Editing Lucas Cranach the Elder (section)

==Career==
[[File:Lucas Cranach the Elder - Apoll und Diana in waldiger Landschaft - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|upright|''Apollo and Diana'', 1530]]
[[File:Martin Luther by Cranach-restoration.jpg|thumb|upright|''Portrait of [[Martin Luther]]'', 1529]]The first evidence of Cranach's skill as an artist comes in a picture dated 1504. Early in his career he was active in several branches of his profession: sometimes a decorative painter, more frequently producing portraits and [[altarpiece]]s, woodcuts, engravings, and designing the [[coins]] for the electorate.<ref name=EB1911/>

Early in the days of his official employment he startled his master's courtiers by the realism with which he painted still life, game and antlers on the walls of the country palaces at [[Coburg]] and Locha; his pictures of deer and wild boar were considered striking, and the duke fostered his passion for this form of art by taking him out to the hunting field, where he sketched "his grace" running the stag, or Duke John sticking a boar.<ref name=EB1911/>

Before 1508 he had painted several altar-pieces for the [[Wittenberg|Castle Church]] at Wittenberg in competition with [[Albrecht Dürer]], [[Hans Burgkmair]] and others; the duke and his brother John were portrayed in various attitudes and a number of his best woodcuts and copper-plates were published.<ref name=EB1911/>

In 1509 Cranach went to the Netherlands, and painted the [[Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor|Emperor Maximilian]] and the boy who afterwards became [[Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor|Emperor Charles V]]. Until 1508 Cranach signed his works with his initials. In that year the elector gave him the winged snake as an emblem, or [[Order (honour)|Kleinod]], which superseded the initials on his pictures after that date.<ref name=EB1911/>
[[File:Portrait of Frederick the Wise by Lucas Cranach the Elder.jpg|thumb|left|''Portrait of [[Frederick III, Elector of Saxony]]'', c. 1530–1535]]
Cranach was the court painter from 1505 to 1550<ref>{{cite web|title=Lucas Cranach, the Elder|url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Lucas-Cranach-the-Elder|author=Donald King|access-date=22 July 2022}}</ref> to the electors of Saxony in Wittenberg, an area in the heart of the emerging [[Protestant]] faith. His patrons were powerful supporters of [[Martin Luther]], and Cranach used his art as a symbol of the new faith. Cranach made numerous portraits of Luther, and provided woodcut illustrations for Luther's German translation of the [[Bible]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Gallery Label for Crucifixion|url=http://www.imamuseum.org/art/collections/artwork/crucifixion-cranach-lucas-elder#ext-text-666}}</ref> 
Somewhat later the duke conferred on him the [[monopoly]] of the sale of medicines at Wittenberg, and a printer's patent with exclusive privileges as to [[copyright]] in [[Bible]]s. Cranach's presses were used by Martin Luther. His apothecary shop was open for centuries, and was only lost by fire in 1871.<ref name=EB1911/>

Cranach, like his patron, was friendly with the [[Protestant Reformation|Protestant Reformers]] at a very early stage; yet it is difficult to fix the time of his first meeting with Martin Luther. The oldest reference to Cranach in Luther's correspondence dates from 1520. In a letter written from [[Worms, Germany|Worms]] in 1521, Luther calls him his "gossip", warmly alluding to his "Gevatterin", the artist's wife. Cranach first made an engraving of Luther in 1520, when Luther was an Augustinian [[friar]]; five years later, Luther renounced his religious vows, and Cranach was present as a witness at the betrothal festival of Luther and [[Katharina von Bora]].<ref name="CDA"/> He was also godfather to their first child, Johannes "Hans" Luther, born 1526. In 1530 Luther lived at the citadel of [[Veste Coburg]] under the protection of the Duke of Saxe-Coburg and his room is preserved there along with a painting of him. The Dukes became noted collectors of Cranach's work, some of which remains in the family collection at [[Callenberg Castle]].[[File:D 2363 2 Print 890kopie.jpg|thumb|upright|''Portrait of Martin Luther'', 1526, The Phoebus Foundation]]The death in 1525 of the Elector [[Friedrich III, Elector of Saxony|Frederick the Wise]] and Elector [[John the Steadfast|John]]'s in 1532 brought no change in Cranach's position; he remained a favourite with [[John Frederick I]], under whom he twice (1531 and 1540) filled the office of burgomaster of [[Wittenberg]].<ref name="EB1911" />
In 1547, John Frederick was taken prisoner at the [[Battle of Mühlberg]], and Wittenberg was besieged. As Cranach wrote from his house to the grand-master [[Albert, Duke of Prussia]] at [[Königsberg]] to tell him of John Frederick's capture, he showed his attachment by saying,<ref name=EB1911/> <blockquote>I cannot conceal from your Grace that we have been robbed of our dear prince, who from his youth upwards has been a true prince to us, but God will help him out of prison, for the Kaiser is bold enough to revive the Papacy, which God will certainly not allow.<ref name=EB1911/></blockquote>
[[File:Lucas_Cranach_d.Ä._-_Das_Goldene_Zeitalter_(Nasjonalgalleriet,_Oslo).jpg|thumb|''Den gylne tidsalder, Gullalderen'' (''The Golden Age''), 1530, [[National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design]]]]
[[File:Lucas Cranach d.Ä. - Hofjagd bei Schloss Hartenfels.jpg|thumb|''Hunting near Hartenfels castle'', 1540]]
During the siege Charles V, the Holy Roman Emperor, remembered Cranach from his childhood and summoned him to his camp at Pistritz. Cranach came, and begged on his knees for kind treatment for Elector John Frederick.<ref name=EB1911/>

Three years afterward, when all the dignitaries of the Empire met at [[Augsburg]] to receive commands from the emperor, and [[Titian]] came at Charles's bidding to paint King [[Philip II of Spain]], John Frederick asked Cranach to visit the city; and here for a few months he stayed in the household of the captive elector, whom he afterward accompanied home in 1552.<ref name=EB1911/>