As the son of an artist, Lucas has lived in Wittenberg since 1504. Cranach's biography is known as the story of an artist at court serving three successive elected Saxons. Cranach headed the workshop, was twice elected burgomaster. In addition, Lucas was a close friend of Martin Luther, whose doctrine he supported in his many drawings and woodcuts.
Soon Cranach was called the artist of the Reformation. He was a fast, prolific artist. Naive, whimsical, often clumsy in his engravings, he, however, had a fresh, original style, warm, rich palette. Cranach's portraits are extremely successful.
Among the most famous works artist: "Repose in Egypt" ( state museum Berlin), "Judgment of Paris" (Karlsruhe exhibition hall), "Adam and Eve" (Kurtold Gallery, London), "Crucifixion" (Weimar). Among famous portraits in the biography of Lucas Cranach - John Frederick, self-portrait (Uffizi). Also, the artist was a perfect master of miniatures. He made several engraving boards, designs for woodcuts.
Lucas' son and pupil, Lucas Cranach the younger (1515–86), continued his father's tradition by adopting his workshop, signature, and also popularity. Their work is often indistinguishable.
Biography score
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
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, master of painting and graphic portraits, genre and biblical compositions, who synthesized in his work Gothic traditions with artistic principles Renaissance. 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 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 was during the Vienna period that his first famous paintings signed "Lucas Cranach". 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.
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, talented painter the ruling Elector of Saxony Friedrich the Wise noticed and brought him closer to his court. How real man Renaissance Cranach the Elder was a generalist. In addition to painting, he was jewelry, church utensils, developed styles of clothing, sketches of 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 Northern Renaissance, for the first time in german art portraying a naked woman. True, while it was the goddess Venus. Yes, with his light hand in German painting appeared pre-Christian 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
"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 Arts, 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 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 coming 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. The 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 tutor 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"
Personality Lucas Cranach the Elder does not fit into the concept of a romantic lone hero who is inspired by beautiful ladies, and in free time thinking about pure love. The German Renaissance painter was mainly attracted by the causes of the Reformation, the ideas of Protestantism, and thoughts about a high and bright feeling were replaced by thoughts about art.
Lucas's love for creativity was in his genes, the young painter continued the dynasty of artists that his grandfather, and then his father, Hans Mayer, began. He also became the first mentor of his son, who decided to follow the beaten path to art.
Coming out from under the warm father's wing, Lucas went on a journey through Germany, traditional for novice painters. And if you carefully study the works of Cranach the Elder, you can draw up an original "map" of his creative route. So, we know that the painter began his "marathon" in Bavaria, where, under the influence of local masters, he painted his first works. From there, Lucas moved to Austria, and a little later ended up in Vienna, whose mountain landscapes, lakes and valleys remained forever imprinted on the artist's canvases.
In these picturesque regions, he lingered for five years and during this time he wrote many works that became popular almost immediately, as soon as they left the author's brush. Of course, during the years of the creation of the paintings "Crucifixion", "Stigmatization of St. Francis" and "Repentance of St. Jerome" there was no question of an ideal perspective construction. Moreover, the compositions were overloaded with details, and the drawing looked as if it consisted of curly, chaotic lines. But the master did win-win bet on the image of nature, believing that its uniqueness lies in the secrets of the universe hidden in it.
On early stages creative development Cranach the Elder showed himself to be a bold innovator: his canvases showed a daring plausibility of images, asymmetric composition and expressive color solutions. It is no coincidence that the paintings of the Vienna period led Cranach's contemporaries to the idea that in European art a new painter has appeared who knows how to feel the landscape keenly.
At the same time, in more later works The “palm” is given to the fabulously idyllic manner of depiction and the poetic perception of nature. In a word, objective reality gradually gave way to a romantic vision of the world. Later, similar principles formed the basis of the Danubian school of painting, in the spirit of which the painting “Rest on the Flight into Egypt” was painted in 1504. This canvas received the fame of "jewelry drawing" and became good example for those who have just mastered new directions of the landscape.
By this time, the artist was mastered by the ideas of humanism. The reason was communication with scientists, mathematicians, physicians and historians, with whom Cranach spoke in Vienna, one of the centers humanistic culture where science flourished. The ideals of the progressive direction were realized in the paintings "Venus and Cupid" and "The Martyrdom of St. Catherine."
"Venus and Cupid" was written at a time when the painter was keenly aware of the rapid changes in fashion and tastes of his era. In 1509, while working on Venus and Cupid, Cranach the Elder deliberately abandoned all colors except yellow and gold, so the figures of the goddess and her son look like cast statues. The painting "Venus and Cupid" became experimental for Cranach, because before that the artist had never depicted naked bodies in full size. Having finished the work, the painter, as a warning to posterity, left a philosophical message that reads:
“With all your might drive away Cupid’s voluptuousness. Otherwise, Venus will take possession of your blinded soul.
If, while working on Venus, Cranach had to fairly “blush”, depicting naked figures, then when writing portraits, the modest artist took his soul and painted in detail the magnificent outfits of his sitters. The most famous portrait painting of the painter was dedicated to the Saxon Duke Henry the Pious and his wife Katherine of Mecklenburg. In his younger years, Heinrich collected cannons, and Cranach the Elder wiped them and cleaned them with his own hands. The picture was conceived as a ceremonial wedding image, so the spouses appear before the viewer in luxurious clothes against a black background, and next to them are their favorite pets, symbolizing fidelity: a huge dog at the feet of the duke and a lap dog near the duchess.
The turning point in the work of Cranach the Elder was the acquaintance with Martin Luther, the author of the famous theses. This friendship led to the fact that the artist switched sides from painting, and took the ideas of Protestantism as the basis for new subjects. In this spirit, three portraits of the church reformer were painted, the most famous of which was "Portrait of Martin Luther in the form of the knight Jorg."
Few people know that he spent some time in the Wartburg fortress, where he changed into secular clothes, grew a beard and began to call himself Jörg. Luther did not want to be caught, so he only told Cranach about his location in a letter, thus inspiring him to create a famous painting.
The artist was famous not only for his skillful work, but also for his conscientiousness. The main requirement that he was presented by customers and he - to himself, were the responsibility and solidity of work. Avoiding carelessness and haste, Cranach tried to find new types and schemes, and then polished the skill to the ideal.
Such a fanatical desire for perfection played with the artist bad joke: Lucas Cranach the Elder developed a virtuoso but stereotypical style of writing, and later the artist's art became monotonous and cutesy. In old age, the painter worked little, but his workshop continued to exist.
From now on, other representatives of the dynasty worked there - the brothers Hans and Lucas Cranach the Younger.
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, 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 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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