the way for the achievements of the Danube style. While in Wittenberg, Cranach combined apparently contradictory subjects and techniques, reflecting the complex character of the epoch and milieu in which he lived. The works Martyrdom of St. Catherine (1506, Picture Gallery, Dresden) and Prince's Altar (1510, State Gallery, Dessau) reflect the achievements of Renaissance art. In Cranach's later religious works, Renaissance elements are mixed with qualities of affectation. These qualities, which also appear in his woodcuts, are reminiscent of late Gothic art but, at the same time, anticipate mannerism. Humanistic ideals are reflected in Venus and Cupid (1509, Hermitage, Leningrad), Madonna (Hermitage), and River Nymph (1518, Museum of Fine Arts, Leipzig).

Cranach, a friend of M. Luther (whose portrait he painted many times, including a copperplate engraving, 1521), disseminated the ideas of the Reformation in several of his works, including the woodcut Sermon of John the Baptist (1516). However, he also accepted commissions from opponents of the Reformation (for example, the portrait of Albert the Bear, 1526, Hermitage).

Cranach's position as court painter contributed to the development of affected and conventional elements, an interest in complex allegorical and mythological themes, and the revival of several Gothic traditions (frigid composition, meticulous attention to detail, and archaic criteria of beauty). This growing conventionality was aggravated by the fact that Cranach's studio assistants produced a large number of monotonous mediocre works with his signature. Cranach, to a great extent, retained his great skill as a portraitist. Beginning in the early period of his career, he executed a number of vividly expressive portraits of his contemporaries, including J. Cuspinian (1502–03, O. Reinhart collection, Winterthur), S. Reuss (1503, German National Museum, Nuremberg), and J. Scheyring (1529, Museum of Old Art, Brussels).

Cranach's house in Weimar has been preserved; the palace museum there has a Cranach gallery.