Lucas Cranach the Elder (1472, Kronach, Upper Franconia - 1553, Weimar) returned to the Pushkin Museum after an exhibition voyage.
Lucas Cranach the Elder. Adam and Eve. Fall, fragment. 1527. State Museum of Fine Arts. A.S. Pushkin / The Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow. Photo by
Cranach was a friend and supporter of Luther in the struggle for the Reformation. For that era, the biblical story about the fall of Adam and Eve was associated with the most acute religious problem of man's moral responsibility for his actions and sins. Cranach represents the biblical paradise as a dense forest in Germany. Graceful, somewhat mannered light figures, characteristic of his art, stand out beautifully against the background of dark foliage.
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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. Previously, in the collection of D.I. Shchukin in Moscow, in the middle of the 19th century. - in the collection of Christian Schuhardt. Pushkin Museum im. A.S. Pushkin / Lucas Cranach the Elder. The Effects of Jealousy (The Silver Age). . Option: photograph of the painting, 10/14/2016
Cranach's acquaintance with the humanistic culture of his time paved the way for ancient and mythological themes in his art, and his friendship with Luther aroused an interest in didactics.
The plot of the painting "The Fruits of Jealousy", created between 1527 and 1535, was probably inspired by the work of the ancient Greek poet Hesiod (between 750 and 650 BC) "Works and Days", popular among the humanistically educated people of the Renaissance: for a happy The “golden” age in the history of mankind was followed by the “silver” age, when strife and wars began to arise between people, people of the silver age fell into madness, attacked each other and quickly perished.
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Fragment. Lucas Cranach the Elder. The fruits of jealousy (Silver Age). 1530. Pushkin Museum. Photo by
Obviously, the plot was prompted to the artist by his humanistically educated friends associated with the University of Wittenberg, who were interested in the moral and ethical problems of the "childhood of mankind", its primordial sinlessness. A righteous life and charitable deeds, as humanists believed, are capable, after death on earth, of returning the soul of a person to the Paradise lost by the Ancestors. It is possible that the plot is also connected with the ideas about the legendary “prehistory” of Germany, in particular, Saxony and Thuringia, that were common at that time, described in the writings of Roman authors and medieval chronicles.
The ancient plot in this case 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.
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Madonna and Child (Madonna in the Vineyard). Lucas Cranach the Elder. Around 1520. Oil on wood. 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. Photo by . Image variant on the museum's website. This work is on Google Art Project: zoom, 3038 x 4026 , but it looks darker on Google Art than in real life.
A significant place in the work of Cranach was occupied by the image of the Mother of God. Written in the twenties of the 16th century, the painting “Madonna and Child” arrived damaged: the lower and right parts of the composition, depicting a gazebo entwined with grapes, were lost.
The picture contains common Christian symbols: a vine, a bunch of grapes, a stream of water, a mountain, rocks.
Grapes - a "mystical bunch" in the hand of the Mother of God, which the baby touches, recalls the human incarnation of Christ, who suffered torment and died on the cross in the name of atonement for Original Sin. The vine stands for the "true church of Christ", which is personified by the Mother of God. On the left side is a mountainous landscape typical of the region of South-East Germany. The waterfall spring hints at the life-giving power of the Christian faith, which quenches the spiritual thirst of the righteous. Separate elements of the landscape also contain a very specific symbolic context: the mountain is a spiritual elevation above the worldly bustle; the rock on the left in the background - the unshakable firmness and inviolability of the true faith, the support of which is Christ.
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Fragment. Lucas Cranach the Elder. Madonna and Child (Madonna in the Vineyard). Around 1520. The Pushkin Museum. Photo by
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Lucas Cranach the Elder. Calvary with the upcoming. 1515. Wood (linden), tempera, oil. 50.5 x 34. Inv. No. 1235. The Pushkin Museum im. A.S. Pushkin. Trophy from Gotha. Photo by . Another option: scan from catalog
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Lucas Cranach the Elder. Portrait of a red-haired man with sideburns. 1526 / Lucas Cranach the Elder. Portrait of a Man with Whiskers. 1526. Photo by . Unframed View
Cranach was both an author of paintings on biblical themes and an outstanding portrait painter. The name of the person depicted in this portrait has not yet been established; it is only clear that a high-ranking person served as a model. The artist skillfully uses a magnificent costume to create a decorative artistic whole.
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Fragment: Cranach's dragon. Lucas Cranach the Elder. Portrait of a man with sideburns. 1526. The Pushkin Museum. Photo by
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Lucas Cranach the Elder. Female portrait. Around 1526. State Museum of Fine Arts. A.S. Pushkin / Lucas Cranach the Elder. Portrait of a Woman. Photo by
Executed in the same years as the Portrait of a Man with Sideburns (1526), the painting is very different from the nude in terms of artistic solution. If in the male portrait the bright stripes of the suit stand out against the dark foyer, then in the female portrait the expressive sisuette stands out against a light background. Cranach conveys not only the characteristic appearance, but also the spiritual structure of the models - the calm dignity of a man, a hint of ironic detachment in a woman's smile.
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Fragment. Lucas Cranach the Elder. Female portrait. Around 1526. The Pushkin Museum. Photo by
These six paintings by Cranach the Elder are located in the Main Building of the Pushkin Museum in Room 8 on the first floor.
It is a pity that in the permanent exhibition of Pushkinsky there was no place for a picture with the burning of books:
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Lucas Cranach the Elder (?). The burning of forbidden books in front of the ruler (The burning of the books of Arius before Emperor Constantine?). About 1530 (?). Wood, tempera, oil. 41 x 69 cm. Inv. No. 968. Since 1946 - the State Museum of Fine Arts. A.S. Pushkin, Moscow. Trophy from Gotha. In the storerooms of the museum / Lucas Cranach the Elder (?). The Burning of Forbidden Books in Front of a Prince (The Burning of Arians Books before Emperor Constantine ?). Scan from catalog.
"Madonna and Child (Madonna in the Vineyard)", 1520
In 1504, Cranach came to Wittenberg - now a backwater in Germany, and then the residence of the influential and enlightened Saxon elector Frederick the Wise, who offered the artist the position of court painter. A solid annual salary of 100 guilders - twice that of a university professor - suggests that the master not only paints portraits of his patrons, but also works, as they would now say, on the visual solution of the courtyard: he decorates the interiors of the castle, arranges tournaments and weddings, advising tailors on costume design. Soon, for his work, he received a title of nobility - an incredible honor in an era when the artist was considered an artisan, standing on the same class level as a blacksmith or brewer. The title is accompanied by its own coat of arms - winged snake 
with a ruby ring in its mouth, which Cranach now uses as a signature on the works of his workshop. The master will serve Frederick's heirs until his death. When Elector Johann Friedrich the Magnanimous failed in the Schmalkaldic War and was expelled from Wittenberg, the elderly artist followed him and spent his last days in Weimar, where he was buried.
"Venus and Cupid", 1509
Cranach's tombstone in Weimar bears the epitaph "Pictor celerrimus" ("The Fastest Artist"). In the Wittenberg workshop, an army of apprentices worked for him, among whom was his son Lucas - both the grandson and great-grandson of Cranach will become artists (the direct line of his descendants will be interrupted only at the beginning of the 20th century, and one of the side lines will give Germany to Goethe).
Work on the canvases was carried out in a conveyor way - to save time and effort, the details of the composition were transferred from picture to picture using stencils. Dozens of Venuses, Madonnas, Judith - and at least five versions of the "Silver Age" (a plot from Hesiod's poetry about the golden, silver and iron ages of mankind): one, for example, exhibited 
in London's National Gallery.
Cranach's circulation approach, which irritated some art historians (Alexandre Benois wrote: “Individually, each painting is a charm, taken together they give out a“ factory stamp ”), brought a good income. In 1512, the wealthy master bought two houses on the central Market Square - so solid that the King of Denmark stayed in one of them during a diplomatic visit. Nearby, the artist kept a tavern, a printing house and a pharmacy, for which he received a monopoly - the latter was beneficial in order to purchase minerals and pigments without intermediaries for mixing paints and printing engravings. Cranach's business acumen was respected by all the burghers of Wittenberg - he was a member of the city council and was elected burgomaster several times.
"Portrait of a Woman", 1526
Both mythological nudes and dressed up noble ladies in Cranach are adjusted to the ideal of the master's beauty - elongated proportions, slender figures, sly fox faces with slanted eyes and a sharp chin. “In a cape of a fox herself / Cunning than a fox from a hill” - this is Brodsky about Cranach "Madonna under the apple tree" 
from the Hermitage. The type created by the artist anticipated the fashion of the 20th century - Cranach was inspired by Giacometti, Kircher and Picasso (the latter even made homage 
portrait of a woman by Cranach the son).
"The Fall, the Expulsion from Paradise, and the Expiatory Sacrifice of Christ", 1529
Cranach's life at the court of the Saxon Electors fell on a historical time. The ideas of purification of the faith, which were preached by Martin Luther, professor of theology at the University of Wittenberg, led to a great schism in the Christian church. Cranach, as a close friend of Luther (he was best man at his wedding and baptized his children), became the art director of the nascent Reformation. Engravings with portraits of Luther and his associates made by the master dispersed throughout Europe, Luther's Bible was printed in Cranach's printing house (translating Scripture from Latin, Luther created the German literary language) with illustrations by the artist. "The Fall" is another agitation of Lutheranism, illustrating the Protestant thesis about salvation not through the church, but through reading the Bible and God's mercy. However, Cranach liked the money of the Catholics no less than the ideas of the Protestants: he willingly took up portraits of the cardinal Albrecht of Brandenburg 
, viceroy of the pope in Germany and an ideological enemy of Luther.
State Museum of Fine Arts. A.S. Pushkin
Main building
At the exhibition, the viewer will see 48 paintings and more than 50 graphic works from the collections of museums in Gotha, Berlin, Madrid, Prague, Budapest, Moscow, St. Petersburg, Nizhny Novgorod and several Russian private collections. The decoration of the exposition will be the famous works of Lucas Cranach the Elder “The Mystical Marriage of Saint Catherine of Alexandria, with Saints Dorothea, Margaret and Barbara” (second half of the 1510s; Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest), “Venus and Cupid” (1509; Petersburg), “The Fruits of Jealousy. The Silver Age” (1530; Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow), “Judith Beheading Holofernes” (1531; Friedenstein Castle Foundation, Gotha). Engravings and drawings of the father and son of the Cranachs from the collections of the Pushkin Museum im. A.S. Pushkin, the State Hermitage, and the Friedenstein Castle Foundation in Gotha.
Lucas Cranach the Elder (1472–1553) was a reformer of German painting whose innovative ideas regarding composition, color and interpretation of images had a great influence on the art of the Northern Renaissance. In the first third of the 16th century, the creative search of Lucas Cranach the Elder marked the final transition from the ideals of the Renaissance to mannerism. The artist organized a workshop that flourished for more than a hundred years, the leadership of which eventually passed to his son Lucas the Younger, and then to his grandson and great-grandson. He was also the creator of an easily recognizable and memorable world of vivid artistic images. Cranachs should be spoken of as the actual founders of the Saxon school of painting, which flourished throughout the 16th century.
The work "Venus and Cupid" (1509) was created during the period when Cranach the Elder was a court painter to the elector of Saxony, Frederick the Wise. The artist depicted the ancient goddess of beauty and love in full growth, completely naked. After 1530, Cranach and his workshop repeatedly turned to this subject. There are about 35 paintings by Cranach, his students, followers and imitators depicting Venus and Cupid.
The best works of Lucas Cranach the Elder include the painting “The Mystical Marriage of Saint Catherine of Alexandria, with Saints Dorothea, Margaret and Barbara”, executed in the second half of the 1510s. At the turn of the 14th and 15th centuries and up to the middle of the 16th century in the German lands, along with the Mother of God, the cult of the four main intercessor maidens: Saints Catherine of Alexandria, Margaret, Barbara and Dorothea gained wide popularity. In the painting by Lucas Cranach the Elder, the mystical betrothal of St. Catherine takes place against the backdrop of a characteristic South German rocky landscape and a dark curtain held by small angels. In the center of the composition is the Christ Child supported by the Mother of God: with one hand He puts a wedding ring on the finger of St. Catherine, with the other he touches the symbolic bunch of grapes held by the Madonna. The image is complemented by the figures of the holy virgins present at this sacred action in elegant court dresses and with their attributes, forming a complex compositional-rhythmic group: a dragon for Margarita, a basket of flowers for Dorothea and a tower behind Barbara's back.
Painting from the collection of the Pushkin Museum im. A.S. Pushkin's "Madonna and Child (Madonna in the Vineyard)" (circa 1522-1523) is undoubtedly one of the most striking works in the exhibition. Every detail of this work is full of deep allegorical meaning: the grape in the hand of the Mother of God, touched by the Infant, recalls the human incarnation of Christ, who suffered torment and died on the cross in the name of atonement for original sin; the vine means “the true Church of Christ”, which is personified by the Mother of God; the image of the waterfall hints at the life-giving power of the Christian faith, which quenches the spiritual thirst of the righteous. Separate elements of the landscape also contain symbolic overtones: the mountain is a spiritual elevation above the worldly bustle; the rock is the unshakable firmness and inviolability of the true faith, the support of which is Christ.
Lucas Cranach the Younger (1515-1586) continued his multifaceted activities in the family workshop, primarily engaged in the repetition of his father's originals, created in a variety of genres - from religious and mythological scenes to allegories and serial portraits of Elector Johann Friedrich the Magnanimous, Sibyl von Cleve, Martin Luther and Philip Melanchthon. Important changes took place with the beginning of the next decade, when Lucas Cranach the Younger began to gradually abandon the creation of replicas of his father's paintings. He introduced many new details into the artistic solution of his works, placed semantic and stylistic accents in a different way, which, undoubtedly, was not only a consequence of the onset of his professional maturity, but also a reflection of certain changes in artistic fashion at the Saxon court. One of the characteristic features of the work of Lucas Cranach the Younger was a predilection for creating works of relatively large size. In the next three decades, after the death of his father, when the artist was the rightful owner and head of a flourishing studio, his individual and well-recognized painting style finally took shape. He received the most consistent incarnation in a relatively new type of epitaph paintings for that time, the customers of which were mainly representatives of wealthy patrician families who professed Lutheranism.
Exhibition at the Pushkin Museum im. A.S. Pushkin continues a series of international projects dedicated to the 500th anniversary of the birth of Lucas Cranach the Younger.
Cranach the engraver
The heyday of the engraving work of Lucas Cranach the Elder falls on the first decade of his work at the court of Frederick the Wise, one of the most educated and powerful Electors of Germany. In the period from 1506 to 1516, almost all the main works of the master were created in easel engraving, characterizing him as a versatile artist who knew how to surprise the viewer with a wealth of thematic and stylistic solutions.
Among the woodcuts of 1506, the "First Tournament" is of particular interest - a large, complex, multi-figured composition. Unlike the other three engravings, dedicated only to tournaments, this sheet, in addition to the competition itself, depicts many genre scenes. Around the fenced center where the battle of the knights took place, the artist placed a motley, noisy, many-sided crowd: horsemen and footmen, women, old people and children, musicians and nobility. In the background is the elector's bed. Onlookers watch from the windows and doors of buildings located around the square. Both black-and-white and watercolor-colored prints are known. The coloring of woodcuts has been traditional in Germany since the Middle Ages, and Cranach the Elder often used this method.
In 1509, the artist made his first attempts at colored woodcuts (chiaroscuro), and also turned to the technique of engraving, which was new to him. In the early 1520s, Cranach almost stopped working in easel engraving.
Exhibition “Cranachs. Between the Renaissance and Mannerism” is a joint project of the Pushkin Museum im. A.S. Pushkin, the State Hermitage and the Friedenstein Castle Foundation in Gotha. The organizers are grateful to the German Embassy in Moscow for their support.
Schedule of guided tours around the exhibition:
For more information on how to buy a ticket for a tour, see.
The exhibition, which opens on March 4, will feature 48 paintings and more than 50 graphic works by Lucas Cranach the Elder and Lucas Cranach the Younger.
Pushkin Museum im. A. S. Pushkin
March 4 - May 15, 2016
Moscow, st. Volkhonka, 12
The Pushkin Museum next week, March 4, opens the exhibition “Cranach. Between Renaissance and Mannerism. At the exhibition, the viewer will see 48 paintings and more than 50 graphic works from the collections of museums in Gotha, Berlin, Madrid, Prague, Budapest, Moscow, St. Petersburg, Nizhny Novgorod and several Russian private collections.
The decoration of the exposition will be the famous works of Lucas Cranach the Elder "The Mystical Marriage of Saint Catherine of Alexandria, with Saints Dorothea, Margaret and Barbara" (second half of the 1510s; Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest), "Venus and Cupid" (1509; State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg), “The Fruits of Jealousy. The Silver Age” (1530; The Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow), “Judith Beheading Holofernes” (1531; Friedenstein Castle Foundation, Gotha).
Engravings and drawings of the father and son of the Cranachs from the collections of the Pushkin Museum im. A. S. Pushkin, the State Hermitage Museum, as well as the Friedenstein Castle Foundation in Gotha.
Lucas Cranach the Elder (1472–1553)- a reformer of German painting, whose innovative ideas regarding composition, color and interpretation of images had a great influence on the art of the Northern Renaissance. In the first third of the 16th century, the creative search of Lucas Cranach the Elder marked the final transition from the ideals of the Renaissance to mannerism. The artist organized a workshop that flourished for more than a hundred years, the leadership of which eventually passed to his son Lucas the Younger, and then to his grandson and great-grandson. He created an easily recognizable and memorable world of vivid artistic images. Cranachs should be spoken of as the actual founders of the Saxon school of painting, which flourished throughout the 16th century.
The work "Venus and Cupid" (1509) was created during the period when Cranach the Elder was a court painter to the elector of Saxony, Frederick the Wise. The artist depicted the ancient goddess of beauty and love in full growth, completely naked. After 1530, Cranach and his workshop repeatedly turned to this subject. There are about 35 paintings by Cranach, his students, followers and imitators depicting Venus and Cupid.
The best works of Lucas Cranach the Elder include the painting “The Mystical Marriage of Saint Catherine of Alexandria, with Saints Dorothea, Margaret and Barbara”, executed in the second half of the 1510s. At the turn of the 14th and 15th centuries and up to the middle of the 16th century in the German lands, along with the Mother of God, the cult of the four main intercessor maidens: Saints Catherine of Alexandria, Margaret, Barbara and Dorothea gained wide popularity. In the painting by Lucas Cranach the Elder, the mystical betrothal of St. Catherine takes place against the backdrop of a characteristic South German rocky landscape and a dark curtain held by small angels. In the center of the composition is the Christ Child supported by the Mother of God: with one hand He puts a wedding ring on the finger of St. Catherine, with the other he touches the symbolic bunch of grapes held by the Madonna. The image is complemented by figures forming a complex compositional-rhythmic group of the holy virgins present at this sacral action in elegant court dresses and with their attributes: a dragon for Margarita, a basket of flowers for Dorothea and a tower behind Barbara's back.
Painting from the collection of the Pushkin Museum im. A.S. Pushkin's "Madonna and Child (Madonna in the Vineyard)" (circa 1522-1523) is undoubtedly one of the most striking works in the exhibition. Every detail of this work is full of deep allegorical meaning: the grape in the hand of the Mother of God, touched by the Infant, recalls the human incarnation of Christ, who suffered torment and died on the cross in the name of atonement for original sin; the vine means "the true Church of Christ", which is personified by the Mother of God; the image of the waterfall hints at the life-giving power of the Christian faith, which quenches the spiritual thirst of the righteous. Separate elements of the landscape also contain symbolic overtones: the mountain is a spiritual elevation above the worldly bustle; the rock is the unshakable firmness and inviolability of the true faith, the support of which is Christ.
Lucas Cranach the Younger (1515–1586) continued his multifaceted activities in the family workshop, primarily engaged in the repetition of his father's originals, created in a variety of genres - from religious and mythological scenes to allegories and serial portraits of Elector Johann Friedrich the Magnanimous, Sibylla von Cleve, Martin Luther and Philipp Melanchthon. Important changes took place with the beginning of the next decade, when Lucas Cranach the Younger began to gradually abandon the creation of replicas of his father's paintings. He introduced many new details into the artistic solution of his works, placed semantic and stylistic accents in a different way, which, undoubtedly, was not only a consequence of the onset of his professional maturity, but also a reflection of certain changes in artistic fashion at the Saxon court. One of the characteristic features of the work of Lucas Cranach the Younger was a predilection for creating works of relatively large size. In the next three decades, after the death of his father, when the artist was the rightful owner and head of a flourishing studio, his individual and well-recognized painting style finally took shape. He received the most consistent incarnation in a relatively new type of epitaph paintings for that time, the customers of which were mainly representatives of wealthy patrician families who professed Lutheranism.
Cranach the engraver
The heyday of the engraving work of Lucas Cranach the Elder falls on the first decade of his work at the court of Frederick the Wise, one of the most educated and powerful Electors of Germany. In the period from 1506 to 1516, almost all the main works of the master were created in easel engraving, characterizing him as a versatile artist who knew how to surprise the viewer with a wealth of thematic and stylistic solutions.
Among the woodcuts of 1506, the "First Tournament" is of particular interest - a large, complex, multi-figured composition. Unlike the other three engravings, dedicated only to tournaments, this sheet, in addition to the competition itself, depicts many genre scenes. Around the fenced center where the battle of the knights took place, the artist placed a motley, noisy, many-sided crowd: horsemen and footmen, women, old people and children, musicians and nobility. In the background is the elector's bed. Onlookers watch from the windows and doors of buildings located around the square. Both black-and-white and watercolor-colored prints are known. The coloring of woodcuts has been traditional in Germany since the Middle Ages, and Cranach the Elder often used this method.
In 1509, the artist made his first attempts at colored woodcuts (chiaroscuro), and also turned to the technique of engraving, which was new to him. In the early 1520s, Cranach almost stopped working in easel engraving.
At the State Museum. A.S. Pushkin, a unique exhibition of works by prominent representatives of the northern Renaissance - the Elder and Younger Cranachs, called "Cranachs. Between the Renaissance and Mannerism" began to work. About a hundred paintings and engravings are exhibited in the capital, which are stored in many European and Russian museums, as well as private collections.
The paintings of Lucas Cranach Sarshego, who stood at the origins of the reformation of German painting, became a real decoration of the exhibition. His pioneering quest for composition and representation led to a break with Renaissance ideals and a final move to Mannerism.
Interestingly, the great master contributed to changes not only in painting, but also in religion. He supported the Reformation of the Church initiated by Martin Luther, who had the idea for one of his paintings. Both reformers were convinced that art should serve the cause and faith.
The exposition of the museum presents many works that have received worldwide recognition. Among them is the painting "Madonna and Child", filled with deep symbolic overtones, where every detail reflects the values of the Christian faith. In the work "Venus and Cupid" the maestro portrayed the Roman goddess of love naked in full growth, showing his viewer all the beauty and perfection of the heroine of ancient myths.
The heyday of the talent of the engraver came from Cranach the Elder in the period 1506-1516. It was at this time that he created all his significant works, striking the viewer with a variety of stylistic solutions. The wonderful woodcut "The First Tournament" is a multi-figure composition filled with complex genre scenes. Later, the master became interested in the technique of engraving, as well as color graphics on wood.
Lucas Cranach the Younger is known not only as a brilliant master of multi-genre repetitions of his father's originals, but also as the author of talented epitaphs, which he wrote on behalf of wealthy Lutheran clients.
The masterpieces of Lucas Cranach the Elder were rethought in the last century, when many artists began to turn to the creative heritage of the master. The images of his paintings were borrowed by expressionists, and the ideas of mannerism were organically intertwined in a cognitive context with postmodernism. Therefore, in the 21st century, we are discovering new semantic layers in well-known paintings.
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