Editing Lucas Cranach the Elder

{{Short description|German painter and printmaker (1472–1553)}}
{{Infobox artist
| name          = Lucas Cranach the Elder
| image         = Lucas Cranach d. Ä. 063.jpg
| caption       = [[Portrait of Lucas Cranach the Elder|Portrait by Lucas Cranach the Younger]], 1550
| birth_name    = Lucas Maler
| birth_date    = {{c.|1472}}
| birth_place   = [[Kronach]], [[Prince-Bishopric of Bamberg]], [[Holy Roman Empire]]
| death_date    = {{death date and age|df=y|1553|10|16|1472}}
| death_place   = [[Weimar]], Duchy of Saxony, Holy Roman Empire
| field         = Painting
| training      = 
| movement      = [[German Renaissance]]
| works         = 
| patrons       = [[Electors of Saxony]]
| influenced by = 
| influenced    =
| children      = 5, including [[Hans Cranach|Hans]] and [[Lucas Cranach the Younger|Lucas]]
| module        = {{Infobox person|child=yes
| signature     = Signatur Lucas Cranach der Ältere.PNG}}
}}

'''Lucas Cranach the Elder''' ({{langx|de|link=no|Lucas Cranach der Ältere}} {{IPA|de|ˈluːkas ˈkʁaːnax deːɐ̯ ˈʔɛltəʁə|}}; {{c.|1472}}&nbsp;– 16 October 1553) was a [[German Renaissance]] painter and [[printmaker]] in [[woodcut]] and [[engraving]]. He was [[court painter]] to the [[Electors of Saxony]] for most of his career, and is known for his portraits, both of [[German prince]]s and those of the leaders of the [[Protestant Reformation]], whose cause he embraced with enthusiasm. He was a close friend of [[Martin Luther]], and [[Portrait of Martin Luther (Lucas Cranach the Elder)|eleven portraits of that reformer by him]] survive. Cranach also painted religious subjects, first in the Catholic tradition, and later trying to find new ways of conveying [[Lutheran]] religious concerns in art. He continued throughout his career to paint nude subjects drawn from [[mythology and religion]].

Cranach had a large workshop and many of his works exist in different versions; his son [[Lucas Cranach the Younger]] and others continued to create versions of his father's works for decades after his death. He has been considered the most successful German artist of his time.<ref name=" Metropolitan Museum of Art 1984 ">{{cite book |title= The Jack and Belle Linsky Collection in the Metropolitan Museum of Art | place = New York, NY |year=1984 |publisher = Metropolitan Museum of Art |isbn = 978-0-87099370-1 |quote= Lucas Cranach the Elder was perhaps the most successful German artist of his time. |page= 101}}</ref>

==Early and personal life==
[[File:Podpis had cranach starsi.jpg|thumb|Signature of Cranach the Elder from 1508 on a winged snake with ruby ring, depicted in a 1514 portrait]]
He was born at [[Kronach]] in upper [[Franconia]] (now central [[Germany]]), probably in 1472. His exact date of birth is unknown. He learned the art of drawing from his father Hans Maler (his [[surname]] meaning "painter" and denoting his profession, not his ancestry, after the manner of the time and class).<ref name="CDA">{{cite web|work=Cranach Digital Archive|title=About Lucas Cranach|url=http://www.lucascranach.org/aboutlucascranach_en.html|access-date=25 January 2012|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://archive.today/20130415074839/http://www.lucascranach.org/aboutlucascranach_en.html|archive-date=15 April 2013}}</ref> His mother, with surname Hübner, died in 1491. Later, the name of his birthplace was used for his surname, another custom of the times. How Cranach was trained is not known, but it was probably with local south German masters, as with his contemporary [[Matthias Grünewald]], who worked at [[Bamberg]] and [[Aschaffenburg]] (Bamberg is the capital of the diocese in which Kronach lies).<ref name=EB1911/> There are also suggestions that Cranach spent some time in [[Vienna]] around 1500.<ref name="CDA"/>

From 1504 to 1520 he lived in a house on the south west corner of the marketplace in [[Wittenberg]].<ref>Cranach plaque, Marktplatz, Wittenberg</ref>

According to Gunderam (the tutor of Cranach's children), Cranach demonstrated his talents as a painter before the close of the 15th century. His work then drew the attention of Duke [[Frederick III, Elector of Saxony]], known as Frederick the Wise, who attached Cranach to his court in 1504. The records of [[Wittenberg]] confirm Gunderam's statement to this extent: that Cranach's name appears for the first time in the public accounts on the 24 June 1504, when he drew 50 gulden for the salary of half a year, as {{lang|la|pictor ducalis}} ("the duke's painter").<ref name=EB1911/> Cranach was to remain in the service of the Elector and his successors for the rest of his life, although he was able to undertake other work.<ref name="CDA"/>

Cranach married Barbara Brengbier, the daughter of a [[Bourgeoisie|burgher]] of [[Gotha (town)|Gotha]] and also born there; she died at [[Wittenberg]] on 26 December 1540. Cranach later owned a house at Gotha,<ref name=EB1911/> but most likely he got to know Barbara near Wittenberg, where her family also owned a house, which later also belonged to Cranach.<ref name="CDA"/> Cranach had two sons, both artists: [[Hans Cranach]], whose life is obscure and who died in [[Bologna]] in 1537; and [[Lucas Cranach the Younger]], born in 1515, who died in 1586.<ref name="CDA"/> He also had three daughters. One of them was Barbara Cranach, who died in 1569, married Christian Brück (Pontanus), and was an ancestor of [[Johann Wolfgang von Goethe]]. His granddaughter married [[Polykarp Leyser the Elder]], thus making him an ancestor of the [[Polykarp Leyser (disambiguation)|Polykarp Leyser]] family of theologians.

==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/>

==Death and veneration==
He died at age 81 on October 16, 1553, at [[Weimar, Germany|Weimar]], where the house in which he lived still stands in the marketplace.<ref name=" Metropolitan Museum of Art 1984 "/> He was buried in the [[Jacobsfriedhof]] in Weimar.

The [[Lutheran Church]] remembers Cranach as a great Christian on April 6 along with Dürer,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.lcms.org/page.aspx?pid=506|title=Commemorations|work=lcms.org}}</ref> and possibly Grünewald or Burgkmair.<ref>''Lutheranism 101'' edited by Scot A. Kinnaman, CPH, 2010</ref>

==Works and art==
[[File:AdamEveParadiseCranach.jpg|thumb|left|upright|''[[Adam and Eve]]'', woodcut, 1509]]
[[File:Cranach the Elder Margaret of Pomerania.jpg|thumb|upright|''Study for portrait of Margaret of Pomerania (1518–1569)'', c. 1545, a drawing with all details of the sitter's costume meticulously described, was intended for the future reference and to facilitate the work on large number of commissions in the artist's atelier.]]
The oldest extant picture by Cranach is the ''Rest of the Virgin during the Flight into Egypt'', of 1504. The painting already shows remarkable skill and grace, and the pine forest in the background shows a painter familiar with the mountain scenery of [[Thuringia]]. There is more forest gloom in landscapes of a later time.<ref name=EB1911/>

Following the huge international success of Dürer's prints, other German artists, much more than Italian ones, devoted their talents to woodcuts and engravings. This accounts for the comparative unproductiveness as painters of [[Albrecht Dürer]] and [[Hans Holbein the Younger]], and also may explain why Cranach was not especially skilled at handling colour, light, and shade. Constant attention to contour and to black and white, as an engraver, seems to have affected his sight; and he often outlined shapes in black rather than employing modelling and [[chiaroscuro]].<ref name=EB1911/>

The largest proportion of Cranach's output is of portraits, and it is chiefly thanks to him that we know what the German Reformers and their princely adherents looked like. [[Portrait of Martin Luther (Lucas Cranach the Elder)|He painted not only Martin Luther himself]] but also Luther's wife, mother and father. He also depicted leading Catholics like [[Albert of Brandenburg]], [[archbishop of Mainz|archbishop elector of Mainz]], [[Anthony Granvelle]] and the [[Duke of Alva]].<ref name=EB1911/>

A dozen likenesses of [[Frederick III, Elector of Saxony|Frederick III]] and his brother John are dated 1532. It is characteristic of Cranach's prolific output, and a proof that he used a large workshop, that he received payment at Wittenberg in 1533 for "sixty pairs of portraits of the elector and his brother" on one day.<ref name=EB1911/> Inevitably the quality of such works is variable.

===Religious subjects===
[[File:1529 Cranach Allegorie auf Gesetz und Gnade anagoria.JPG|thumb|''Allegory of Law and Grace'', c. 1529]]
Cranach's religious subjects reflect the development of the [[Protestant Reformation]], and its attitudes to religious images. In his early career, he painted several Madonnas; his first woodcut (1505) represents the Virgin and three saints in prayer before a [[crucifix]]. Later on he painted the marriage of [[Catherine of Alexandria|St. Catherine]], a series of [[martyr]]doms, and scenes from the [[Passion (Christianity)|Passion]].<ref name=EB1911/>

After 1517 he occasionally illustrated the old subjects, but he also gave expression to some of the thoughts of the Reformers, although his portraits of reformers were more common than paintings of religious scenes. In a picture of 1518, where a dying man offers "his soul to God, his body to earth, and his worldly goods to his relations", the soul rises to meet the [[Trinity]] in heaven, and salvation is clearly shown to depend on faith and not on good works.<ref name=EB1911/>

Other works of this period deal with sin and [[divine grace]]. One shows [[Adam (Bible)|Adam]] sitting between [[John the Baptist]] and a prophet at the foot of a tree. To the left God produces the tables of the law, [[Adam and Eve]] taste the forbidden fruit, the [[Serpents in the Bible|serpent]] raises its head, and punishment manifests in the shape of death and the realm of [[Satan]]. To the right, the Conception, Crucifixion and [[Death and Resurrection of Jesus|Resurrection]] symbolize redemption, and this is duly impressed on Adam by John the Baptist. There are two examples of this composition in the galleries of [[Gotha (town)|Gotha]] and [[Prague]], both of them dated 1529.<ref name=EB1911/> His workshop made an altarpiece with a Crucifixion scene in the centre which is now in the [[Kreuzkirche, Hanover]].

Towards the end of his life, after Luther's initial hostility to large public religious images had softened, Cranach painted a number of "Lutheran altarpieces" of the [[Last Supper]] and other subjects, in which Christ was shown in a traditional manner, including a [[halo (religious iconography)|halo]], but the apostles, without halos, were portraits of leading reformers. He also produced a number of violent anti-Catholic and anti-Papacy propaganda prints in a cruder style. His best known work in this vein was a series of prints for the pamphlet ''Passional Christi und Antichristi'',<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=NMQ_Ar84DCcC Passional Christi und Antichristi] Full view on Google Books</ref> where scenes from the ''[[Passion of Christ]]'' were matched by a print mocking practices of the Catholic clergy, so that Christ driving the money-changers from the Temple was matched by the Pope, or [[Antichrist]], signing indulgences over a table spread with cash (see gallery below). Some of the prints were echoed by paintings, such as his ''[[Adoration of the Shepherds (Lucas Cranach the Elder)|Adoration of the Shepherds]]'' (c. 1517).

One of his last works is the altarpiece, completed after his death by Lucas Cranach the Younger in 1555, for the Stadtkirche (city church) at [[Weimar]]. The [[iconography]] is original and unusual: Christ is shown twice, to the left trampling on Death and Satan, to the right crucified, with blood flowing from the lance wound. [[John the Baptist]] points to the suffering Christ, whilst the blood-stream falls on the head of a portrait of Cranach, and Luther reads from his book the words, "The blood of Christ cleanseth from all sin."<ref name=EB1911/>
{{Further|Saint Maurice (Lucas Cranach the Elder and Workshop)|Sulmierzyce Madonna}}

<gallery widths="200" heights="250" perrow="5">
File:Lucas Cranach d. Ä. - The Lamentation of Christ - The Schleißheim Crucifixion - Alte Pinakothek.jpg|''Crucifixion of Christ'', 1503
File:Cranach Madonna under the fir tree.jpg|''Madonna under the Fir Tree'', 1510, Archdiocesan Museum, [[Wrocław]]
File:Måleri, religiös bild. Cranach - Skoklosters slott - 88957.tif|''The Birth of John the Baptist'', 1518
File:Infant Jesus and John the Baptist as child.jpg|''Infant Jesus and John the Baptist as Child''
File:Herderkirche Weimar Cranach Altarpiece.jpg|The [[St. Peter und Paul, Weimar|Herderkirche]] [[Weimar Altarpiece]] by Lucas Cranach the Elder and finished by his son [[Lucas Cranach the Younger]] in 1555 after his father's death<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.breadforbeggars.com/justified-in-jesus-the-weimar-altarpiece-by-lucas-cranach/|title=Justified in Jesus–the Weimar Altarpiece by Lucas Cranach – Bread for Beggars|last=Zarling|first=Michael|date=31 October 2014 |access-date=2018-12-05}}</ref>
File:Lucas Cranach d. Ä. (Werkst.) - Moses und die Wolkensäule (nach 1530).jpg|''Moses and the Pillar of Cloud'' by Lucas Cranach the Elder and Studio. Circa 1530. Private collection.
</gallery>

===Mythological scenes===
[[File:Lucas Cranach the Elder, Hercules Relieving Atlas of the Globe, c. 1530, NGA 106369.jpg|alt=Hercules holds the globe while atlas takes a break|thumb|''Hercules Relieving Atlas of the Globe'', c. 1530, [[National Gallery of Art]]]]
Cranach was equally successful in a series of paintings of mythological scenes which nearly always feature at least one slim female figure, naked but for a transparent drape or a large hat.

These are mostly in narrow upright formats; examples are several of [[Venus (goddess)|Venus]], alone or with [[Cupid]], who has sometimes stolen a honeycomb, and complains to Venus that he has been stung by a [[bee]] (Weimar, 1530; Berlin, 1534). Other such subjects are the [[The Three Graces (Cranach)|Three Graces]], [[Diana (mythology)|Diana]] with [[Apollo]], shooting a bow, and [[Heracles|Hercules]] sitting at the spinning-wheel mocked by [[Omphale]] and her maids.<ref name=EB1911/> A similar approach was taken with the biblical subjects of [[Salome]] and [[Adam and Eve]]. He and his workshop also painted more than sixty versions of [[Lucretia]], the self-stabbing pagan heroine whose death sparked the Roman Republic.

<gallery widths="160" heights="220" perrow="5">
File:Lucas Cranach d.Ä. - Amor beklagt sich bei Venus (National Gallery, London).jpg|''[[Cupid Complaining to Venus]]'', c. 1525
File:Lucas Cranach d.Ä. - Venus mit Cupid als Honigdieb (Galleria Borghese).jpg|''[[Venus and Cupid with a Honeycomb]]'', c. 1527
File:Lucas Cranach (I) - Venus and Cupid (1529) - National Gallery London.jpg|''Venus and Cupid'', 1529
File:Lucas Cranach the Elder - Venus with Cupid Stealing Honey - Google Art Project.jpg|''Venus and Amor'', 1530
File:Lucas Cranach d. Ä. - Venus and Cupid - WGA05644.jpg|''Venus with Cupid Stealing Honey'', 1531
File:Bemberg Fondation Toulouse - Vénus et Cupidon - Lucas Cranach (I) - 1531 Inv.1015.jpg|''Venus with Cupid'', 1531
File:Lucas Cranach the Elder - Venus - Google Art Project.jpg|''Venus'', 1532
File:Lucas Cranach d.Ä. - Caritas (Koninklijk Museum v. Schone Kunsten Antwerpen).jpg|''[[Caritas (Lucas Cranach the Elder)]]'', c. 1537
File:Judgement of Paris by Lucas Cranach the Elder (1528).jpg|Judgement of Paris (1528)
</gallery>
[[File:Lucas Cranach - Der Jungbrunnen (Gemäldegalerie Berlin).jpg|thumb|250px|''[[The Fountain of Youth (Cranach)|The Fountain of Youth]]'' (''Der Jungbrunnen''), 1546]]
These subjects were produced early in his career, when they show Italian influences including that of [[Jacopo de' Barberi]], who was at the court of Saxony for a period up to 1505. They then become rare until after the death of Frederick the Wise. The later nudes are in a distinctive style which abandons Italian influence for a revival of Late Gothic style, with small heads, narrow shoulders, high breasts and waists. The poses become more frankly seductive and even exhibitionist.<ref>{{cite book|last=Snyder|first= James|title=Northern Renaissance Art|year=1985|publisher=Harry N. Abrams|isbn=0-13-623596-4|page=383}}</ref>

Humour and pathos are combined at times in pictures such as ''Jealousy'' (Augsburg, 1527; Vienna, 1530), where women and children are huddled into groups as they watch the strife of men wildly fighting around them. A lost canvas of 1545 is said to show hares catching and roasting hunters. In 1546, possibly under Italian influence, Cranach composed the ''Fons Juventutis'' (''[[The Fountain of Youth (Cranach)|The Fountain of Youth]]''), executed by his son, a picture in which older women are seen entering a [[Renaissance]] fountain, and exiting it transformed into youthful beauties.<ref name=EB1911>{{EB1911|wstitle=Cranach, Lucas |volume=7|last1= Crowe |first1= Joseph Archer |author1-link= Joseph Archer Crowe |page=364|short=1}}</ref>

== Paintings ==
=== Portraits===
<gallery widths="200px" heights="250px" perrow="5">
Lucas Cranach the Elder - Duke Henry the Pious - Google Art Project.jpg|''Duke Henry the Pious'', 1514
Attributed to Lucas Cranach the Elder Portrait of the Duchess Catherine Thielska 78.tif|''[[Catherine of Mecklenburg]]'', 1514
Lucas Cranach d.Ä. - Bildnis einer jungen Frau (Galleria degli Uffizi).jpg|''[[Sybille of Saxony|Sybille]]'', 1530s
1516 Emilia.jpg|''[[Emilie of Saxony|Emilie]]'', c. 1535
</gallery>
<gallery widths="200px" heights="250px" perrow="5">
File:Lucas Cranach d.Ä. - Porträt eines sächsischen Prinzen.jpg|''Portrait of a Saxon Prince'' (possibly Johann, husband of Elizabeth of Hesse), c. 1517
File:Lucas Cranach d. Ä. 052.jpg|''Portrait of a Saxon Princess'' (possibly George of Saxony's daughter-in-law Elizabeth of Hesse), c. 1517
File:Lucas Cranach d. Ä. 044FXD.jpg|''John Frederick I'', 1531
File:Lucas Cranach d. Ä. 040.jpg|''[[Sibylle of Cleves]]'', wife of John Frederick I, 1526
File:LucasCranachtheElderCuspinian.jpg|''[[Johannes Cuspinian]]'', 1502
File:Lucas Cranach d. Ä. 036.jpg|Johannes Cuspinian's wife, 1502
File:Lucas Cranach d.Ä. - Bildnis des Lukas Spielhausen.jpg|''[[Lukas Spielhausen]]'', 1532, Metropolitan Museum of Art
File:Lucas Cranach d.Ä. - Bildnis des Markgrafen Albrecht von Brandenburg-Ansbach (Herzog Anton Ulrich-Museum).jpg|''[[Albert, Duke of Prussia|Albert of Prussia]]'', 1528, Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum
</gallery>

=== Religion, mythology, allegory ===
[[File:The Holy Kinship (so-called "Torgau Altarpiece") (SM 1398).png|thumb|[[Torgauer Altar]], 1509, [[Städel Museum]], Frankfurt]]
<gallery widths="140" heights="200" perrow="5">
File:Lucas Cranach d.Ä. - Adam und Eva (Courtauld Institute of Art).jpg|Adam and Eve (Courtauld Institute of Art)
File:Lucas Cranach d.Ä. - Venus mit Cupid als Honigdieb (Galleria Borghese).jpg|''[[Venus and Cupid with a Honeycomb]]'', c. 1527
File:Lucas Cranach d.Ä. - Das Martyrium der Heiligen Barbara.jpg|''[[The Martyrdom of Saint Barbara (Lucas Cranach the Elder)|The Martyrdom of Saint Barbara]]'', 1510, Metropolitan Museum of Art
File:Cranach, Lucas, d.Ä. - Die Heilige Dorothea - c. 1530.jpg|[[Dorothea of Caesarea|''Dorothea'']], c. 1530
File:Lucas Cranach d. Ä. - Judith Victorious - WGA05720.jpg|''[[Judith]] with the head of [[Holofernes]]'', 1530
File:Lucas Cranach d.Ä. - Simson bezwingt den Löwen.jpg|''[[Samson]]'s Fight with the Lion'', 1525
File:Lucas Cranach d.Ä. - Phyllis und Aristotle (1530).jpg|''Phyllis and Aristotle'', 1530
File:Gerechtigkeit-1537.jpg|''[[Lady Justice|Justice]]'', 1537
File:Bemberg_fondation_Toulouse_-_Les_amoureux_-_Lucas_Cranach_l'Ancien.jpg|''Lovers'', [[Bemberg Foundation|Bemberg Foundation, Toulouse]]
File:Cranach Eve.jpg|''Eve'', [[National Museum, Wrocław]]
File:CranachBrandenburgasJerome.jpg|''[[Albert of Brandenburg as Saint Jerome#Work|Saint Jerome in His Study]]'', 1526
</gallery>

==Looted Cranachs==
The Nazis had a particular affection for Cranach's work and [[Nazi plunder|looted many paintings]] during the [[Nazi Germany|Third Reich]].<ref>{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=|title=Purloined pictures: the Nazi leaders' love of Cranach |url=https://www.lootedart.com/news.php?r=MY7E2K301401|access-date=2021-01-10|website=www.lootedart.com}}</ref> This has led to claims for restitution, notably from Jewish collectors who were persecuted or looted by the Nazis. The Nazis looted Cranach's Portrait of John Frederick I, Elector of Saxony (around 1530s) from Jewish art collector [[Friedrich Gutmann|Fritz Gutmann]] before murdering him but the painting was recovered by Gutmann's grandson Simon Goodman eighty years later after decades of searching.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Hinckley|first=Catherine|date=|title=Cranach portrait stolen almost 80 years ago returns to heirs of Jewish banker |url=https://www.lootedart.com/news.php?r=SY0I0I244151|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180501195326/https://www.lootedart.com/news.php?r=SY0I0I244151|archive-date=1 May 2018|access-date=2021-01-10 |website=www.lootedart.com|publisher=The Art Newspaper}}</ref>

Cranach's "Cupid Complaining to Venus" passed through in [[Adolf Hitler|Hitler]]'s personal collection, causing the National Gallery to research its history, suspecting that it may have been looted.<ref>{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=|title=Gallery seeks info on work once owned by Hitler|url=https://www.lootedart.com/news.php?r=MY3BUG336041|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101124182127/https://www.lootedart.com/news.php?r=MY3BUG336041|archive-date=24 November 2010|access-date=2021-01-10|website=www.lootedart.com}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=|first=|date=|title=National Gallery admits that masterwork may be Nazi loot|url=https://www.lootedart.com/news.php?r=MOAJ0V169071|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101124163348/https://www.lootedart.com/news.php?r=MOAJ0V169071|archive-date=24 November 2010|access-date=2021-01-10|website=www.lootedart.com|publisher=The Times}}</ref> The diptych ''Adam and Eve'' by Lucas Cranach the Elder has been the focus of a legal dispute between the heirs of the former owner, Dutch art collector [[Jacques Goudstikker]], and the [[Norton Simon Museum|Norton Simon museum]] in California.<ref>{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=|title=The Battle Over the Norton Simon Museum's Nazi-Looted Cranach Paintings Isn't Over as Lawyers File for a Rehearing|url=https://www.lootedart.com/news.php?r=T7FVY9741081|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190418043702/https://www.lootedart.com/news.php?r=T7FVY9741081|archive-date=18 April 2019|access-date=2021-01-10|website=www.lootedart.com}}</ref> In 1999, the Commission for Art Recovery of the World Jewish Congress notified the [[North Carolina Museum of Art]] that its prized Cranach Madonna and Child had been looted by Nazis from the Jewish Viennese art collector [[Philip Gomperz|Philipp von Gomperz]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=|first=|date=|title=A Madonna stolen by Nazis takes a trip home|url=https://www.lootedart.com/news.php?r=NDE845417641|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101124175025/https://www.lootedart.com/news.php?r=NDE845417641|archive-date=24 November 2010|access-date=2021-01-10|website=www.lootedart.com}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=HCPO Gallery: Dr. Philip von Gomperz - biography |url=https://www.dfs.ny.gov/consumer/holocaust/bio/bio_gomperz.htm|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200224220413/https://www.dfs.ny.gov/consumer/holocaust/bio/bio_gomperz.htm|archive-date=24 February 2020|access-date=2021-02-26|website=Department of Financial Services}}</ref>

On 20 October 2000 a Budapest court ruled that a Cranach and other paintings claimed by the granddaughter of famous Hungarian Jewish art collector [[Baron Herzog]] that were looted by Nazis with the Hungarian financial police should be returned to her.<ref>{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=|title=Martha Nierenberg's claim for artworks from the Herzog Collection |url=https://www.lootedart.com/MFEU4F76769_print;Y|url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170314010450/https://www.lootedart.com/MFEU4F76769_print;Y |archive-date=14 March 2017|access-date=2021-01-10 |website=www.lootedart.com}}</ref> In 2012 the heirs of Rosa and Jakob Oppenheimer submitted a claim to the [[National Gallery of Ireland]] for a Cranach painting of Saint Christopher. The museum hired a private provenance researcher, Laurie Stein, to investigate the circumstance of the sale in 1934, and she concluded that the Cranach had not been sold under duress by the Jewish owners.<ref>{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=|title=National Gallery of Ireland Provenance Research October 2017: 9 October 2017: Restitution claims for three paintings, two by the heirs of Rosa and Jakob Oppenheimer of Berlin, owners of the Margraf group, and one by the heirs of Alfred Weinberger |url=https://www.lootedart.com/SOLE6W108411_print;Y|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190502080832/https://www.lootedart.com/SOLE6W108411_print;Y|archive-date=2 May 2019|access-date=2021-01-10 |website=www.lootedart.com}}</ref>

In April 2021 Cranach's "The Resurrection" was sold at auction following a settlement between the heirs of Holocaust victim [[Margarete Eisenmann]] and the art dealer [[Eugene V. Thaw|Eugene Thaw]].<ref>{{Cite web|last=Ahn|first=Cabelle |date=2021-05-18|title=Old Masters Today #3|url=https://arslongajournal.org/2021/05/18/old-masters-today-3/|access-date=2022-02-17|website=ars longa}}</ref> After being looted, the Cranach had been consigned to Sothebys by Hans Lange and passed through [[Hugo Perls]] and [[Knoedler|Knoedler Galleries]] before being acquired by Eugene Thaw.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Villa|first=Angelica|date=2021-04-16|title=Cranach Painting Sold Under Duress During World War II to Be Auctioned as Part of Legal Settlement |url=https://www.artnews.com/art-news/market/cranach-painting-restitution-settlement-christies-sale-1234590040/|access-date=2022-02-17 |website=ARTnews.com}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=CRANACH DIGITAL ARCHIVE|url=https://lucascranach.org/PRIVATE_NONE-P206|access-date=2022-02-17|website=lucascranach.org}}</ref> Most of the lawsuits last many years and go through several appeals in different courts. A painting by a follower of Lucas Cranach the Elder titled ''[[Lamentation (School of Lucas Cranach the Elder)|Lamentation]]'' and completed in the 1530s, which had been looted from Poland in 1946, was returned to the [[National Museum, Wrocław]] in 2022.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |last=Harris |first=Gareth |date=2020-06-23 |title=National museum in Stockholm to return stolen 16th-century painting to Poland |url=https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2020/06/23/national-museum-in-stockholm-to-return-stolen-16th-century-painting-to-poland |access-date=2023-02-27 |website=The Art Newspaper}}</ref>

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Further reading==
*Luther, Martin (1521) [https://books.google.com/books?id=tbvV9F4tLEUC&pg=PA265#PPA253,M1 ''Passional Christi und Antichristi''] Reprinted in W.H.T. Dau (1921) ''At the Tribunal of Caesar: Leaves from the Story of Luther's Life''. St. Louis: Concordia. (Google Books)
*Posse, Hans (1942) ''Lucas Cranach d. ä.'' A. Schroll & Co., Vienna [http://worldcat.org/oclc/773554 OCLC 773554] in German
*Descargues, Pierre (1960) ''Lucas Cranach the Elder'' (translated from the French by Helen Ramsbotham) Oldbourne Press, London, [http://worldcat.org/oclc/434642 OCLC 434642]
*Ruhmer, Eberhard (1963) ''Cranach'' (translated from the German by Joan Spencer) Phaidon, London, [http://worldcat.org/oclc/1107030 OCLC 1107030]
*{{cite book |last1=Friedländer |first1=Max J. |authorlink1= Max Jakob Friedländer |last2=Rosenberg |first2=Jakob |authorlink2=Jakob Rosenberg |date=1978 |title=The Paintings of Lucas Cranach |publisher=Tabard Press |location=New York |isbn=0-914427-31-8}}
*Nikulin, N (1976) ''Lucas Cranach'', Masters Of World Painting, Aurora Art Publishers, Leningrad
*Schade, Werner (1980) ''Cranach, a Family of Master Painters'' (translated from the German by Helen Sebba) Putnam, New York, {{ISBN|0-399-11831-4}}
*Stepanov, Alexander (1997) ''Lucas Cranach the Elder, 1472–1553'' Parkstone, Bournemouth, England, {{ISBN|1-85995-266-6}}
*[[Joseph Koerner|Koerner, Joseph Leo]] (2004) ''The reformation of the image'' University of Chicago Press, Chicago, {{ISBN|0-226-45006-6}}
*Moser, Peter (2005) ''Lucas Cranach: His Life, His World, His Pictures'' (translated from the German by Kenneth Wynne) Babenberg Verlag, Bamberg, Germany, {{ISBN|3-933469-15-5}}
*Brinkmann, Bodo ''et al.'' (2007) ''Lucas Cranach'' Royal Academy of Arts, London, {{ISBN|1-905711-13-1}}
*Heydenreich, Gunnar (2007) ''Lucas Cranach the Elder: Painting materials, techniques and workshop practice'', Amsterdam University Press, {{ISBN|978-90-5356-745-6}}
*{{cite book |author=O'Neill, J| title=The Renaissance in the North|url=http://libmma.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/p15324coll10/id/113542 | location=New York | publisher=The Metropolitan Museum of Art | year=1987}}
*Sören Fischer (2017): ''Gesetz und Gnade: Wolfgang Krodel d. Ä., Lucas Cranach d. Ä. und die Erlösung des Menschen im Bild der Reformation'', Kleine Schriften der Städtischen Sammlungen Kamenz {{in lang|de}}, Band 8, Kamenz 2017, {{ISBN|978-3-910046-66-5}}
*Guido Messling, Kerstin Richter (Eds.): ''Cranach. The Early Years in Vienna'', Hirmer publishers, Munich 2022, {{ISBN|978-3-7774-3926-6}}.

==External links==
{{external media | width = 210px | float = right | 
headerimage=[[File:MPlayer movie.png|50px]]
 | video1 =[http://smarthistory.khanacademy.org/cranachs-adam-and-eve.html Cranach's ''Adam and Eve''], [[Smarthistory]]
 | video2 =[http://smarthistory.khanacademy.org/lucas-cranach-the-elders-cupid-complaining-to-venus.html Lucas Cranach the Elder's ''Cupid complaining to Venus''], Smarthistory
 | video3 =[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ubNN2KcGzcE Lucas Cranach the Elder: ''Cupid Complaining to Venus''], [[National Gallery]] (London)
  | video4 =[http://smarthistory.khanacademy.org/lucas-cranachs-judith-with-the-head-of-holofernes.html Lucas Cranach's ''Judith with the Head of Holofernes''], Smarthistory}}
* {{Commons category-inline|Lucas Cranach (I)}}
*[http://cranach.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/wiki/index.php/Hauptseite cranach.net] Containing more than 15000 images and 6000 research documents, collaborative project by about 60 international art historians
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20120126052447/http://www.lucascranach.org/index.html Cranach Digital Archive (cda)] Containing images and research information, collaborative project by 26 international galleries
*[http://libmma.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/compoundobject/collection/p15324coll10/id/74278/rec/1 Fifteenth- to eighteenth-century European paintings: France, Central Europe, the Netherlands, Spain, and Great Britain], a collection catalog fully available online as a PDF, which contains material on Lucas Cranach the Elder (cat. no. 9)
*[http://libmma.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/compoundobject/collection/p15324coll10/id/94303/rec/1 ''Prints & People: A Social History of Printed Pictures''], an exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art (fully available online as PDF), which contains material on Lucas Cranach the Elder (see index)
* Discussion of ''Portrait of Martin Luther'' by [[Janina Ramirez]] and [[Peter Stanford]]: [https://www.acast.com/artdetective/portraitofmartinlutherbylucascranachtheelder-withpeterstanford Art Detective Podcast, 26 April 2017]
*[https://www.nli.org.il/en/maps/NNL_ALEPH002368501/NLI#$FL32698078 Cranach map of Palestine, 1508 or 1515.] Eran Laor Cartographic Collection, the [[National Library of Israel]]
*Joshua P. Waterman, "'Portrait of Joachim II of Brandenburg' by Lucas Cranach the Elder (cat. 739)''[[doi:10.29075/9780876332764/1|The John G. Johnson Collection: A History and Selected Works]]'', Philadelphia Museum of Art.
* [https://lucascranach.org/index.php/home/luther/introduction Critical Catalogue of Luther portraits (1519 - 1530)] Results of the research project, 2018-2021, [[Germanisches Nationalmuseum]] / Cranach Digital Archive / University of Erlangen-Nuremberg / Cologne Institute of Conservation Sciences / Technical University of Cologne.

{{Lucas Cranach the Elder}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cranach, Lucas, The Elder}}
[[Category:Lucas Cranach the Elder| ]]
[[Category:1472 births]]
[[Category:1553 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Kronach (district)]]
[[Category:German Lutherans]]
[[Category:People celebrated in the Lutheran liturgical calendar]]
[[Category:German portrait painters]]
[[Category:German Renaissance painters]]
[[Category:German printmakers]]
[[Category:German court painters]]
[[Category:Cranach family]]
[[Category:15th-century German painters]]
[[Category:16th-century German painters]]