|
|
|
|
|
CRANACH, Lucas the Elder
|
|
Diptych_with_the_Portraits_of_Luther_and_his_Wife_df
|
|
Oil_on_wood,_38_x_24_cm
Museo_Poldi_Pezzoli,_Milan
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Click to Enlarge
|
| CRANACH,_Lucas_the_Elder
|
Diptych with the Portraits of Luther and his Wife df
CRANACH, Lucas the Elder65.jpg
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Oil on wood, 38 x 24 cm
Museo Poldi Pezzoli, Milan |
|
|
German painter (b. 1472, Kronach, d. 1553, Weimar).
German painter and engraver. The son of a painter, he settled in Wittenberg c.1504 and was court painter successively under three electors of Saxony. There he maintained a flourishing workshop and was twice burgomaster. Cranach was a close friend of Martin Luther, whose doctrine he upheld in numerous paintings and woodcuts, and he has been called the painter of the Reformation. He was a rapid and prolific painter, and the work turned out by his studio is uneven in quality. Naïve and fanciful, often awkward in draftsmanship, it has, nonetheless, freshness and originality and a warm, rich palette. His portraits are particularly successful. Among his best-known works are Repose in Egypt (Gemäldgalerie, Staatliche Mus., Berlin-Dahlem); Judgment of Paris (Staatliche Kunsthalle, Karlsruhe); Adam and Eve (Courtauld Inst., London); and Crucifixion (Weimar). The latter contains figures of Luther and Cranach. His many famous protraits include those of Elector John Frederick and Self-Portrait (Uffizi). Cranach was also an accomplished miniaturist. He produced a few copperplates and designs for woodcuts. His son and pupil Lucas Cranach, the Younger, 1515C86,
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
