Original taken from gorbutovich in Cranachi. Part 1. Life and work

An art historian in 1932 on Lucas Cranach the Elder: “He took his place in history as a ‘Saxon master’, a friend of Luther and an orthodox Protestant painter who worked in the Lutheran north-east of Germany; He is well famous paintings now stored in galleries around the world, radiate expressive expression artistic skill without any trace of intellectual tension and spiritual confrontation of the Reformation period...

Lucas Cranach the Elder. Judith at a feast in the camp of Holofernes. Fragment. 1531. Friedenstein Castle Foundation, Gotha / Judith an der Tafel des Holofernes. Lucas Cranach der Altere. 1531. Stiftung Schloss Friedenstein, Gotha. full view paintings - in part 2

If Cranach had died in 1505, he would have lived on in our memory like an artist charged with inner dynamite. In fact, he continued to work until 1553, and instead of preserving his impulsive-explosive energy, we observe a gradual creative exhalation. - 1932, Germany, Max Friedländer (1867-1958), the most authoritative expert in the field of the artistic heritage of Cranach for his time.

Lucas Cranach the Elder is an artist close to the 20th century, especially the avant-garde aesthetics of its first half. The legacy of Cranach served as a source of inspiration for Pablo Picasso, Alberto Giacometti, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner and other artists. Cranach's style was appreciated in the era of expressionism. Apparently, the unequal assessment of the periods of Cranach's work, given 84 years ago by Max Friedlander, apparently comes from the spirit of expressionism.

The first Russian monographic exhibition of works by the Cranach family has closed at the Pushkin Museum in Moscow. Exhibition “Cranachs. Between the Renaissance and Mannerism" was held from March 04, 2016 to May 15, 2016. Materials on the theme of the exhibition: some of the works shown in it, in high-quality reproduction and information about the artists based on data from the scientific catalog of the exhibition, mainly articles by curator Vadim Sadkov.

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Lucas Cranach the Elder. Christ and the Virgin Mary (or Mary Magdalene). Gotha, Friedenstein Castle Foundation. Inv. No. 54/14. Parchment pasted on oak base, oil tempera. 34.2 x 52.7. Date unknown, options: 1508, 1512-1515, 1515-1520, late 1510s. . View at the exhibition

Lucas Cranach the Elder(1472/c. 1475 - 1553)

The personality of Lucas Cranach the Elder and the versatility of his interests as an artist, courtier, diplomat and entrepreneur serve as an example of the universal activity of a Renaissance man. According to Cranach's cousin and first biographer Matthias Gunderam, left in 1556, he was born on October 4, 1472 in the town of Kronach in Upper Franconia (now northern Bavaria) and was one of four children in the family of local artist Hans Mahler (Molner; mother wore maiden name Hübner). From birth, for some reason, he was called Lucas Zunder (Zunder, Zonder), but later he began to call himself Cranach - in memory of his native city.

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Second half of the 1510s, around 1517-1518. Lucas Cranach the Elder. Mystical betrothal of Saint Catherine of Alexandria, with Saints Dorothea, Margaret and Barbara. Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest / The Mystic Marriage of Saint Catherine of Alexandria with Saints Dorothy, Margaret and Barbara. Lucas Cranach the Elder. Ca. 1516-1518. Oil on Lindenwood. 67.5 x 47.3 cm. Inventory Number: 133. Szépművészeti Múzeum, Budapest.

Apparently, he received his first lessons in professional art (then called ars graphica) in his father's workshop in Kronach. Also, according to an old legend, the young artist, as a wandering apprentice, like Dürer, in order to expand his professional horizons and in search of recognition, made an introductory trip through the cities of Germany, and in 1493 he allegedly even visited the Holy Land. However, all modern knowledge about his apprenticeship and years of wandering (Wanderjahre) falls into the category of undocumented conjectures based on late sources. Modern researchers also shift Cranach's date of birth three years later and carefully determine it around 1475.

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1506. Lucas Cranach the Elder. Angels ascending Mary Magdalene. Woodcut. Sheet on display: Graphic Collection of the Ducal Museum at Friedenstein Castle, Gotha, Germany. Here: sheet from the Metropolitan Museum of Art / The Ecstacy of St. Mary Magdalen. Lucas Cranach the Elder (German, Kronach 1472-1553 Weimar). 1506. Woodcut; second state of two (Hollstein). Sheet: 24.4 × 14.2 cm. Accession Number: 21.35.1. Metropolitan Museum of Art.

The appearance of Lucas Cranach in 1501 in Vienna, where he resided for the next three years, is accurately attested. This time turned out to be extremely important for the creative biography of the master: it was then, not without influence philosophical ideas members of the humanistic circle of Konrad Celtis formed a vivid, deeply individual figurative language of his works, inextricably linked with the aesthetic ideals of the so-called Danubian school, among the main creators of which was Lucas Cranach. From this period, several authentic works of the master, marked with the LC monogram, have been preserved.

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1506. Lucas Cranach the Elder. Venus and Cupid. Woodcut. Sheet on display: Friedenstein Castle Foundation, Gotha, Germany. Here: sheet from the Metropolitan Museum of Art / Venus and Cupid. Lucas Cranach the Elder. 1506. Woodcut. Sheet: 28.2 × 19.8 cm. Accession Number: 17.37.67. Metropolitan Museum of Art.

In 1504, Cranach, who had already gained sufficient fame among his contemporaries, received an honorary invitation to take the position of artist at the court of the Saxon elector Frederick III the Wise in Wittenberg, replacing the itinerant Italian Jacopo de Barbari at this post. As early as June 24, 1505, he, as pictor ducalis, received a six-month salary of 50 guilders, which is a lot.

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1509 Lucas Cranach the Elder. Venus and Cupid. Oil on canvas (translated from wood in 1850). 213x102 cm. Inv. No. GE-680. Hermitage Museum. . The painting was the first depiction of the goddess of love naked in the north of Europe (before that, only Eve was depicted in this way), and also the first painting in Cranach's work on the theme ancient mythology. Interest in art Italian Renaissance is combined in the picture with the strict religious morality of German humanism. A Latin inscription warns: "Drive Cupid's voluptuousness with all your might, / Otherwise Venus will take possession of your blinded soul." The author of the couplet was probably one of the Wittenberg humanists, friends of the artist.

Cranach would hold this court position almost continuously for the next 47 years, also under the elector's two successors, Johann I the Solid and Johann Friedrich the Magnanimous. Moving to the Wittenberg Castle imposed a wide variety of duties on the master. In addition to performing numerous pictorial and graphic works his sphere of responsibility was the development of projects for the design of palace interiors, supervision over the activities of jewelers and woodcarvers, the creation holiday decoration castle on the occasion of weddings, knightly tournaments, hunting and other court celebrations. At the same time, he had to act as an adviser and even a valet. In other words, Cranach becomes the main figure responsible for the aesthetic atmosphere of court life, which required the organization of a large workshop in subsequent years, where at least 10 assistants worked simultaneously to help in the execution of numerous orders. All this markedly changed his social status.

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1535. Lucas Cranach the Elder. Lucretia. Wood (linden or poplar, parquet board), tempera, oil. 77 x 52 cm. Inv. No. 966. Nizhny Novgorod State Art Museum, Nizhny Novgorod. / Lucretia. 1535. Lucas Cranach The Elder. 76 x 50 cm, Holz. Nizhni Novgorod, Kunstmuseum. , via

Unlike most colleagues who were members of the professional guilds of St. Luke and therefore perceived by his contemporaries simply as talented artisans, Lucas Cranach the Elder, like Jan van Eyck, Botticelli, Leonardo and Titian, being the court painter of the Saxon Elector, rose high above the bulk of the masters who worked in different countries of Europe.

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A dragon with raised wings and a ruby ​​ring in its mouth is a Cranach ideogram. 1514 / Signature of Cranach the Elder from 1508 on: winged snake with ruby ​​ring as on painting of 1514. via

The official confirmation of this was the receipt from the elector in 1508 of a heraldic diploma for the family noble coat of arms, the main element of which was the image of a dragon with raised wings and a ruby ​​ring in its mouth, which soon became an invariable trademark of the Cranach workshop.

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1509. Lucas Cranach the Elder. Crowning with a crown of thorns. The seventh sheet of the Passion of the Christ series. At the exhibition: The Hermitage, the sheet is tinted. Woodcut. Watercolor, gouache. Here: sheet from the Metropolitan Museum of Art / Lucas Cranach the Elder. Christ crowned with Thorns, from The Passion. Series: The Passion. wood block. Sheet: 25 × 17 cm. Accession Number: 21.35.7. Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Moreover, in the same 1508, Cranach was sent on a diplomatic trip to the Netherlands to the court of Margaret of Austria in Mechelen, where he represented his patron at the ceremony of taking the oath to the eight-year-old Crown Prince Charles - the future Charles V - and was admitted to the hand of Emperor Maximilian I. Maximilian I a few years later, the latter will order Cranach, together with Dürer, to perform illustrations for his book of hours.

In January 1508, the wedding of Lucas Cranach and Barbara Brengbier (1485-1540), the daughter of a wealthy brewer and part-time burgomaster of the city of Gotha, took place in Nuremberg.

Just a few years later, Cranach, busy with the execution of various orders, became cramped in the premises that were provided at the Wittenberg Castle. In 1510, he bought a large house on the city market square, and in the workshop he set up there, he successfully painted, printed engravings on metal and woodcuts.

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1510-1511. Lucas Cranach the Elder. Martyrdom of the Apostle Matthew. The twelfth leaf of the series of the Martyrdom of the Twelve Apostles. Woodcut. Sheet at the exhibition: The Hermitage. Here: sheet from the Metropolitan Museum of Art / Lucas Cranach the Elder. Matthias from the Martyrdom of the Twelve Apostles
Series: Martyrdom of the Twelve Apostles. wood block. Sheet: 16.2 × 12.6 cm. Accession Number: 25.22.1. Metropolitan Museum of Art. . An early example images of a medieval guillotine. According to the Golden Legend, Saint Matthew was hacked to death with a sword from behind while praying in the temple.

In 1512, the artist significantly expanded the range of his business interests: he received a patent for brewing and maintaining a wine cellar. In an effort to minimize the cost of creating creative products, in 1520 Cranach became the owner of a pharmacy, which, in addition to its direct purpose - the monopoly trade in medicines in Wittenberg - made it possible to significantly reduce the cost of colorful minerals needed for painting and graphics.

In the years 1522-1526, together with the jeweler Christian Dering, the artist maintained his own printing house, in which, bypassing intermediaries, he printed books and engravings, including the famous Septembertestament - a translation into German of the New Testament, made by Martin Luther and published in September 1522, and I sold them in my own shop.

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Early 1520s. Lucas Cranach the Elder. Unequal couple (old woman and young man). Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest / Lucas Cranach the Elder. The Ill-matched couple. Ca. 1520-1522. oil on beechwood. 37 x 30.5 cm. Inventory Number: 137. Szépművészeti Múzeum, Budapest. . More than 60 related replicas of works on the theme of unequal couples and corrupt love have been preserved.

As a result, performing various court duties, Lucas Cranach entered the circle of the richest and most respected residents of Wittenberg, became a member of the city council and was twice elected burgomaster. The artist's house was considered one of the largest and most comfortable in the city, so here in 1523 he received King Christian II of Denmark as an honored guest. The following year, 1524, while accompanying his patron to the Imperial Diet in Nuremberg, Cranach met there with Albrecht Dürer, who made a tiny portrait of him on paper in the technique of a silver pin (now Bayonne, Bonn Museum, inv. No. 1520/1540).

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Lucas Cranach the Elder. Female portrait. 1526. Wood (beech, parquet board), oil. 88.5 x 58.5 cm. Inv. No. GE-683. Hermitage Museum. Received from the collection of Catherine II. . In the "Portrait of a Woman" for some time they wanted to see the image of Princess Sibylla of Cleves, the bride of Johann Friedrich of Saxony. Known for her beauty, she shone at the court of the Saxon elector Frederick the Wise. But most likely, the portrait does not depict a specific person, but embodies Cranach's idea of ​​\u200b\u200bideal female beauty. A similar type of young lady is often found in the work of Cranach starting from the second decade of the 16th century: an oval face, tapering to the chin, slightly slanted narrow eyes, and a small mouth.

In the next two decades, the activities of Cranach and his workshop became even more active and diverse. Up to 10-12 apprentices and 3-4 apprentices worked in the workshop, the painter and his assistants could hardly cope with the orders. Having gained the experience of a courtier, the artist established good business relationship with successive electors and their aristocratic entourage, as well as with humanists from among the professors of the University of Wittenberg. In addition, he was a member of the inner circle of the main ideologues of Protestantism, Martin Luther and Philip Melanchthon, and even had family ties with them.

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Lucas Cranach the Elder. Portrait of Cardinal Albrecht of Brandenburg. 1526. Oil on canvas, tempera (translated from wood in 1842). 40x24.5 cm. Inv. No. GE-686. Hermitage Museum. Received from the collection of Catherine II. . Cardinal Albrecht of Brandenburg (1490-1545) - elector, archbishop of Mainz and Magdeburg, famous political figure era of the Reformation, primate (head) of the Catholic Church in Germany, philanthropist.

At the same time, Cranach managed to enjoy the favor and fulfill the orders of their common sworn enemy - the Catholic Cardinal Albrecht of Brandenburg - and the Saxon electors from the Albertine dynasty, also zealous Catholics. But especially close long-term relations connected the master with his last patron, Elector Johann Friedrich the Magnanimous.

Once in his youth, he was a mentor to the young prince, then, as a devoted servant, he was constantly with the elector for two decades. Cranach not only accompanied Johann Friedrich on various trips, but also remained faithful to him, deprived of his electorship after the battle of Mühlberg lost to Emperor Charles V in 1547.

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1509. Lucas Cranach the Elder. Adam and Eve (Paradise). Woodcut. Sheet at the exhibition: State Museum of Fine Arts. A.S. Pushkin. Inv. No. G-91943. Here: sheet from the Metropolitan Museum of Art / Adam and Eve in Paradise. Lucas Cranach the Elder (German, Kronach 1472-1553 Weimar). 1509. Woodblock. Sheet: 33.9 × 24.3 cm. Image: 33.5 × 23.9 cm. Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Two years later, the widowed by that time artist voluntarily went to the former patron who was in exile in imperial cities Augsburg (where he met Titian) and Innsbruck. In 1552, the emperor pardoned Johann Friedrich, but noticeably curtailed his rights, leaving him only the title of ruler of Thuringia, with the court moving to Weimar.

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Left: Lucas Cranach the Elder. Adam and Eve. Fall. 1527. Wood (beech), tempera, oil. 86.5x57 cm. Inv. No. 916. Trophy from Gotha. Since 1946 - the State Museum of Fine Arts. A.S. Pushkin / "Adam und Eva" von Lucas Cranach d. Ä. befinden sich offenbar in Moscow. Scan from catalog. In the permanent exhibition under glass, the picture looked like this or that. If I manage to get a good photo, when the work returns to the permanent exhibition, I will replace it. // On right: Adam and Eve. Around 1600 or later. A copy of the painting by Lucas Cranach the Elder from the Moscow Pushkin Museum. Museums of the Weimar Classical Heritage Foundation, Weimar / Adam und Eva (Sündenfall). Um 1600 or spater. Kopie nach Lucas Cranach der Altere. Klassik Stiftung Weimar, Museen.

Being already a deep old man, Lucas Cranach the Elder also moved to the city of Weimar. He settled in a house on the marketplace owned by Christian Bruck Pontanus, a respected jurist who served as chancellor of Saxony, who, as early as 1543, married the artist's daughter Barbara Cranach. At the age of approximately 81 years, the illustrious master died here on October 16, 1553 and was buried in the Weimar cemetery of St. James / Jacobsfriedhof.

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Lucas Cranach the Elder. The fruits of jealousy (Silver Age). 1530. Wood (oak), tempera, oil. 56.5 x 38.5 cm. Inv. No. Zh-603. Earlier - in the collection of D.I. Schukin in Moscow mid-nineteenth V. - in the collection of Christian Schuhardt. Pushkin Museum im. A.S. Pushkin. . The painting “The Fruits of Jealousy” was probably inspired by the plot of the ancient Greek poet Hesiod, who told about the golden, silver and iron ages in the life of mankind. People silver age, according to Hesiod, fall into madness, attack each other and quickly perish. Antique plot in this case, it gave Cranach a reason to express a moral maxim about the dangers of human strife, and also to turn to the topic of a naked body.

Biography of Lucas Cranach the Elder

1472 . Born in Kronach, Franconia in the family of an artist
Around 1502-1503. Worked in Vienna
1505 . Appointed court painter to Frederick III the Wise, Elector of Saxony in Wittenberg
1508 . He received a family coat of arms from Elector Frederick III the Wise: a winged snake with a ruby ​​ring in its mouth. Visited the court of the ruler of the Netherlands Margaret of Austria in Mechelen
1512 . Acquired two adjoining houses on the market square in Wittenberg
Around 1512/13. He married Barbara Brengbier. Birth of son Hans
October 4, 1515. Birth of son Lucas the Younger
1519-1544/45 . Acted as city councilor (intermittently) in Wittenberg
1523 . King Christian II of Denmark lived in the artist's house during a visit to Wittenberg
1523-1525/26 . Owned a printing house with Christian Dering
1525 . He was a witness at the marriage ceremony of Martin Luther and Katharina von Bora. He worked at the court of the new elector of Saxony, Johann the Hard
1532 . He worked at the court of the new elector of Saxony, Johann Friedrich the Magnanimous
1537/38-1543/44 . Served as Mayor of Wittenberg (intermittently)
1547-1550 . Temporarily lost his position as court painter
1550-1552 . Accompanied Elector Johann Friedrich the Magnanimous in his imprisonment in Augsburg and Innsbruck
1552-1553 . Worked in Weimar
October 16, 1553. Died in Weimar

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1540s. Lucas Cranach the Younger. Judgment of Paris. Friedenstein Castle Foundation, Gotha. Inv. No. 672. Wood (linden), oil. 121.5 x 82.5 / Lucas Cranach the Younger. The Judgment of Paris. About 1540-1546. Dimensions of support: 121.5 x 82.5 cm. Dimensions including frame: 143.5 x 106 cm. Lime wood (Tilia sp.). Beechwood. Stiftung Schloss Friedenstein, Gotha. .

Lucas Cranach the Elder had five children. Both sons, Hans and Lucas the Younger, as well as the grandson Augustine Cranach, became outstanding artists who took an active part in the activities of the family workshop on different stages her existence.

Hans Cranach(c.1513-1537)

Apparently, big hopes initially assigned to the eldest son - Hans Cranach (c. 1513-1537), who around 1529 began to actively help his father.

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Lucas Cranach the Elder and workshop (Hans Cranach?). Christ and the sinner. 1532. Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest / Lucas Cranach the Elder. Christ and the Adultess. 1532. Oil on Lindenwood. 82.5 x 121 cm. Inventory Number: 146. Szépművészeti Múzeum, Budapest. . Above the ideogram is the author's inscription, translation: Who among you is without sin, first throw a stone at her

ABOUT recent years short life Very little is known of Hans Cranach, and this is mainly information from the posthumous poetic biography of the contemporary artist Jacob Stiegel In immaturen obitum Joannis Lucae F. Cranachii. In addition to working in his father's workshop, Hans Cranach showed an interest in law and in 1534 attended the university in Leipzig. In 1537, as was customary in that era, he went on a journey as an apprentice, managed to get to Northern Italy, as evidenced by the surviving album of travel sketches. There he continued to study law at the famous University of Bologna, but on October 9 of the same year he died suddenly.

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Dragon with folded wings and a ring in its mouth - an ideogram of the Cranach workshop after 1537

Undoubtedly, parents, sisters and younger brother The death of Hans was sincerely and fervently mourned, and it is quite likely that this sad event was the reason for the partial change of the trademark of the workshop, in which, after 1537, the wings of the dragon were always depicted folded.

Biography of Hans Cranach

Around 1513. Born in Wittenberg, eldest son of Lucas Cranach the Elder and Barbara Brengbier
Around 1527/29. Started training in his father's workshop with his brother Lucas the Younger
1534 . Made a portrait of a bearded man (Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, Madrid; dated 1534 and signed with the initials “HC”)
1537 . Executed the painting "Hercules at the court of Queen Omphala" (Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, Madrid; dated 1537 and signed with an ideogram with a winged serpent between the initials "HC"). Went on a student trip to Italy
October 9, 1537. Died suddenly in Bologna

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Around 1509-1510. Lucas Cranach the Elder. Madonna and Child with a bunch of grapes. Wood (beech, parquet board), tempera, oil. 71.5 x 44.2 cm. Inv. No. 114 (1936-1). Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, Madrid / Lucas Cranach, el Viejo. La Virgen y el Niño con un racimo de uvas, c. 1509-1510. Oleo sobre tabla. 71.5 x 44.2 cm. Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid.

Lucas Cranach the Younger (1515-1586)

The descending wings of the dragon coincided with the beginning of the gradual departure of Lucas Cranach from the creative leadership of the art workshop and the transfer of this function to his youngest son, Lucas the Younger (1515-1586). Prior to this, from the late 1520s, he had already worked in the family workshop in Wittenberg, as a rule, performing images of clothes or accessories, in addition, he was engaged in the creation of numerous repetitions of his father's works.

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Around 1520. Madonna and Child (Madonna in the Vineyard). Lucas Cranach the Elder. Wood, oil. 58x46 cm. Inv. No. Zh-2630. In the Pushkin Museum since 1930 from the Hermitage. Earlier - from 1825 Hermitage. The picture is significantly cropped on the right side and, to a lesser extent, at the bottom. In the Pushkin Museum since 1930 from the Hermitage. Previously, since 1825, she was in the Hermitage. State Museum of Fine Arts. A.S. Pushkin.

After the death of Lucas Cranach the Elder in 1553, Lucas the Younger officially headed the famous workshop. Like his father, he took an active part in the public life of Wittenberg, during the years 1549-1567 he was a member of the city council, and in 1566-1567 he was elected burgomaster. In January 1553, fleeing the plague, the epidemic of which raged in Wittenberg, Cranach the Younger moved with his family to Weimar for several years.

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Around 1530s. Lucas Cranach the Elder. Madonna and Child under an apple tree. Oil on canvas (translated from wood in 1868). 87x59 cm. Inv. No. ГЭ-684 Hermitage. . The Christ Child holds in his hands an apple - a symbol of the fall into sin and bread as a symbol of the redemption of original sin at the cost of his flesh. The Mother of God appears here as the second Eve, who atoned for the sin of the progenitor of the human race. Original (7331 x 9595) with color layout

At the same time, unlike his father, who devotedly served the elector Johann Friedrich the Magnanimous all his life, Lucas the Younger, without breaking off relations with the latter, established strong business ties with Duke Moritz of Saxony, who became the new elector shortly after the victory of Charles V at the Battle of Mühlberg.

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1537. Lucas Cranach the Younger. Madonna and Child with a bunch of grapes. Wood (beech), tempera, oil. Collection of Konstantin Mauergauz, Moscow / Lucas Cranach the Younger (1515-1586). Virgin and Child with a Bunch of Grapes. After 1537. Oil on beech wood. 77.7 × 57.1 cm. Sotheby's London, 04 December 2013, lot 25. via

Biography of Lucas Cranach the Younger

October 4, 1515. Born in Wittenberg younger son Lucas Cranach the Elder and Barbara Brengbier
Around 1527/29. Began training in his father's workshop with his brother Hans
1541 . Death of mother Barbara Brengbier. He married Barbara Bruck, daughter of the Elector's adviser Dr. Gregor Bruck. The marriage produced four children
1549-1567 . Member of the city council in Wittenberg
1550 . Death of Wife Barbara
1551 . Married Magdalena Schurf, daughter of professor of medicine Augustin Schurf. The marriage produced five children
1554 . Birth of son Augustine Cranach. Acted as Treasurer in Wittenberg
1565/67 . Served as burgomaster of Wittenberg
1568 . Entered the University of Wittenberg
January 25, 1586. Died in Wittenberg

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Fragment. Lucas Cranach the Younger. Judgment of Paris. 1540s. Friedenstein Castle Foundation, Gotha

Junior Cranachs

In 1554, in Weimar, Lucas Cranach the Younger had a son, Augustine (d. 1595), a representative of the third generation of the illustrious dynasty. Like Uncle Hans, he attended classes at the University of Wittenberg in 1564. Also, following an established family tradition, for a number of years he worked in his father's workshop, which he headed after his death in 1586. In 1577, Augustine Cranach married Maria Zelfisch, daughter of the Wittenberg bookseller and at one time burgomaster Samuel Zelfisch. In 1584 and 1587 he was elected a member of the city council of Wittenberg, in 1593 he served as city judge. His eldest son, Lucas III Cranach (1586-1645), who headed the legendary family workshop in 1595, became its last leader. He transferred the creative traditions of his father, grandfather and outstanding great-grandfather to the fine arts of Germany in the next, 17th century. Unfortunately, we are currently unaware of the reliable works of Lucas III Cranach.

The descendant of Lucas Cranach the Elder in the eighth generation in the female line was the great German poet and playwright Johann Wolfgang von Goethe / Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Goethe knew about the relationship - and was proud of him.

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Fragment. Lucas Cranach the Elder. Mystical betrothal of Saint Catherine of Alexandria, with Saints Dorothea, Margaret and Barbara. Around 1517-1518. Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest

Continuation of the quote, which was at the very beginning, from Max Friedländer's 1932 work on the Elder Cranach after 1505:

“When there is an opportunity to survey all artistic heritage this master, there is a feeling of a certain skepticism about the unfortunate lack of a flash of inspiration. Faced with the harsh realities of life, Cranach was unable to fully implement romantic dreams of his youth. His works of the Wittenberg period are mentally reminiscent of a radiantly smooth chestnut nut, which was extracted from a prickly green shell. The expressive symphony of the life of natural forces gives way to precise alignment, precision of details and rational thoughtfulness of compositional construction...

After 1505, Cranach's manner underwent profound changes, so to speak, changed the stylistic phase. What was originally a rich and passionate flow of the author's thoughts and feelings began to harden like ice. At the same time, an integral part of this evolution was the active involvement of the head of the workshop of his numerous assistants and students in the process of creating paintings... He (Cranach) is completely independent of Dürer and appears much more freed from the shackles of traditional conventions than Altdorfer or even Grunewald.

. Max Friedländer is an outstanding connoisseur of old German and Dutch painting, author of a fundamentally new fundamental scientific catalog of Cranach's paintings, compiled jointly with Jacob Rosenberg and published in 1932.

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A fragment of the didactic work of Lucas Cranach the Elder. Unequal couple (old woman and young man). Early 1520s. Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest

Although the exhibition in Moscow has ended, but there will be a continuation.

Source for text basic:

Edition for the exhibition, catalogue: Cranachs. Between the Renaissance and Mannerism - M: Art Volkhonka, 2016. ISBN 978-5-9907400-0-6 (the text from the catalog was shortened, edited, supplemented)// Article by Vadim Sadkov "Artists of the Cranach family between the Renaissance and Mannerism. Features of creative evolution" and other catalog materials.

Sadkov Vadim Anatolievich, curator of the exhibition “Cranachs. Between the Renaissance and Mannerism”, Doctor of Arts, Professor, Laureate of the Prize of the Government of the Russian Federation, Head of the Department of Old Masters of the Pushkin Museum im. A.S. Pushkin, author of more than 110 scientific works and directories.

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Lucas Cranach the Elder (German Lucas Cranach der Ältere, Kronach, Upper Franconia, October 4, 1472 - Weimar, October 16, 1553) - German painter and graphic artist of the Renaissance, a master of pictorial and graphic portraits, genre and biblical compositions, who synthesized Gothic in his work traditions with the artistic principles of the Renaissance. One of the founders of the Danube School of Painting; developed a refined style with a harmonious combination of figures and landscape. Court painter of the Saxon Electors of Wittenberg Friedrich the Wise (1505-1525), Johann the Hard and Johann Friedrich the Magnanimous, head of a large workshop, supporter of the ideas of the Reformation and friend of Luther. Father of painters Hans Cranach and Lucas Cranach the Younger.

Lucas Cranach was born in Kronach, Upper Franconia. The date of his birth and the name of his father, who worked as an artist in Kronach, cannot be established by researchers. From birth, Cranach bore the surname Zunder (other pronunciations are Zunder, Zonder), later he began to be called Lucas and took the name of his native town as his surname, which then sounded like Cranach. Presumably fine arts Cranach initially studied with his father.

WITH early youth he wandered around Germany in search of a vocation. In 1493, the young man went to the Holy Land - Palestine. In 1501 the artist arrived in Vienna, where he stayed until 1504. It is to the Vienna period that his first known paintings, signed "Lucas Cranach", belong. Then he entered the service of the Elector of Saxony Frederick the Wise. In 1508, Cranach was granted a nobility and in the same year visited the Netherlands. He headed an art workshop, which had more than ten assistants, published books, combining these activities with the book trade. Gradually, the artist became the richest burgher of Wittenberg, was repeatedly elected mayor of the city.

Lucas Cranach was a supporter of the Reformation. He illustrated Protestant pamphlets, repeatedly painted portraits of his friend Martin Luther, and financed the publication of the Bible, translated by the latter into German.

The early works of the artist amaze with the innovation of the idea, with the help of which he expresses the inconsistency of his era. Becoming a court painter, he achieved great skill in the portrait genre, capturing a considerable number of his famous contemporaries. Working on portraits, Cranach treated the models with sympathy, but without admiration; he did not idealize his customers, although he did not particularly seek to penetrate their inner world.

Lucas Cranach the Elder died on October 16, 1553 in Weimar. The dynasty he founded lasted until the 17th century.

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Lucas Cranach Elder (1472-1553), German Renaissance painter and graphic artist. He studied with his father. He worked in Austria (about 1500-1504), in Wittenberg at the court of the Elector of Saxony Frederick the Wise and his successors (1505-1550), in Augsburg (1550-1552) and Weimar (1552-1553).
Already in the first works, the artist showed himself to be a daring innovator. In compositions, he avoided the traditions of iconography, using more bright colors and expressive landscapes. An example of this style was "Rest on the Flight into Egypt" (1504) - a painting shining with color with jeweled characters.
When Cranach moved to Wittenberg, the talented painter was noticed by the ruling Elector of Saxony Frederick the Wise and brought closer to his court. As a true Renaissance man, Cranach the Elder was a generalist. In addition to painting, he was engaged in jewelry, church utensils, developed clothing styles, sketches for tapestries and fabrics, painted walls and decorated holidays.
In 1508, Cranach the Elder went to the Netherlands for a year, where he met Hieronymus Bosch, the most mystical artist of that time, and joined the Garden Brothers sect. The adherents of the sect dreamed of the return of the legendary Golden Age and professed complete freedom in love. Impressed by their ideas, in 1509 the artist announced the heyday of the Northern Renaissance, for the first time in german art portraying a naked woman. True, while it was the goddess Venus. So, with his light hand, pre-Christian art appeared in German painting. mythological themes and naked bodies.
In the 1510s, Cranach the Elder painted many cutesy portraits of the nobility and hunting scenes, becoming a legislator of mannerism. The heroes of his mythological scenes acquire a portrait resemblance to noble people who willingly pose for him, taking part in these picturesque productions. Characteristic for this period of creativity and exquisite cabinet pictures on religious themes, for example, "The Nativity of Christ."
Portraits of women by Cranach the Elder are hard to miss. His female images- fragile princesses with slanting cat eyes and sweet half-smiles.
In the 1520s, Cranach the Elder is one of the richest and most respected people in Wittenberg and therefore can afford some liberties. For example, to accept and even paint portraits of the scandalous religious reformer Martin Luther. These portraits are distributed among the people in thousands of engraved prints. In addition, Cranach illustrates and publishes Luther's "September Gospel" that thundered throughout Germany at his own expense.

Lucas Cranach the Younger "Portrait of a father" 1550

"Venus and Cupid" 1509, Hermitage, St. Petersburg

"Madonna and Child under an Apple Tree" 1526, State Hermitage Museum

"The mystical betrothal of Saint Catherine to Saints Dorothea, Margaret and Barbara"

"Christ and the Mother of God"

"Princess Sibylla of Cleves" 1526, State Art Collection, Weimar

"Christ and the Sinner"

"Prince of Saxony" 1517, National Gallery of Art, Washington

"Adam and Eve" 1526, Courtauld Institute Gallery, London

"Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden"

"Adam and Eve"

"Christmas"

"Nursing Madonna"

"Melancholy" 1532

"Madonna and Child with St. Anne"

"Misalliance" 1532, National Museum, Stockholm

Throughout his life, Lucas Cranach the Elder remained a remarkable master of an acutely psychological, monumental portrait (“Doctor Johann Cuspinian”, 1502-1503, Oskar Reinhart Collection, Winterthur; “Johannes Schener”, 1529, Museum of Ancient Art, Brussels). Of the paintings by Cranach on religious themes, the most noteworthy are: “The Mother of God” (St. Jacob's Cathedral, Innsbruck); "The Crucifixion of Christ" (Old Pinakothek, Munich); “Repentance of St. Jerome” (Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna); “Madonna and Child under an Apple Tree” (Hermitage, St. Petersburg) and “Madonna in the Vineyard” (The Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow), several images of Adam and Eve under the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (in Berlin, Dresden, Florence and other places), the history of Judith (in Vienna, Dresden, Stuttgart, etc.), “The Harlot before Christ” (in Munich, Kassel, Nuremberg and Budapest) and others. Some of Cranach's compositions are of cultural and historical significance, as they are performed in the spirit of the Reformation and Protestantism.

"Repentance of St. Jerome" 1503

"Resting nymph" 1530-1535

"Judgement of Paris" 1512-1514

"Portrait of a young man" 1521

"Portrait of a Woman" 1526

"Hercules and Antaeus"

"Hercules at Omphala" 1537

"Young woman" 1530

"Venus and Cupid"

"Offended Cupid and Venus" 1530

"Apollo and Diana" 1530

"Crucifixion with Centurion" 1536

Paintings by Lucas Cranach with mythological themes “Venus with Cupid”, “Apollo and Diana”, “Cupid and the bees”, “Hercules with a spinning wheel” and others, created by himself, or came out of his workshop, are then repeated in many copies by the students of the artist’s workshop. Portraits by Cranach, large and small, were distributed in many collections and art collections in Europe. Such as, for example, portraits of the Electors, Luther, his wife, Cardinal Albrecht of Brandenburg and Elector Sibylla of Saxony. German painter Lucas Cranach the Elder also painted princely hunting scenes and genre paintings. Cranach's very few engravings on copper (for example, portraits of electors, Martin Luther and St. John the Evangelist) testify to the artist's lack of inclination for works of this kind. On the other hand, numerous woodcuts made in his workshop enjoyed wide success with the German nobility and burghers. After the death of Frederick the Wise, the artist remained at the court of Johann the Hard, who replaced his brother on the throne. Lucas Cranach became the mentor of his son, Prince Johann Friedrich, later the future Elector of Saxony the Magnanimous. In 1550, Elector Johann Friedrich, who had fallen out of favor with Emperor Charles V, was taken prisoner and then sent into exile. Loyal to his pupil to the end, Lucas Cranach went to Augsburg in 1550 to the Elector Johann Friedrich, who was held captive there, and two years later, together with the latter, moved to Weimar, where he died on October 16, 1553. The artist Lucas Cranach died the last of the representatives of the great generation of masters of the German northern Renaissance, having outlived Hans Baldung and Hans Holbein the Younger by 10 years and Albrecht Dürer and Matthias Grunewald by 25. The work of Lucas Cranach at one time had a great influence on painting schools central and northern Germany.

"Doctor Johann Cuspinian" 1503

"Portrait of Anna Kuspinian" 1503

"Johann Friedrich the Magnanimous, Elector of Saxony"

"Catherine Bora"

"Martin Luther"

"Portrait of Gerhart Volk"

"Portrait of a girl" (possibly Emilia of Saxony)

George the Bearded, Duke of Saxony

"Christ and the Samaritan Woman at the Spring"

"Allegory of melancholy" 1528

"Lot with Daughters"

"Johann the Hard, Elector of Saxony"

"Portrait of George Spalatin" 1509

"Judith with the Head of Holofernes"

"Prayer for the Chalice"

Lucas Cranach the Elder is a German Renaissance painter, a prominent representative of the Northern Renaissance, and also the founder of the Danube School of Painting.

As far as we remember, in the late Renaissance, especially among those representatives who were as far as possible from the warm shores of Italy, artistic images, due to some ethno-psychological circumstances, were gloomy, asymmetrical and very different from the luxurious muscular bodies represented in the Mediterranean painting of that period.

Cranach the Elder became known for his, one might say, special style, it is only his features that he brings to all his portrait works that distinguish his work from the rest. Each face depicted by Cranach looks menacingly like the next, and a mixture of realism and some kind of caricature brings something mystically alarming, so in general, it is quite difficult to call them attractive, but fascinating - you can. Northern Renaissance, as a very large-scale cultural phenomenon, main feature, had just this amazing combination of medieval tendencies of spiritual detachment of images with realistic innovations of the Renaissance. Anticipating the Baroque, artists became the founding fathers of caricature as a genre in the visual arts, subtly combining all this with the literary trends of that time. The times of the Renaissance and the beginning of the Baroque are considered very difficult for the history of Europe, as, in fact, any milestone period. Again, religion triumphed, the common people raged, and the artists caught, forgive me, all the pleasure from this and found new figurative ways out.

Cranach uses some techniques of building light and shadow, which later become the main feature of painting in the Baroque. Contrasting color solutions, deliberate underlining central figure, whitened light bodies, on a darkened background, such, even more realistic, techniques will be used, a little later, in another location - Caravaggio. However, as we can see, there are anticipatory discoveries, just the same, in the works of the northern painter, they are especially noticeable in nude portraits.

By the way, Lucas Cranach, at one time, was very fond of the work of Albrecht Dürer, but Cranach's contemporaries accused him of imitating and, so to speak, "not reaching" the level of an idol. But to judge? Us? Lucas Cranach? Thank you, taking such a sin on your soul is fraught with falling into the special circles of Hell, for self-satisfied hypocrites. In general, it is very difficult for us not to overestimate the role of this person in the history of painting. He founded one of the most prominent schools, continued with dignity the best traditions of the Northern Renaissance and became one of the most prominent representatives of his era.

"Altar Triptych of the Feilitsch Family"

"Melancholy"

"Lucretia"

"Ten Commandments"

"Feast of Herod"

"Adam and Eve"

Saxon princesses Sibylla, Emilia and Sidonia

"Venus and Cupid"

"Albrecht of Brandenburg as St. Jerome in a cell"

"Fountain of youth"

"Diana and Actaeon"

RENAISSANCE PORTRAIT PAINTING

German painter Lucas Cranach the Elder (1472-1553)

Part 1

Princess Sibylla of Cleves

Portrait of a Saxon prince

Portrait of a Saxon princess

Johann Friedrich the Magnanimous

Portrait of Magdalene Luther

Portrait of George Spalatin

Portrait of a girl

Elector Johann Friedrich of Saxony

Girl with grapes and apple

Duke Johann II of Anhalt

Female portrait

Joachim I Nestor, Elector of Brandenburg

Portrait of Christina Elenau

male portrait

Portrait of a girl, possibly Emilia of Saxony

Portrait of a man in a red doublet

Magdalena of Saxony, wife of Joachim II of Brandenburg

Portrait of Moritz Buechner

Female portrait

Joachim II, Elector of Brandenburg

Cranach Lucas the Elder - Biography

Lucas Cranach the Elder(German Lucas Cranach der Altere, Kronach, Upper Franconia, October 4, 1472 - Weimar, October 16, 1553) - German painter and graphic artist of the Renaissance, a master of pictorial and graphic portraits, genre and biblical compositions, who synthesized Gothic traditions with the artistic principles of the Renaissance in his work. One of the founders of the "Danubian school"; developed a refined style with a harmonious combination of figures and landscape. Court painter of the Saxon elector Frederick the Wise in Wittenberg (1505-1550), head of a large workshop, supporter of the ideas of the Reformation and friend of Luther.

Lucas Cranach was born in Kronach, Upper Franconia. The date of his birth and the name of his father, who worked as an artist in Kronach, cannot be established by researchers. From birth, Cranach bore the surname Zunder (other pronunciations are Zunder, Zonder), later he began to be called Lucas and took the name of his native town as his surname, which then sounded like Cranach. Presumably, Cranach initially studied fine arts with his father.

From early youth, he wandered around Germany in search of a vocation. In 1493, the young man went to the Holy Land - Palestine. In 1501, the artist arrived in Vienna, where he stayed until 1504. It was during the Vienna period that his first known paintings, signed "Lucas Cranach", belong. Then he entered the service of the Elector of Saxony Frederick the Wise. In 1508, Cranach was granted a nobility and in the same year he visited the Netherlands. He headed an art workshop, which had more than ten assistants, published books, combining these activities with the book trade. Gradually, the artist became the richest burgher of Wittenberg, was repeatedly elected mayor of the city.

Lucas Cranach was a supporter of the Reformation. He illustrated Protestant pamphlets, repeatedly painted portraits of his friend M. Luther and financed the publication of the Bible, translated by the latter into German.

The early works of the artist amaze with the innovation of the idea, with the help of which he expresses the inconsistency of his era. Becoming a court painter, he achieved great skill in the portrait genre, capturing a considerable number of his famous contemporaries. Working on portraits, Cranach treated the models with sympathy, but without admiration; he did not idealize his customers, although he did not particularly seek to penetrate their inner world.

Lucas Cranach the Elder died on October 16, 1553 in Weimar. The dynasty he founded lasted until the 17th century.