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Lucas Cranach the Elder
Kronach, 1472-Weimar, 1553
Cranach, who took his name from that of his native city Kronach in Franconia, learned the art of painting in the family workshop. Around 1490 he travelled to the South of Germany, subsequently settling in Vienna where he is documented between 1500 and 1504. In Vienna he moved in the Humanist circles which had sprung up around the University. From this period date the portraits of Johannes Cuspinian and of His Wife (Winterthur) and The Rest on the Fight into Egypt (Berlin, Gemäldegalerie). In 1505 he was in Wittenberg where he was made Court Painter by the Elector Frederick III the Wise. In 1508 he travelled on a diplomatic mission to the court of the Emperor Maximilian in the Low Countries. On his return his art showed a notable softening in the modelling of the figures. From these years date the Venus and Cupid (Hermitage) and The Virgin and Child with a Bunch of Grapes (Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza). Cranach spent the next few years in Wittenberg before moving to Augsburg and then Innsbruck, as part of the retinue of the exiled Elector John Frederick of Saxony. In 1552 the artist accompanied the Elector to Weimar and died there the following year. Cranach was a painter associated with Reformist ideas whose output included portraits as well as religious paintings, illustrations and prints. Particularly notable are the woodcuts he executed between 1505 and 1509. From 1520 Cranach devoted more time to illustration, producing images for Reformist books and biblical scenes. He ran a large and flourishing workshop with the participation of his two sons. Among Cranach's paintings are The Triptych with the three electors (Hamburg, Kunsthalle), The Age of Gold (Alte Pinakothek, Munich), various portraits of the electors and other court figures, and his highly individual representations of Judith, Salome, Venus and nymphs.
FRIEDLÄNDER, J. M. and ROSENBERG, J.: Lucas Cranach. New York, 1978.
LÜBBEKE, I.: The Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection. Early German Painting, 1350-1550. London, 1991.
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